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The master’s degree is where innovation exists as a degree title in its own right. An online MS in Innovation, MS in Innovation Management, or MS in Innovation & Entrepreneurship is designed for students who already hold a bachelor’s degree – commonly in business, engineering, design, or a science field – and want concentrated graduate training in how new products, services, and ventures get created and commercialized. Many schools deliver the same content as an innovation concentration inside an MBA, which is why the course list matters more than the diploma text.
This page explains how these programs are structured, what prerequisites they assume, how the MS and MBA routes differ, and what to compare across schools.
It is a graduate program that builds advanced training in opportunity discovery, product and business model development, technology commercialization, and corporate innovation strategy through online coursework. It is the degree level at which “innovation” is commonly offered as a standalone title rather than as an undergraduate concentration.
Master of Science in Innovation, MS in Innovation Management, and MS in Innovation & Entrepreneurship are the most direct titles. Equivalent training is also offered as an MBA with an innovation or entrepreneurship concentration, and occasionally as a Master of Engineering Management or design-school degree with a commercialization track. Compare required course lists rather than titles – variation between programs with identical names is unusually wide in this field.
Typically 30 to 36 semester hours, commonly one to two years full-time and longer part-time. Programs designed for working professionals often stretch across two to three years at a reduced course load. An MBA with an innovation concentration usually runs longer, since it carries a full general-management core.
Most assume a completed bachelor’s degree in any field plus some professional experience. Programs housed in business schools often expect or provide foundational coursework in accounting, finance, and statistics. Applicants from engineering, design, and science backgrounds are common and generally welcomed, sometimes with a business foundations sequence added.
An MS is shorter, more specialized, and better if you already have business fundamentals and want depth in innovation method. An MBA is longer and broader, carries wider name recognition with employers and recruiters, and is the better choice if you also want general management credibility or expect to move into a general leadership track. See the MBA program guide for that comparison.
A completed bachelor’s degree, transcripts, a resume, and a statement of purpose are standard. Many programs weigh professional experience heavily, since innovation coursework depends on students bringing real organizational context to team projects. Some request letters of recommendation or GMAT or GRE scores, though many online programs are test-optional.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Middle States Commission on Higher EducationIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
| Course Topic | What You Learn |
|---|---|
| Innovation Strategy | How firms choose where to compete with new offerings, and how portfolios balance incremental and risky bets |
| Customer Discovery & Opportunity Assessment | Structured research to establish that a problem is real and someone will pay to solve it |
| Design Thinking & Human-Centered Design | Problem framing, ideation, prototyping, and iterative testing with users |
| New Product & Service Development | Stage-gate and agile development processes, requirements, and cross-functional coordination |
| Business Model Design & Venture Finance | Revenue models, unit economics, and financial modeling for offerings with no sales history |
| Technology Commercialization & Intellectual Property | Licensing, patents, and moving research from a lab into a marketable product |
| Leading Change & Corporate Entrepreneurship | Why established organizations resist new work, and how projects survive internal governance |
| Applied Capstone or Practicum | An end-to-end project, often with an external partner, from problem framing to a defended business case |
Outcomes vary by program, but you can compare:
For pacing and delivery comparisons, see: How Online Innovation Degrees Work
Requirements vary by school, but most programs require a completed bachelor’s degree in any field. Common elements include transcripts, a resume, and a statement of purpose. Professional experience carries more weight here than in most graduate programs, because innovation coursework is heavily team-based and the case discussions depend on students bringing organizational context that undergraduates do not have.
Applicants coming from outside business are not just accepted but actively sought – engineering, design, science, and clinical backgrounds are common in these cohorts, and the interdisciplinary mix is part of the pedagogy. What varies is how the program handles the business gap: some require a foundations sequence in accounting and finance, some fold it into the core, and some assume you will pick it up. Ask admissions directly which applies rather than inferring it from the catalog.
A bachelor’s pathway – typically a business administration or management major with an innovation concentration – is a workable entry point into analyst and coordinator roles in product, strategy, and marketing groups. A master’s is more commonly pursued to move into dedicated innovation and product management titles, to pivot into commercialization work from a technical or clinical background, or to add business method to deep domain expertise you already have.
That last case is where this degree is strongest. An engineer or clinician who understands a domain thoroughly and adds structured commercialization training is a genuinely uncommon profile. A master’s in innovation taken with no domain expertise and no operating experience is a weaker one, because the method is only useful when applied to a problem you understand.
Compare degree options:
For a value and fit discussion, see: Is an Online Innovation Degree Worth It. For the broader management credential, see the MBA Program Guide.
Data verified: August 11, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Online Innovation Degrees: Programs & Careers (2026)
