The impact of government support and personality traits on the success of social entrepreneurship: the homestay in southern region of Sarawak / Dayang Nurfizawati Abang Abdul Karim

Social Entrepreneurship (SE) aims to improve sustainable social and economic value among the community. However, studies on community engagement in the eco-tourism industry, specifically homestay projects are still at an infancy stage. Although many efforts had been initiated by the stakeholders’, limited studies have been conducted in this area. The objective of this study is to analyze and understand the impact of Government Support and Personality Traits on the success of social entrepreneurship in the field of Homestay. Therefore, this study strives to determine and investigate the strength of dimensions that contributes to the success of SE projects in terms of tourist arrival and income. In order to gather suitable and desirable data, this study was conducted using a mixed-method approach which includes qualitative and quantitative
methods. In the first phase of the study, structured interviews were used in the qualitative method. Extensive literature reviews and eleven (11) structured interviews were conducted to develop the instrument. Meanwhile, quantitative was used in the second phase of the study where a survey questionnaire was used. This validated instrument was then distributed in the field study and a total of one hundred and eighty (180) questionnaires were collected through stratified sampling. Inferential statistics such as t-test and ANOVA were employed to examine significant differences in perception with respondents’ demographics. Multiple Regressions Analysis (MRA) was used to analyze the relationship between the Government Support and Personality Traits to the success of the social entrepreneurship homestay program. Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis respectively were used to determine the contributing dimensions and their order of importance in contributing to success factors of SE. Based on MRA, tangible input dimension, marketing dimension, and proactive dimension show significant contribution towards the success of social entrepreneurship homestay program. MRA results also reveal that the marketing dimension exerts the greatest impact on the success of the social entrepreneurship homestay program. On the other hand, the risk-taking dimension does not have a significant relationship with the success of the social entrepreneurship homestay program. The outcome of this study shall assist the policymakers in devising strategies and prioritizing supporting resources to boost up social entrepreneurship activities. Eventually, it is hoped that this study could contribute scholarly to the literature on the Social Entrepreneurship sectors mainly in Sarawak.