From learners to entrepreneurs: a study on inclination of university students towards entrepreneurship as a career option and the role of education

摘要

This study investigates the inclination of University Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) students towardsudentrepreneurship. Specifically it aims to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education anduduniversity students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship. This study also examines the moderating effects ofuddemographic characteristics and family business background on budding entrepreneurs undergoingudentrepreneurship education. The sampling population comprised of 84 students from the final year UMKudstudents pursuing the undergraduate programme in Entrepreneurship. A self administered questionnaire wasudused in this study to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of 2 parts: the first part dealt with theudDemographic characteristics of the respondents with sub-headings – personal information, family information,udeducation and Willingness to become an entrepreneur. The second part was sub-divided into 2 parts – part Audand B, whereby ‘Part A’ covered questions on personality traits (innate talents) of the respondents and ‘Part B’udcomprised of questions on experiential or acquired traits. That is knowledge and skills acquired due to socioeconomicudforces. The role of Role models in form educators, books and technology in promotingudentrepreneurship was also discussed. After screening a total of 80 questionnaires were deemed completed andudusable. This yielded a response rate of 95.2 percent. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, multiple regression,udone-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test were used to test the hypothesized proposition. The results ofudfactor analysis suggested that university students’ entrepreneurial inclination was due to their opting to pursueudentrepreneurial study programme. Multiple regression was performed to examine the relationship betweenudentrpreneurship education and inclination towards entrepreneurship. The results showed that the role ofuduniversity in promoting entrepreneurship have statistically significant relationship with student inclinationudtowards entrepreneurship. The hypothesis testing results indicated that in demographic characteristics fathers’udoccupation and role of university did have an impact on university students’ inclination towardsudentrepreneurship.