Influence Of Sustainability Drivers And Perception On Intention Towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship Among Small And Medium Enterprises (SMES)

Entrepreneurial activities have contributed to both economic development and environmental degradation. Nowadays, business firms are urged to play a proactive role in rectifying environmental issues through sustainable entrepreneurship. In Malaysia, sustainable entrepreneurship is at its infancy stage; most of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) regard sustainable entrepreneurship as something new and are not eagerly participated in it. Thus, as an initial step in developing sustainable entrepreneurs, this study was geared towards investigating the SMEs owner-managers’ intentions towards sustainable entrepreneurship and the antecedents of such intention. By integrating two popular intention-based models, i.e.: Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study attempted to explain the formation of intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship through sustainability drivers and perceptions. A research framework and 32 hypotheses were constructed to guide this study. This research employed a quantitative research method. The data were collected from 404 SMEs in Malaysia through self-administered questionnaires. Subsequently, the data were analyzed using regressions models and Baron-Kenny approach. The results indicated that owner-managers of SMEs in Malaysia showed a rather high level of intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship. It was because many of them have heard about sustainability management and they have planned to practice it. As for the antecedents of intention, sustainability drivers and all the six components (i.e.: sustainability value, sustainability attitude, social norm, government legislation, time orientation and sustainability orientation) were proven significantly and positively related to intention. Therefore, the results supported TPB that both exogenous and endogenous factors influenced an individual’s intention. Meanwhile, this study also confirmed the partially mediating role of perception. The results verified that sustainability drivers indirectly influenced intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship through perception. Therefore, perception was confirmed as one of the factors that explained the process of how sustainability drivers led to intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship. The results also indicated the importance of developing a desirable and feasible perception in motivating SMEs to embark on sustainable entrepreneurship. This thesis contributed to the literature by confirming an integrative research model that explained the causal process of intention in regard to sustainable entrepreneurship. It also highlighted the factors that should be considered in forming intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship among SMEs. From the practical perspective, it showed that in promoting sustainable entrepreneurship among SMEs in Malaysia, developing the owner-managers’ intention is crucial at the beginning stage. Furthermore, in achieving Malaysia’s sustainability goals, it requires the efforts from both government and business operators

Bank selection criteria employed by undergraduates in a dual-banking environment / Wei-Loon Koe

Banks are facing stiffer competition in today’s business world than in the past. As we know, customers are vital to the survival of banks. Thus, understanding of the criteria that are deemed to be important in choosing a bank is indeed crucial, especially in a dual-banking environment like Malaysia. However, research into bank selection criteria of specific customer segment still remains limited. As such, this study is carried out to identify the bank selection criteria employed by undergraduates choosing for conventional, Islamic and both types of banks. The study was done through a self-administered questionnaire survey participated by 286 undergraduates. The results revealed that undergraduates choosing for conventional banks considered convenience as the main factor. Meanwhile, religiosity and technology were considered as the most important factors for the other two groups of undergraduates respectively. In addition, this study also indicated that undergraduates were not homogeneous in regard to bank patronization. In short, as undergraduates opting for different type of banks employed different selection criteria, bank operators are urged to understand their target customers well before they start to invest in marketing programs

Institutions and Sustainability Entrepreneurship in SMEs: A Conceptual Model

The government has integrated sustainability management into its agenda to rectify environmental degradation. A new study called “sustainability entrepreneurship”, which relates sustainability management with entrepreneurial endeavors has also been established. Sustainability management is crucial because it allows small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop competitive advantages by fulfilling customers’ demand for sustainable products. However, the participation of SMEs in sustainability management is low and many of them fail to disclose their environmental information. This phenomenon has caused problems in encouraging sustainability management commitment among SMEs and failure in achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Therefore, this paper aims to unravel the relationships of institutional elements on proclivity on sustainability entrepreneurship among SMEs. Based on a review of existing literature on Institutional factors, a proposed model was developed to assess proclivity towards sustainability entrepreneurship among SMEs. The result of this study would be useful to create the knowledge of institutional theory and the actual behavior of proclivity of sustainability entrepreneurship, to create new knowledge in the future. This research contributes to universities, policymakers and business practitioners. As for universities, it helps to develop a new model to enrich the literature in entrepreneurship studies. In terms of policymakers and business practitioners, it helps to identify important factors in developing true sustainability entrepreneurs among SMEs. &nbsp

The Motivation to Adopt E-commerce Among Malaysian Entrepreneurs

E-commerce is important in creating a knowledge society and cashless business environment in the era of the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0). However, not all Malaysian entrepreneurs are ready for this digital way of performing business. The e-commerce ecosystem is still less matured, and the e-commerce adoption rate is still low among entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the factors that influence the entrepreneurs’ motivation to adopt e-commerce. Self-determination theory (SDT) was employed in determining the factors that influence the motivation to adopt e-commerce. This study employed a quantitative research method and surveyed 273 entrepreneurs through self-administered questionnaires. It used multiple regressions analysis to analyse the data and test the hypotheses. Based on the results obtained, it concluded that competence, relatedness and autonomy positively and significantly influenced entrepreneurs’ motivation to adopt e-commerce. Relatedness was found to be the most important factor, followed by autonomy and competence. This study contributed to entrepreneurship literature by applying SDT in understanding entrepreneurs’ motivation in e-commerce adoption. It also shed light on the importance of individual psychological factors in decision making among entrepreneurs. The study suggested that building a strong connection among the entrepreneurs, providing freedom to business operations and developing knowledgeable entrepreneurs are some crucial steps in motivating entrepreneurs to adopt e-commerce, especially in a developing country like Malaysia

Factors Associated with Propensity for Sustainable Entrepreneurship

AbstractEntrepreneurship has both positive and negative contributions to our society. On the negative side, the degradation of environmental quality caused by entrepreneurial activities requires serious attention. As such, sustainable entrepreneurship has been suggested as an attempt to alleviate environmental problems. However, embarkation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on environmental management is still not promising. Furthermore, there are scant studies in regard to motivation and propensity in the development of sustainable entrepreneurs among SMEs practitioners. Thus, this study was conducted to address the factors associated with propensity for sustainable entrepreneurship among owners-managers of SMEs. A total of 249 SMEs were randomly selected as the sample of this study and surveyed through self-administered questionnaires. Based on the descriptive analyses, this paper found that owners-managers of SMEs generally possessed positive or favorable attitude towards sustainability, concerned about social pressures on sustainability, perceived that sustainable entrepreneurship was attractive and perceived themselves as having sufficient ability for sustainable entrepreneurship. Furthermore, they also exhibited high level of propensity for becoming sustainable entrepreneurs. The correlation analysis revealed that all the hypotheses were supported. Specifically, sustainability attitude, social norm, perceived desirability and perceived feasibility recorded positive association with propensity for sustainable entrepreneurship. However, perceived feasibility recorded a stronger strength of association than sustainability attitude, social norm and perceived desirability. This paper also suggested that future researchers should employ different types of analyses and could attempt to investigate the actual sustainable entrepreneurial behavior among SMEs

Online Student Engagement and Entrepreneurial Intention: Mediating Role of Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation

Using new digital technology in education has become a reality everyone must accept with the development of Education 5.0. Moreover, online learning is no longer alien to most university students after the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the traditionally practical-focused entrepreneurship course is also available online. However, little extant literature has investigated student engagement in online learning. Therefore, this paper aimed to establish a new model to show how student engagement in online learning affected individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) and entrepreneurial intention (EI). This paper employed the online student engagement (OSE) model, the concept of IEO and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in developing the research model. The data were analyzed using partial least squared-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicated that IEO positively affected two elements of OSE, namely emotion and participation. A positive relationship was found between IEO and EI. It further found that IEO mediated the relationships between emotion and EI as well as between participation and EI. Therefore, it concluded that IEO was a crucial determinant of EI and it enhanced the relationship between OSE and EI. This paper produced both literature and practical outcomes. Literary, it produced a new model which explained the relationships among OSE, IEO and EI. Practically, it identified critical factors that higher education institutions could take into consideration in developing student entrepreneurs. It was also critical in supporting Malaysian governmental agendas that focused on developing competitive entrepreneurs, such as the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) and Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education)

The Effect of Owner’s Characteristics through Innovation on the MSMEs Performance

This study aims to analyze the influence of the characteristics of MSME owners on their performance through innovation in Indonesia and Malaysia. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data, with the Smart-PLS program. The population in this study was Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises from various types of businesses. The number of respondents was 225 from Indonesia and Malaysia. The sampling technique used was stratified judgment sampling. Questionnaire in the form of Google Forms and distributed via WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. The study results show that innovation affects the performance of MSMEs in Indonesia and Malaysia. In Indonesia, owner characteristics influence innovation but do not affect performance. With the characteristics they have, MSME owners can improve their performance through the creation of innovations. However, this is not the case in Malaysia.</em

Factors that influencing default loan repayment among micro-entrepreneurs / Siti Noor Hidayuu Kamalrulzaman, Wei-Loon Koe and Shafinar Ismail

The expansion of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) has experienced high growth and the implication is that increased competition could lead to a higher incidence of default. Since the borrower responsible for their own individual loan either in group lending and individual lending, intention are the best predictor as indications of a person’s readiness to perform a specific behaviour. This study will identify the factors that causes from MFIs expansion such as motivation for future loan, family business capital, and self-efficacy towards double dipping that influence default loan repayment intention. The Theory of Planned Behavior is used as the focal theory. The empirical results of this study will assist in policy development eventually affects the sustainability capacity of MFIs

Exploring the intention to consume organic food among generation-Y research management institute / Juan Rizal Sa'ari and Koe Wei Loon

Food is a basic necessity for the survival of humankind and people consume various types of food every day. Nowadays, with the demand for high quality of life, organic food has started to gain the consumers' attention in the food market. Evidence from Europe and North American regions has proven that organic food demand has soared overwhelmingly. There is no doubt that organic food can help people to lead a healthy life and it has a great potential to prosper in the region. However, research into the organic food market in Malaysia is still very lacking, especially among the young consumers such as Generation-Y because it is considered new in Malaysia. As such, this study was carried out to determine the level of intention to consume organic food and to verify the relationship between influencing factors and intention to consume organic food among Generation-Y. The respondents were selected from undergraduate students of a local university. Based on the descriptive statistics, the study found that most respondents have the average intention to agree in consuming organic food. The inferential statistical tests showed that environmental concern and food safety play a significant and positive effect on influencing intention to consume organic food among Generation-Y. However, other factors such as perceived cost, perceived quality, health consciousness, trust and social value are deemed as less significant in predicting intention to consume organic food among Generation-Y. Recommendations for organic food producers, consumers, policy makers and future researchers have also been put forth at the end of this study

INTENTION TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Researchers have agreed that entrepreneurs are important to a country’s economic development. Despite their constructive contributions on economic development, entrepreneurial activities have also led to environmental degradation. Thus, it is believed that environmental issues should be solved by entrepreneurs themselves. In recent years, linking entrepreneurial activity and sustainable development has become a vital practice for all corporations nowadays. It is due to the popularization of sustainability development concepts such as triple-bottom-Line (TBL). However, there are limited literatures on sustainable entrepreneurship, particularly in the local setting. In addition, intention of practicing entrepreneurs, specifically among the owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) towards sustainable entrepreneurship has not been fully explored. As such, by extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this conceptual paper suggests a framework and further discusses the factors that influence the intention of SMEs owners towards sustainable entrepreneurship. It is hoped that this paper could flourish the literature collection and shed lights on practicing entrepreneurs’ intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship