Developing an entrepreneurial competence framework for tertiary arts education through a Delphi method: A Chinese perspective

In recent years, artists who characterise themselves as freelancers with short-term contracts or running their own businesses are known as “arts entrepreneurs” rather than “artists”. In China, arts entrepreneurship is a new discipline while arts-specific entrepreneurial competencies have not yet been comprehensively identified. The purpose of this study was validating an entrepreneurial competence framework for tertiary arts education in China. A modified Delphi method was used, which involved a consensus approach through three surveys of an expert multidisciplinary panel with more than 10 years’ experience in the field. Results from 53 experts who completed all 3 rounds of survey indicated a wide range of entrepreneurial competences that could be taught at tertiary level to support artists to successfully navigate their current and future careers. Consensus centered 37 essential competencies of the 3 domains: general competence, artistic competence and entrepreneurial competence. The results of this study offer implications and directions for future research. The validated competencies can inform analyses of the extent to which these competencies are actually attained and pursued in arts entrepreneurship education programmes in China. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.