MBA programs generally allow students to test their ideas in a risk-free environment, suggests educators at the Harvard Business School, which has offered courses in entrepreneurship for more than a half century.

Such programs are increasingly being recognized. Harvard, for example, has won the top award for MBA programs nationwide from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE).

"The judges were impressed with the breadth and depth of our entrepreneurship program, with 31 faculty in the Entrepreneurial Management unit and another 30 in other units whose work is directly related to entrepreneurship," says Michael J. Roberts, senior lecturer and executive director of the School's Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.

But if you thought such entrepreneurship efforts were only for small businesses or start-up companies, think again.

"Entrepreneurship is really more than just business start-ups and high-growth small businesses. Big companies are looking for people with an entrepreneurial mindset," says Thomas E. Moore, dean of Babson College's F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

Typically, the Olin program's entire first year of the program is driven by an entrepreneurial model. Questions include: how do you assess business opportunity? How do you develop a business plan? How do you sell the idea? How do you bring the opportunity together with the right people and the right resources to create value?

"After the first year, I think all of our students have an entrepreneurial mindset," says Moore.

"In the second year, we offer students a host of electives that range from courses in basic entrepreneurship -- where they put together a business plan and learn how to sell it -- to courses on entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial marketing."

The same principles of basic business dealings that entrepreneurs use to be successful also apply to corporations, says Wharton School’s Cieri. So the bottom line is that getting an MBA is a valuable pursuit for just about anyone -- whether you consider yourself an entrepreneur or not -- in today’s business world.

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