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Pathways toward entrepreneurial intention among Malaysian universities’ students

Hanieh Alipour Bazkiaei (Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia)
Noor Ullah Khan (Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Pengkalan Chepa, Malaysia) (Department of HRM NUST, Business School, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan)
Ateeq-ur-Rehman Irshad (Department of Mathematics and General Sciences, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) (NUST Business School, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan)
Adeel Ahmed (Department of IB&M NUST, Business School, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan)

Business Process Management Journal

ISSN: 1463-7154

Article publication date: 14 June 2021

Issue publication date: 3 August 2021

873

Abstract

Purpose

Entrepreneurship is a vital source of job creation and a key driver in promoting economic growth. The Malaysian government encourages higher educational institutions (HEIs) to develop more competitive and innovative graduates for the economy so that Malaysia achieves high-income nation status by 2025. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of attitude toward entrepreneurship (ATE) in the relationship between key psychological factors, that is, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavior control (PBC), big-five (BF) personality traits, entrepreneurial motivation (EM) and educational factors (EFs) with entrepreneurial intention (EI) among Malaysian university students.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a quantitative design based on a positivist approach. The adopted questionnaire was used as the survey instrument. The primary data were collected from a sample of 251 final-year students in the management field who were enrolled in research-intensive Malaysian universities. Data were analyzed through the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique using AMOS 24 software.

Findings

Findings confirmed that the BF personality traits, EM, PBC, SN, ATE and EFs were positively related to EI. Furthermore, ATE mediated the relationship between BF personality traits, EM, PBC, SN, EF, and EI among Malaysian university students.

Research limitations/implications

This research provides critical insights into the key antecedents, for example, psychological and EFs, in explaining the EI of university students and future graduates. However, results can only be generalized to research-intensive Malaysian universities.

Originality/value

This study investigated the relationship between psychological factors, that is, BF personality traits, EM, PBC, SN and EFs in predicting EI of Malaysian university students. ATE mediated the relationship between BF personality traits, EM, PBC, SN, EF and EI among these students.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Citation

Bazkiaei, H.A., Khan, N.U., Irshad, A.-u. and Ahmed, A. (2021), "Pathways toward entrepreneurial intention among Malaysian universities’ students", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 1009-1032. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-01-2021-0021

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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