The formation of youth entrepreneurial intention in an emerging economy: the interaction between psychological traits and socioeconomic factors

Abstract

Purpose Youth entrepreneurship has been identified as a key driver in overcoming the economic crisis spurred by youth unemployment. However, the understanding of youth entrepreneurship is largely based on research in high-income countries. Furthermore, entrepreneurship studies to date are largely limited to the independent effects of individual traits on entrepreneurial intention (EI). Hence, this study aims to model the cognitive and social conditions, mediating processes and interactions to understand how youth EI can be formed and strengthened in an emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional sample of 295 Malaysian youths participating in an online entrepreneurship program were included to assess their family socioeconomic background, individual personality traits and EI using regression, mediation and moderation models. Within the sample, 29 youths who completed the program were examined for pre- and post-training intervention differences to identify whether entrepreneurial traits can be developed. Findings Results showed that a proactive personality or proactiveness was a key mediator in how an internal locus of control (ILOC) and self-esteem influence EI. Furthermore, ILOC and proactiveness were found to compensate for the lack of parental financial support in the formation of EI among low-income youth. Finally, there was a significant increase in proactive personality scores post-intervention, indicating that this trait can be strengthened through entrepreneurship programs. Research limitations/implications This study focused on parental income as an indicator of family socioeconomic background, which may not accurately represent the diversity of the socio-ecological environment of an individual. Therefore, future research should assess the multi-dimensional indicators of socioeconomic status and their relations with psychological attributes in shaping EI. Furthermore, this study observed a small sample size for the pre- and post-intervention analysis. Hence, more studies with large sample sizes are needed to examine the impact of entrepreneurship education. Practical implications Considering that entrepreneurship is envisioned as an instrument to lift youths out of poverty, this study has important implications for entrepreneurship programs that target low-income youths. The findings suggest that such programs need to first emphasize developing ILOC and proactiveness among these youths, thus enabling them to overcome various structural barriers toward entrepreneurship, as opposed to a purely knowledge-based learning approach. Social implications To effectively lift youths out of poverty through entrepreneurship, policymakers and educational institutions need to first recognize that the EI of youth from varying socioeconomic backgrounds are formed differently. Hence, the approach of entrepreneurship programs catered toward youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will differ from programs catered to youths who are financially secure. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, entrepreneurship programs targeted at low-income youths must first emphasize building their mindsets of ILOC and proactivity to overcome financial challenges as opposed to focusing solely on building entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. Originality/value The findings offer a more holistic and nuanced view of the contingencies where the efforts of policymakers, educational institutions and practitioners are more likely to succeed in stimulating EI among youths in emerging economies. In addition, the study also bridges the gap between the theoretical understanding of EI and the practical implications of developing effective entrepreneurship programs by combining the cross-sectional analysis and pre- and post-intervention test in the same study. Importantly, the study highlighted the importance of considering youth’s socioeconomic background in the design and implementation of entrepreneurship programs.

Analysing and predicting a country’s entrepreneurial activity using insights from entrepreneurs’ digital footprint

“…Bearing in mind continuous focus on entrepreneurial intentions in the literature and new efforts to better understand different aspects of entrepreneurial actions, like social (Duncan-Horner et al , 2022), refugee (Kachkar and Djafri, 2022) or youth (Nungsari et al , 2023) entrepreneurship, we offer a promising push in this direction. Our results may serve as a starting point for a new approach to measuring entrepreneurial activity in a country or a region (e.g.…”

Graduate Work Readiness: An Insight into Entrepreneurship Education, Skills and Intention

“…In this paper, it is contended that the development of the gig-employment platform enables the relaxation of personal liquidity constraints through a flexible channel of income generation to supplement employment fallbacks. Further, gig economy workers may be captured as self-employed or entrepreneurs, i.e., individuals who have taken a form of work required for possible growth (see Barrios et al, 2020;Nungsari et al, 2023).…”

“…Further, the need for guidelines for entrepreneurial elements and teaching experts within universities also can be a factor that hinders the implementation of entrepreneurial activities effectively. Ultimately, this circumstance could lead to low work readiness since the graduates obtained lack of required skills and competencies as expected by the market (Mohd Salleh et al, 2019;Nungsari et al, 2023;Uddin et al, 2022). Graduates tend to lose interest in business ventures or becoming entrepreneurs.…”

“…Another concern highlighted by Sim et al (2023) is that the engagement between academics and university students still needs to improve (Nungsari et al, 2023;Sim et al, 2023;Suffian et al, 2018). In empowering entrepreneurship as part of graduate employability, graduates often regard entrepreneurship as a second choice for the career pathway.…”

“…In empowering entrepreneurship as part of graduate employability, graduates often regard entrepreneurship as a second choice for the career pathway. Previous studies highlighted that interest, skills, and opportunities contribute to this scenario (Almahry et al, 2018;Boucher et al, 2023;Nungsari et al, 2023). Sim et al (2023) found that educators play a crucial role as change agents in both theoretical and practical levels for implementing entrepreneurship education in schools.…”