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This study aims to investigate the Malaysian Mah Meri Indigenous tourism entrepreneur’s personality, experience, sense of community traits and current challenges in community-based tourism (CBT)-related businesses.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from 10 Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs. Data were analysed using the NVivo 11 software.

The qualitative content analysis found three broad themes. Firstly, the authors found that the Mah Meri community possesses unique self-efficacy personality characteristics, significantly predicting their unsustainable entrepreneurial behaviours. Secondly, they are willing to share their values, beliefs and interests in their business offerings, which reflect their sense of community. Even with considerable entrepreneurial experience through learning from local wisdom and upskilling efforts by the government, the authors found that the community limitation mainly concerns the lack of early education, uninventive entrepreneurship practices and financial assistance.

This study provides an improved understanding of the Indigenous business environment for policymakers and Indigenous entrepreneurs. We found entrepreneurial personality, experience, sense of community determine and structure their CBT entrepreneurial activities.

This study provides a new perspective on Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs’ personalities, experiences, sense of community traits and challenges. The study also suggests encouraging sustainable Indigenous entrepreneurship practices for economic development, self-determination and community sustainability.

This study aims to assess the household food insecurity in Malaysia during the initial phase of the movement control order (MCO) to provide insights into the prevalence and predictors of food insecurity in this context.

The research used an online cross-sectional survey between March 28 and April 28, 2020. The study collected data from the Radimer/Cornell Hunger Scale and a food insecurity instrument. Analytical tools included chi-square and logistic regression models.

Of the 411 participating households, 54.3% were food-secure, while 45.7% experienced varying food insecurity. Among these, 29.9% reported mild hunger-associated food insecurity, 8.5% experienced individual food insecurity and 7.3% reported child hunger. The study identified predictors for food insecurity, including household income, as those with total income of < RM 2,300 had 13 times greater odds (odds ratio [OR] 13.8; confidence interval [CI] 5.9–32.1; p < 0.001) than those with income of RM 5,600, marital status as divorced (OR 4.4; 95% CI 1.0–19.9; p-value = 0.05) or married (OR 1.04; 95% CI 0.52–2.1) compared to those who are single. Self-employed respondents had three times greater odds of living in a household experiencing food insecurity (OR 3.58; 95% CI 1.6–7.7; p-value = 0.001) than those in the private sector (OR 1.48; 95% CI 0.85–2.61) or experiencing job loss (OR 1.39; 95% CI 0.62–3.1) compared with those who reported being in full-time government employment.

This study acknowledged limitations, such as not considering various dimensions of food insecurity, such as coping strategies, nutritional support, diet quality and well-being, due to the complexity of the issue.

The study underscores the importance of targeted support for vulnerable groups and fostering collaborative efforts to address household food insecurity during crises like the MCOs.

The research offers insights into how to address household food insecurity and its impact on society.

It identifies predictors, quantifies increased odds and emphasizes the necessity of targeted policies and collaborative approaches for fostering resilient recovery and promoting well-being in vulnerable populations.