I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who assisted me during the research. The entire thesis project will be dedicated to my family and many friends, and especially to women around me who are involved in entrepreneurship and business activities. In addition, the aim of this research is to raise public awareness of why the number of female entrepreneurs is increasing over the years and what motivates and encourages them to be involved in the entrepreneurial sector.
The research consists of 5 independent variables, including family support, environmental influences, women's self-independence, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial attitude, so that the above research objective can be achieved. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the entrepreneurial intention of women in Malaysia. Five independent variables including family support, environmental influences, women's self-independence, women's self-reliance, and entrepreneurial attitude, while women's entrepreneurial intent was categorized as the dependent variable.
The result shows that family support, women's self-independence, environmental influences and entrepreneurial self-efficacy have a significant positive correlation with women's entrepreneurial intention in Malaysia.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
- Introduction
- Research Background
- Research Problem
- Research Objectives
- Research Questions
- Research Significance
As a result, women's access to the entrepreneurial sector has grown in most of the nations, especially in those sectors that were previously male dominated, such as software developers, farmers, constructions, etc. (Dayton, 2020). To study whether women's personal entrepreneurial self-efficacy, self-reliance and their attitude can influence the entrepreneurial intention. Can women's personal entrepreneurial self-independence, self-efficacy and their attitude influence the entrepreneurial intention.
The main purpose of this research is to study about the factors that impact women's entrepreneurial intention in Malaysia. Throughout the research study, we examine the factors' processes on how they drive women's intention to start their own business and to make a living based on this. The practitioners should also be aware of the determinants of women's entrepreneurial intention, as they can study on what reasons motivate and encourage their female competitors to enter the entrepreneurial career.
Practitioners who are aware of the current trend of the rising number of female entrepreneurs can address and solve the problems sooner than the others in society.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Introduction
- Review of Literature
- Family Support
- Environmental Influences
- Women’s Self Independence
- Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy
- Entrepreneurial Attitude
- Women’s Entrepreneurial Intention
- Theory of Planned Behaviour
- Conceptual Framework
- Hypotheses Development
- Family Support
- Environmental Influences
- Women’s Self Independence
- Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy
- Entrepreneurial Attitude
Self-efficacy is the belief in an individual's ability to perform tasks to meet certain goals. This trait is often associated with an individual entrepreneurial intention and measures a person's self-esteem and boldness in his ability to perform a task. To summarize, entrepreneurial self-efficacy defines a person's willingness to take risks, drives them to transform a market opportunity into a real business venture, and it has a high correlation with women's entrepreneurial intention.
It is one of the very critical constructs in the Theory of Planned Behavior and can be described as the overall assessment of an individual's behavior in participating in business activities. In the context of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial attitude is an individual's positive attitude toward entrepreneurial intention, and it indicates the amount of time and effort one is willing to devote to entrepreneurial activities that tend to benefit oneself and society. Their entrepreneurial intention can be greatly influenced and in particular, entrepreneurial attitude can influence an individual's future career decision-making (Dinis, Paco, Ferreira, Raposo, & Rodrigues 2013).
This is one of the very important factors that determine a person's intention of entrepreneurship.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Introduction
- Research Design
- Sampling Design
- Target Population
- Sampling Frame and Sampling Location
- Sampling Elements
- Sampling Technique
- Sampling Size
- Data Collection Methods
- Primary Data
- Construct Measurement
- Origins of Construct Measurement
- Proposed Data Analysis Tool
All questions of the construct are measured in the form of a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree), and in this research, SPSS software was used to perform the regression model and correlation test. Consequently, the focus of the sampling frame of this research study will be on women in Malaysia. In this sampling, all responses collected should be analyzed if the participants are willing to participate in the survey and useful information can be obtained through this technique.
A sample size of 30 to 500 respondents is sufficient and is the most appropriate number to do research (Roscoe, 1975) and according to GreatBrook (n.d.), it has been proven that 200 the number of responses collected is able to give a fairly high level of accuracy of the survey in the research study. Primary data will be used to study the factors influencing women's entrepreneurial intention in Malaysia in this research project. As a result, primary data will be used to collect information as it is more reliable and has a higher level of accuracy.
The survey form will be in the form of Google Forms and will be distributed to 230 female respondents in Malaysia. The survey form will be shared through social media applications such as WhatsApp, Instagram Story, Instagram Direct Message, Facebook Messenger and RED. The data collection of the entire research study will be done online as the cases of Covid-19 in Malaysia are increasing daily and it is dangerous to physically expose ourselves to the respondents and collect information.
Therefore, it is recommended to obtain data through online to be more secure and to protect ourselves. This study uses data software from the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyze the data collected from the respondents. It is software developed by IBM that allows researchers to perform analysis on complex statistical data.
In addition, it is also a very powerful tool for analyzing and understanding survey data, and any data that is collected from any online survey can be extracted and exported to SPSS for a thorough analysis of the information collected. The statistical technique used in this research project is inferential statistics as it is used to contrast experimental groups and draw conclusions about the largest number of participants by collecting data from the sample of the research population.
DATA ANALYSIS
- Introduction
- Descriptive Analysis
- Demographic Profile of Respondents
- Gender
- Age
- Marital Status
- Employment Status
- Monthly Household Income
- Reliability Analysis
- KMO and Barletts’s Test
- Exploratory Factor Analysis
- Inferential Statistics Analysis
- Pearson Correlation Coefficient
- Multiple Linear Regression Analysis
Women's entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intention have the highest Cronbach's Alpha score of 0.926 and 0.921, respectively. The value of Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of women's self-independence and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are both the same, with a value of 0.846 respectively. As shown in Table 4.4, the variables of family support, women's self-independence, environmental influences, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial attitude and women's entrepreneurial intention are respectively loaded on the same components.
FS = Family Support, WS = Women's Self Independence, EI = Environmental Influences, ES = Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy, EA = Entrepreneurial Attitude, DV = Women's Entrepreneurial Intention. The Pearson's correlation coefficient for the relationship between family support and women's entrepreneurial intention is 0.297, which shows a weak but positive relationship between the variables. It can be said that if the value of family support strengthens, the value of women's entrepreneurial intention will also be stronger.
The relationship between environmental influences and women's entrepreneurial intention is 0.304, showing a weak positive relationship between both variables. It is suggested that if the value of environmental influences increases, the value of women's entrepreneurial intention will also increase. The Pearson's correlation coefficient for the relationship between women's self-independence and women's entrepreneurial intention is 0.460, and this indicates that the relationship between the variables is weak but positive.
As such, as the value of women's self-independence grows, so does the value of women's entrepreneurial intention. Similarly, Pearson's coefficient is 0.509 for the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and women's entrepreneurial intention. This shows that they have a weak but positive relationship, but the value of women's entrepreneurial intention can increase when the value of entrepreneurial self-efficacy increases.
The relationship of entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intention of women is 0.724, indicating a weak positive relationship between the two variables. The variable of women's self-independence has a p-value of 0.440, which is greater than the significant level of 0.05, thus indicating insignificance.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Introduction
Discussion of Major Findings
- Findings on Hypothesis
As indicated, H1, H3, H4 and H5 have a significant value and the hypothesis can be accepted in this research study while H2 is rejected as its p-value is higher than the significant value at the 0.05 level. This also shows that the variables family support, environmental influences, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial attitude have a positive significant relationship with women's entrepreneurial intention. As a result, we can identify that the accepted variables are likely to motivate women's interest in entrepreneurial activities, while H2 is rejected in this study, there is no evidence to show that women's self-independence has a positive impact on women's entrepreneurial intention in Malaysia.
This also suggests that women being independent does not have a positive correlation with their intention to start a business.
Implications of Study
Limitations of Study
Recommendation for Future Research
Entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia: integration of self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior. 24/publication/326380788_An_Exploratory_Study_Of_Entrepreneurial_Inte ntion_Among_University_Students_In_Ghana/links/5b48f4ebaca272c6093f6b 66/An-Exploratory-University-Students_In_Ghana.pdf. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance Social and Economic Factors Affecting the Entrepreneurial Intention of University Students”, Transformations in Business & Economics, Vol.
Moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between entrepreneurial skills, environmental factors and entrepreneurial intention: a PLS approach. Understanding the Entrepreneurial Intent of Female Entrepreneurs in the Bali Tourism Industry: Superman is Dead. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Ubiquitous Information Management and Communication - ICUIMC '14 - Factors Influencing Entrepreneurial Intent Among Engineering Technology Students.
The factors influencing the entrepreneurial intention of the students of Vietnam National University - a mediation analysis of perception towards entrepreneurship. Assessing the Impact of Social and Demographic Factors on Female Entrepreneurial Intention in Pakistan: GEM Data Evidence, 16(1).
