Utilizing Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict the Young Graduates on The Entrepreneurs’ Intention
Mardhiah Mohammad1*, Basri Badyalina2*, Norfazlina Ghazali3*, Nor Fazalina Salleh3*, Noorita Mohammad3*
1 Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.
2 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences. University Teknologi Mara Cawangan Johor, Kampus Segamat, Segamat, Johor, Malaysia.
3 Faculty of Business and Management, University Teknologi Mara Selangor, Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
*Corresponding Author: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Accepted: 15 February 2022 | Published: 1 March 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/aje.2022.3.1.2
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Abstract: Entrepreneurship has played an essential role in the economic prosperity and social stability of many developed and developing countries. Malaysia has a high percentage of the young population and faces massive challenges with a high level of unemployment among youth. The unemployment scenario is primarily due to a lack of entrepreneurial awareness and lack of skill among the young population. This article presents data that examine the intention of entrepreneurship using the attitude, social norm and perceived behavior toward the entrepreneurship intentions during the pandemic covid 19. Data was collected using a questionnaire adapted from previous scholars. The sample in this research will be the young graduates who have taken part in Malaysian entrepreneurship programs at the university level.
A purposive sampling technique has been applied, while validity and reliability procedures have been confirmed. A self-administrated online questionnaire has been designed and distributed to prospective young entrepreneurs. The significance of this study, contribute insight about the young entrepreneurs in Malaysia during the pandemic covid 19 and facilitate the educational sector and government to facilitate the creation of the young generation as entrepreneurs. In these relations, this study will be able to give suggestions or recommendations for the future studies.
Keywords: young, entrepreneurial intention, theory of planned behavior, attitude ___________________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
Entrepreneurship has been an important topic ever since as it acts as a major contributor to a country's growth. Entrepreneurship played a role especially for many developing countries in stimulating the economy, by creating a new job, more employment, more new investment, creating new and variety of products and services, and opening up new places for business (Nursalwani, Suhada, Sannasi, Amizi & Ariff, 2021; Tengan, Kissi, Asigri & Eshun, 2020;
Bakir & Gunduz, 2020; Doran, McCarthy & O’Connor, 2018). For many rural areas, entrepreneurship makes the society exposed to many activities and promotes a job career, and is able to increase the standard of living and literacy rate for the population (Jayadatta, 2017).
The covid 19 crisis, in 2019, somehow has posed a significant challenge to many people not only in Malaysia but to others over the world. Factors such as financial support, human capital, a team of management, networking, and managing the company strength, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, and working in advanced technology have been affecting the company’s performance (Adelekan & Eze, 2020; Olanrewaju, Hossain, Whiteside & Mercieca, 2020).
Despite the need to have a strong attitude, personal skill and good personality traits among the entrepreneurs themselves which make them able to cope with such unpredictable situations has made them the most vulnerable group to get the impact from such an external environment (Obschonka, Moeller & Goethner, 2019; Kyndt & Baert, 2015). The steady increase in the number of companies experiences a drop in sales, not able to sustain over a long period of time, and companies not being able to hire more employees in their business has caused the government, especially developing countries like Malaysia, to pay extra attention to solve the problem.
Diminishing employment rates has been a government concern in many countries including Malaysia. With a 37 million-plus population, Malaysia has opportunities to overcome the issues through entrepreneurship. Therefore, increasing entrepreneurial activities will pervade the labor supply in the productive sectors that can reduce unemployment as well as poverty alleviation. The government is much concerned about the sales performance of many small and middle-class companies because it has a great influence on the country's competitiveness.
The existing situation has encouraged the government and other strategic institutions in taking the action to further invest to improve the entrepreneurship reform as a whole. The Malaysian government has responded by providing entrepreneurship programs to enhance new entrepreneurs. For instance, Institution like INSKEN, PKS, PUNB, MARA, PROTÉGÉ PROGRAM is few which offer e entrepreneur digital and almost all public and private Universities offer entrepreneurship education in their course program. The government has always had a continuous improvement revitalizing the new entrepreneur curriculum with regards to the education of entrepreneurs in general to suit the Malaysian Education development plan (2015-2025), like rescaling and upscaling in boosting the entrepreneur’s skill stressing the segment towards the young people to stimulate entrepreneur’s intention in the country. This clearly showed that government, society, and the institution are committed to enhancing new the entrepreneur’s success.
Furthermore, the study on entrepreneurship education has contributed to strengthening the small and medium industry to boost their businesses to become more creative that can improve their performance in business and also help the poverty problem faced by the society in general (Pardo-Garcia & Barac 2020; Wennberg, 2020; Bacq & Lumpkin, 2020; Mahmood, Zahari, Ibrahim, Jaafar & Yaacob, 2020). Indeed, the study of the young generation towards entrepreneurship has also been on the rise (Dewi & Oktariyana, 2021). Increasing the number of young entrepreneurs in Malaysia will have a significant impact on the country’s economic growth, as they are an asset to the country in the future, as more innovating with technology- related product and services can be invented. Given all the crowdfunding platforms made available to everyone, there is much industry that is suitable for the young generation. The potential and the capabilities of the young are greater. Besides young entrepreneurs are more technologically savvy and engage with their peers through social media worldwide.
Many previous studies have focused on the critical success factor of the young entrepreneurs, stressing on technology, the starting up for the early business stage, incubators system used for simulation, and the motivation of the young in venturing business. There are studies that have
been conducted to determine the youth entrepreneurship development in Malaysia, the role of business education as a long-life learning skill to increase human capital competencies.
However, the questions as to why the young generation less ventured into entrepreneurship and the intention to become entrepreneurs are still unclear and debated among academia and researchers. Furthermore, limited knowledge is known about factors that influence these young generations' intentions. However, limited is known about their achievement and actual persistence in becoming young entrepreneurs (Yusoff, Hakimin, Zainol & Ibrahim, 2015).
Thus, this study aims to find whether the willingness to take the risk, attitude, and perception, are important factors toward entrepreneurs’ intention to venture into business during a situation pandemic.
The finding of this study provides an insight into the literature on stimulating the young generation toward entrepreneurship and will stimulate new knowledge. The focus of the study in Malaysia is unique as it contributes to the unemployment rate of young generations. Finally, this study offers a potential solution toward the government policy and education institutions in enhancing the intention of the young generation toward entrepreneurship in Malaysia.
Therefore, this study's objectives are to validate the theory of planned behavior factors that are related to the young generation's entrepreneurial intention in Malaysia during the crisis.
Research objectives
The following were the general objective of this study.
1) to study the impact of the young graduate attitude on their entrepreneurial intention.
2) to determine the young graduate’s subjective norms towards their entrepreneurial intention;
3) to determine the young graduate’s perceived behavioral control towards their entrepreneurial intention;
Research questions
Based on the research background and problem statement, this study seeks to address the following research questions.
1) Does the of the young graduate’s attitude have significant relationship towards entrepreneurial intention?
2) Do the young graduate’s subjective norms have significant relationship towards entrepreneurial intention?
3) Does the young graduate’s perceived behavioural control have significant relationship towards entrepreneurial intention?
Conceptual framework and hypotheses Development
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework
Theory of Planned Behavior
The theory of planned behavior symbolizes a theory that links individual’s beliefs and behavior. This concept was previously proposed by Icek and Ajzen (1991) on the Theory of Reasoned Action. In an attempt to improve the predictive power of the theory of reasoned
action, few dimensions were added including perceived behavioral control. Following the inception, the extended framework of Reasoned Action Theory was later known as Theory of Planned Behaviors. Until today, the Theory of Planned behavior is regarded as one of the most predictive persuasion theories. It has been applied to studies to examine the relationship among beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions and actual behavioral in various fields such as advertising, public relations, advertising campaigns and healthcare (Ajzen et al., 1991, 2002).
The theory states that attitude toward behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, together may predict an individual's behavioral intentions and actual behaviors. For attitudes towards behavior, individual's positive or negative evaluation of self-performance of the particular behavior was fundamental. The concept is the degree to which performance of the behavior is positively or negatively valued. It is determined by the total set of accessible behavioral beliefs linking the behavior to various outcomes and other attributes.
While subjective norms is used to test an individual perception about the particular behavior, it is influenced by the judgment of significant others (Ajzen, 2002). This dimension purportedly examines how the individual decision being affected by the others influence rather than do the decision by them. Perceived behavioral control is an individual's perceived ease or difficulty of performing the particular behavior. It is assumed that perceived behavioral control is determined by the total set of accessible control beliefs (Ajzen, 1991).
The TPB assumes that intention is the most important predictor of behavior. Intention is determined by attitude (the individual’s positive or negative evaluation of the behavior), subjective norm (perceived social pressure to perform or not perform a behavior), and perceived behavioral control (PBC; perceived ease or difficulty of performing a behavior; also thought to be a direct predictor of behavior). Attitude, subjective norm and PBC are informed by underlying behavioral, normative and control beliefs respectively. The discussion results into the following hypotheses:
H1: The attitude of young graduate’s has a significant relationship with the entrepreneurial intention.
H2: the young graduate's subjective norm has a significant relationship with the entrepreneur’s intention
H3: the young graduate's perceived behavioral control has a significant relationship with the entrepreneur’s intention
Thus, the effectiveness and the success factors due to having the right intention for the entrepreneurs is the main concern for not only the academic but also the nation in realizing the goals to become a high-income country and a better standard of living. This study is done to utilize the TPB theory to predict intention for entrepreneurship through the dimension o attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (Figure 1).
2. Methodology
2.1. Qualitative Phase: In-depth Interviews
The purpose of these interviews is to identify the issues and challenges in relation to entrepreneurship. And how these may impact students’ propensity to engage in entrepreneurship. The interview questions would be sent to potential respondents either by hand in preparing them for an interview or via email as requested. Face-to-face interviews will be held at their convenience. This session will invite the major stakeholders in the industry
such as academicians, policymakers, other HEIs, and students. Students here refer to university students that meet the specific requirement to be selected as the respondents. The requirements are 1) 18 years old and above, 2) currently studying as an undergraduate from the Business and Management faculty, and 3) has experienced learning the skills of entrepreneurship through the formal courses studied at the university.
2.2. Quantitative Phase: Surveys a) Procedure
The second stage results from Phase 1: Qualitative Phase, which interprets the dimension derived from Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) applicability to the present study. The research will use a self-administered questionnaire in collecting the data. The self-administered questionnaire will be distributed to targeted respondents within a public university in Peninsular Malaysia.
b) Sample Size
Approximately 250 university students from the faculty of Business and Management will be targeted as participants. The researcher is proposing quota sampling as the researcher intends to focus on the different categories of business disciplines within the Faculty of Business and Management, UiTM, Puncak Alam, Selangor.
c) Data Collection and Data Analytical Procedure
Data collection for this study shall be analyzed using SPSS and including descriptive analysis.
As such, the mean rating and standard deviation of a particular attribute shall provide insight into individuals’ behavior intention to engage in entrepreneurship.
3. Result and Discussion
The summary of demographic profiles of the respondents was shown in Table 2. The study found that majority of the respondents was female with 82.2%. Meanwhile, for their age group most of the respondents fell within this age range 21 – 25 years old reported for 62.2%, followed by 18 – 20 years old (37.4%), and range 31-35 years old (0.4%). Remarkably, most of the respondents (91.7.%) are from the non-technical education background while from Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and technical is 7.9% and 0.4% respectively. Most of the respondents have a year working experience before and while studying in the University 42.2%. Lastly, 53.5 % of the respondent’s family members are working as an entrepreneurs (please refer to table 1).
Table 1: The Demographic Statistics (N=230)
Demographic Percentage
Gender Male
Female
17.80 82.2
Age 18 - 20
21 - 25 31- 35
37.4 62.2 0.4 Education background Non- Technical
Technical SPM
91.7 0.4 7.9 Working experience No working experiences
One year experience Two-year experience Three-year experience Four- year experience
38.7 42.2 9.6 4.3 1.7
Five- year experience 3.5
Family members are entrepreneurs no yes
46.5 53.5
Table 2: The variables used and number of items for each variable
No Variables 1
2 3 4
Attitude Subjective norms Perceived behavioral control Entrepreneur’s Intention
5 items 3 items 4 items 6 items Total 18 items
Reliability Assessment
Subsequently, normality of the data was conducted using SPSS and were further tested for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The reliability of the measurement items for all the variables are as indicated in Table 2, and the values of Cronbach Alpha obtained from the test were between 0.637 and 0.946 (refer to Table 3). Therefore, the instrument used in the study was consistent and highly reliable.
Table 3: Reliability test of the measurement items used
No of items Cronbach’s Alpha
Attitude 5 0.864
Subjective norms 3 0.658
Perceived behavioral control 4 0.637
Entrepreneurship intention 6 0.946
Regression analysis
The result shows that there were significant relationships between independent variables:
attitude, and subjective norms with dependent variable: entrepreneur’s intention except for the factor of perceived behavioral control. The significant value of all independent variable showed is equal to .000 which is less than 0.05 (p>0.05).
Multiple regression in Table 4 below shows that ANOVA F-test, the P-value of every independent variables is 132.104 and its significant value is equal to 0.000, means that its significant value is less than alpha value of 0.05. It is clearly can be seen that all the independent variables used in this research were significant and its hypothesis can be tested.
Table 4: Multiple Regression Anova
Model Sum of Squares df Mean square F Sig.
Regression 92.268 3 32.095 132.104 .000
Residual 54.908 226 .243
Total 151.194 229
a. Predictors: (Constant), attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls b. Dependent variable: entrepreneurship intention
Table 5: Coefficient of the regression model
Variable B Unstandardized
coefficients
Standardized coefficients
t Sig. Result Standard Error Beta
(Constant) -.670 .239 -2.798 .006
Attitude .821 .053 .677 15.587 .000 Supported
Subjective norms .164 .054 .143 3.019 .003 Supported
Perceived behavioral control .167 .062 .127 2.679 .008 Supported a. Dependent variable: entrepreneurs’ intention
Hypothesis Testing
Based on the multiple regression coefficients Table 5 shows the summary of the hypothesis results. H1, H2 and H3 have a significant relationship based on the p-value less than 0.05.
Table 6: multiple regression – model summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std Error of estimate
1 .798a .637 .632 .49290
Multiple regressions in Table 6 had shown the R squared result value was equal to 0.637 this had shown that 63.7% of the variance in selected dependent variable which is factor that influencing young graduates to engage in entrepreneurship can be explained by the changes in the selected independent variables which is attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The rest of the percentages are explained by the other factors which are not included in the model.
Discussion and Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to determine the association of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control influencing intention to become entrepreneurs among young graduates in Selangor. What did we learn about the young graduates’ intention to become an entrepreneur rather than become an employee? From the standpoint of increasing their own income and becoming the owner of their business, their intentions were far too great. The young University graduate entrepreneur’s intention increased with a positive attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control toward being an entrepreneur. This result also corresponds to what is commonly observed among young people. These young graduates actually have positive attitudes and surrounding them that could support their intention in doing business. Therefore, this information could be useful to the top-level management of the University to open more places for them within the University vicinity to conduct their intention to do business. The University could set business center within the University premise complete with infrastructure that could lead them to be motivated to carry out this entrepreneurial intention. Their business experience will then be continued after their graduation and become successful business entrepreneurs. As young person, they have many wants which they want to accomplish. Furthermore, the trend in this 21st century, there are many young entrepreneurs, the millennial generation who are successful at an early age has made them aspiration and motivated.
References
Adelekan, S. A., & Eze, B. U. (2020). Technology Incubator and Entrepreneurship Development. Human Capital Formation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 286- 304.
Bacq, S., & Lumpkin, G. T. (2020). Social Entrepreneurship and COVID‐19. Journal of Management Studies.
Bakir, C., & Gunduz, K. A. (2020). The importance of policy entrepreneurs in developing countries: A systematic review and future research agenda. Public Administration and Development, 40(1), 11-34.
Dewi, L. G. K., & Oktariyana, N. K. S. M. D. (2021, November). Young Entrepreneur’s Financial Resilience Strategies During Pandemic. In 6th International Conference on Tourism, Economics, Accounting, Management, and Social Science (TEAMS 2021) (pp. 110-118). Atlantis Press.
Doran, J., McCarthy, N., & O’Connor, M. (2018). The role of entrepreneurship in stimulating economic growth in developed and developing countries. Cogent Economics &
Finance, 6(1), 1442093.
Jayadatta, S. (2017). Major challenges and problems of rural entrepreneurship in India. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 19(9), 35-44.
Kyndt, E., & Baert, H. (2015). Entrepreneurial competencies: Assessment and predictive value for entrepreneurship. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 90, 13-25.
Lai, M., binti Khas-Rin, A. A. A., & Parrow, B. (2021). The Early Exposure of Business During Teenage Life and The Intention of Becoming an Entrepreneur. Malaysian Journal of Business and Economics (MJBE), 21-48.
Mahmood, R., Zahari, A. S. M., Ibrahim, N., Jaafar, N. F. H. N., & Yaacob, N. M. (2020). The Impact of Entrepreneur Education on Business Performance. Asian Journal of University Education, 16(4), 171-180.
Nursalwani, M., Suhada, R. N. N., Sannasi, A. P., Amizi, A. M., & Ariff, A. Z. (2021, May).
The involvement of young entrepreneurs in halal food products in Kelantan. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 756, No. 1, p. 012001).
IOP Publishing.
Nowiński, W., Haddoud, M. Y., Lančarič, D., Egerová, D., & Czeglédi, C. (2019). The impact of entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and gender on entrepreneurial intentions of university students in the Visegrad countries. Studies in Higher Education, 44(2), 361-379.
Obschonka, M., Moeller, J., & Goethner, M. (2019). Entrepreneurial passion and personality:
the case of academic entrepreneurship. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2697.
Olanrewaju, A. S. T., Hossain, M. A., Whiteside, N., & Mercieca, P. (2020). Social media and entrepreneurship research: A literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 50, 90-110.
Pardo-Garcia, C., & Barac, M. (2020). Promoting employability in higher education: A case study on boosting entrepreneurship Skills. Sustainability, 12(10), 4004.
Pavlova, N., & Sagov, R. (2020). Entrepreneurship in times of an economic crisis: An explanatory research on the impact of the economic crisis on entrepreneurial activity.
Radu, N., Chirvase, A. A., Băbeanu, N., Popa, O., Caramihai, M. D., & Begea, M. (2020).
Studies regarding personal skills needed in entrepreneurship. Case study in France, Lithuania and Romania. Scientific Papers: Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture & Rural Development, 20(2).
Ratten, V. (2020). Coronavirus (covid-19) and entrepreneurship: changing life and work landscape. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 32(5), 503-516.
Tengan, C., Kissi, E., Asigri, T. M., & Eshun, B. T. B. (2020). Challenges and Strategies towards Entrepreneurship Education and Learning among Ghanaian Built Environment Students. Journal of Engineering Research and Reports, 17-28.
Wennberg, K. (2020). Towards an innovative entrepreneurship policy.
Yusoff, B., Hakimin, M. N., Zainol, F. A., & Bin Ibrahim, M. D. (2015). Entrepreneurship Education in Malaysia's Public Institutions of Higher Learning - A Review of the Current Practices. International Education Studies, 8(1), 17-28.
