Contextualising social status in entrepreneurship: the lived experiences of Bumiputera graduate entrepreneurs in Klang valley / Nur Liyana Yasmin Mohd Razalli

Despite all the efforts and research that have been carried out in Malaysia to study the motivation and intention of becoming entrepreneurs, neither seems to attract more graduates nor the Bumiputera to become entrepreneurs. The general objective of the present study was to explore a different approach to attract the Bumiputera graduates to become entrepreneurs by taking the importance of sociologists' perspectives into account by investigating the lived experience of Bumiputera graduates involving themselves in entrepreneurship. Seven Bumiputera graduate entrepreneurs were selected using purposive and snowball sampling techniques and interviewed using semi-structured open-ended questions. Data found that the Bumiputera graduate entrepreneurs had diverse life experiences pursuing entrepreneurship. Besides having unsupportive family members, being lazy and selective were the plausible answers to why the Bumiputera graduates are unemployed instead of becoming entrepreneurs.