The intention to start business dimensions: a study on Malaysian students at higher institution learning

Studies on identifying entrepreneurial dimensions that contributes to business start up intention can be considered matured in the develop countries such as United States and European nations. However, there are limited studies on the entrepreneurial characteristics and start business intention dimension in South East Asia. In Malaysia, the studies are still at the infant stage and offers huge research opportunities for scholars. Most studies on entrepreneurship are focus on the identification of entrepreneurial characteristics and success factors. However, studies on dimension business start up intention remains under explored. Previous studies had highlighted that the importance of studies on business start up intention among student in order to overcome the issues of unemployment. Extensive literature review on previous studies on the entrepreneurial dimension of business intention was conducted in order to develop a comprehensive questionnaire for the study. The questionnaires were pilot tested with 30 students of higher learning in Malaysia. Correction and amendment on some items in the questionnaire were executed with the guidance from the experts. A 25-items questionnaire was develop and distributed to 1000 students of higher learning in Malaysia, yielding a response of 90%. The multivariate tests had indicated that data were almost linear which is acceptable for further analysis. This study involved a multistage approach from the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and the Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA). This paper was tested empirically for unidimensional, reliability and validity using the EFA and CFA. The EFA and CFA had identified and confirmed five dimensions of business intention which are Self Efficacy (SE), Self Determining (SO), Leaderships (L), Motivation (M) and External Environment(C).