The determining factors of entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students in Malaysia: the moderating effect of self-efficacy / Jumain Amborashang

Entrepreneurship continues to play a vital role and contribute significantly in the country’s economic development. It is acting as the one provider of employment, medium of poverty reduction and reduce unemployment rate among graduate. Entrepreneurial intention on the other hand, becomes the first step to the entrepreneurship. It is vital to identify the factors that can contribute to the entrepreneurial intention. The purpose of this study is to investigate entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial environment, entrepreneurial innovativeness and family and friends influence towards entrepreneurial intention. Moreover the moderating effect of self-efficacy also has been examined towards entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial environment, entrepreneurial innovativeness and family and friends influence on entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students. In order to achieve the purpose of the study is preceded by the relevant literature and Theory of Planned Behaviour that demonstrate the value of entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial environment, entrepreneurial innovativeness and family and friends influence as independent variables, and entrepreneurial intention as dependent variable, also self-efficacy as a moderating variable which is potentially influential on the relationship between independent and dependant variables. The population of the study consisted undergraduate students from faculty of business management and the sample is also from the undergraduate students from two branches UiTM Melaka and Uitm Puncak Alam. The sampling method adopted is convenient sampling. Data collected from public university of Malaysia using a survey questionnaire with a design based on previous studies, and analysed using the statistical package for social sciences, SPSS 22.0. This study in nature is quantitative, positivist and deductive and uses survey method by self-administered questionnaire because of its obvious advantages when it comes to versatility and speed. The finding of this study has confirmed the importance and major effect of self-efficacy as the moderator on the relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial environment, entrepreneurial innovativeness and family and friends influence on entrepreneurial intention. This study also had provided policy maker and university with important data and insights on the factors that can enhance entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students. Finally this study and its finding has been served as a reference source in the field of entrepreneurship.