Entrepreneurial Intention of UiTM Students and the Mediating Role of Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

The emphasis on entrepreneurship by the Malaysian government clearly displays their effort in strengthening the entrepreneurial development in the country, which is expected to boost the economy by creating more jobs and generating new incomes. The idea is extended to local higher education institutions so as to nurture and to sustain entrepreneurial engagement among the students through formal entrepreneurial programs. The initiatives are expected to help in reducing graduate unemployment level in the country. Despite all the effort taken by the government, the uptake of entrepreneurship among young minds is still low, and there is growing unemployment in the country. Thus, this study aims to determine the factors that affect entrepreneurial intentions among UiTM graduating students and the mediating effect of entrepreneurship education towards entrepreneurial intention through attitude, perceived behaviour control and self-efficacy. The sample consists of 429 UiTM students who have taken the entrepreneurship course. Factor analysis and Partial Least Squares methods were used to analyse the data. The findings reveal a significant relationship of attitude, perceived behaviour control and entrepreneurship education towards entrepreneurial intention, while self-efficacy was insignificantly related. However, the study found that entrepreneurship education partially mediates the relationship between attitude and perceived behaviour control towards entrepreneurship intention and a full mediation on self-efficacy. The findings will help the policymakers or the higher education institutes in developing a suitable policy and program in promoting entrepreneurship to the university graduates at the national level.
 
 Keywords: Entrepreneurial intention, IBM, Partial Least Squares, TPB.

Empirical study on the role of passion, individual differences, and innovativeness between entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions and entrepreneurial intention: A moderated mediating model

“…Several studies were conducted in the past to assess entrepreneurship education. Many of the studies paid more attention to the impact of HEIs and universities on entrepreneurship education by considering factors such as professional education curricula and professional teachers (Boldureanu Song et al, 2021). Others focus on demographic factors, including differences in gender, age and background, students' study branch, and family background (Jena, 2020;Paray & Kumar, 2020;Petridou et al, 2009;Remeikiene et al, 2013).…”

“…This construct includes self‐generated 15 items covering three dimensions such as entrepreneurial course content and practicum (Mei et al, 2020; Song et al, 2021), lecturer encouragement and competency (Iwu et al, 2021), and an institutional environment with resources and opportunities (Astuty et al, 2022; Iizuka et al, 2022). Sample items related to institutions are ‘My institution provides support to assist student entrepreneurs’, ‘The course helps me to find out the risks and problems associated with starting a business and tackling them’, and ‘Entrepreneurial lecturers kindle interest in entrepreneurship throughout the course’.…”

“…A plethora of studies have assessed the role of HEIs and universities in entrepreneurship (Davey et al, 2016) and entrepreneurship education (Boldureanu et al, 2020; Song et al, 2021). According to Ghina et al (2017), fostering effective learning in entrepreneurship education at educational institutions is the most effective strategy to develop successful entrepreneurs.…”

“…With an extensive literature analysis, it was found that several studies were conducted in the past to assess entrepreneurship education and its outcomes. Many of the studies paid more attention to the impact of HEIs and universities on entrepreneurship education by considering factors such as professional education curricula and professional teachers (Boldureanu et al, 2020; Byun et al, 2018; Song et al, 2021). Others focus on demographic factors, including differences in gender (Petridou et al, 2009), age and degree background (Paray & Kumar, 2020), students' study branch (Remeikiene et al, 2013), and family background (Jena, 2020).…”

Role of the Family in Fostering Student’s Entrepreneurial Intention

“…Entrepreneurship is viewed as the solution to unemployment and economic growth ( [1], p. 237, [2], p. 17). It is on this backdrop entrepreneurship education was introduced in tertiary institutions with the aim of enabling students to acquire the necessary entrepreneurial competencies as a precursor to be prosperous entrepreneurs ( [2], p. 17).…”