An Empirical Evidence of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) Microcredit Programme Participants’ Quality of Life

Abstract

Since the inception of microcredit programmes, various studies have been carried out to assess their impacts. Earlier studies seemed to highlight this on the participants’ income and consequently poverty. However, recent impact studies of microcredit programmes have been looking into participants’ quality of life. Thus, this study attempted to investigate the impact of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s microcredit programme on the participants’ quality of life and analyse the differences between the new and old participants. This study took on a different perspective by examining aspects of personal attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, as well as entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. In selecting the samples, a probability sampling (disproportionate stratified) technique was employed. The hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional data of 638 Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia participants. The findings of the study showed that all the hypotheses were significant and supported, where there was significant influence between participants’ personal attitude and entrepreneurial intention, participants’ subjective norm and entrepreneurial intention, participants’ perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention, participants’ perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial behaviour, participants’ entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behaviour, including participants’ entrepreneurial behaviour and participants’ quality of life. On the contrary, the findings of the study revealed no difference in the quality of life between new participants and old participants. This study may contribute to the policy implications of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s microcredit programme, especially in improving training and guidance.

Using Household Living Aid for Entrepreneurship: What Does the B40 Think?

“…The most important thing is courage". Previous research supported a significant influence of personal attitude towards entrepreneurial intention on B40 (Isa, 2020;Mashahadi et al, 2021). Other than that, an entrepreneur with all the clustered personality factors, such as the ability to recognise opportunities, the ability to generate ideas, and the ability to explore new production methods, market products, or improve and enhance the process, are perceived as the determinants of successful performance (Rajan & Panicker, 2020).…”

“…Additionally, Nair and Njolomole (2020) believe that a lack of institutional quality results in destructive or unproductive entrepreneurship instead of successful entrepreneurship. Furthermore, Isa (2020) in his study argues that there is no difference in life quality between new and old participants. Thus, there is a need for an alternative source of financing, which requires no repayment and can stimulate vulnerable groups to participate in entrepreneurship, hence lifting their household income.…”

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“…The economy of a country depends on the financing available. Credit plays a crucial role in fostering economic growth, which is why a microcredit program is one of the most innovative tools in the poverty alleviation (Isa et al, 2019). When banking experiences liquidity problems, mainly due to a crisis, economic growth will remain stagnant, eventually turning into a recession.…”