Inclination towards entrepreneurship among Malaysian university students in Northern Peninsular Malaysia

This study investigates the inclination towards entrepreneurship among Malaysian university students in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Specifically, it aims to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education and university students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship. This study also examines the moderating effects of demographic characteristics and family business background on entrepreneurship education and the image of entrepreneurship and university students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship. The samples were from final year university students in business, engineering, computing and information technology (IT) programmes at three public universities. A self-administered questionnaire was used in this study to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of seven parts: the respondent’s characteristics and family business background, future career planning and entrepreneurial inclination, role models, the role of universities in promoting entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial curriculum and contents, assessment and teaching methods for entrepreneurship course(s), and entrepreneurial internship programmes. Five hundred Malay-version questionnaires were randomly distributed to selected classes during a regular lecture period in Semester 1 Session 2007. The students were given a week to return the questionnaires. Participation was voluntary. After screening, a total of 417 questionnaires were deemed completed and usable. This yielded a response rate of 83.4 per cent. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, multiple regression, one-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test and structural equation modelling were used to test the hypothesised propositions. The results of factor analysis suggested that future career planning and entrepreneurial inclination loaded into two new dimensions: university students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship and image of entrepreneurship. On the other hand, factor analysis on the entrepreneurial curriculum and contents recommended another two new dimensions: the entrepreneurial curriculum and contents and the personal independent learning approach. Multiple regression was performed to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education and inclination towards entrepreneurship. The results showed that the role of universities in promoting entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial curriculum and contents have a statistically significant relationship with student inclination towards entrepreneurship. At the same time, image of entrepreneurship was also found to have a relationship with student inclination towards entrepreneurship. One-way ANOVA and independent sample t-test was carried out to test the significant differences of demographic characteristics and family business background on inclination towards entrepreneurship. The hypothesis testing results indicated that gender, programmes of study, previous working experience as well as mother’s occupation did have significant differences on university students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship. Structural equation modelling was used to examine whether the relationships among entrepreneurship education, image of entrepreneurship and university students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship are moderated by the demographic characteristics and family background. The results revealed that there were statistically significant effects in terms of university students’ ethnicity and birth order on the relationships. Finally, based on the findings, the implications of the study, recommendations for actions and suggestions for future research are put forward.