A Comparative Study on the Level of Strategic Thinking among Ethnic Entrepreneurs in Sabah

Abstract

The success of entrepreneurs depends strongly on the ability of entrepreneurs to strategize their business against other competitors. This research compares the strategic thinking capabilities between the Bajaus, Bugis and Dusuns in Sabah, Malaysia. Pisapia’s measure for strategic thinking was used in this study to measure the strategic thinking levels among the Bajaus, Dusun, and Bugis entrepreneurs in Malaysia. A total of 92 Bajau, 41 Dusun and 64 Bugis entrepreneurs’ usable data managed to be collected by this study through convenience sampling. An interesting finding for this study is that the systematic thinking means of all the three groups of entrepreneurs are all on the low side with means of slightly above 2. One significant difference was found on reflective thinking between the Bajaus and the Dusuns with the Bajaus having the significantly lower scores. The results found in this study regarding strategic thinking can help the government plan training programs in entrepreneurship in Malaysia which can help bumiputera entrepreneurs especially those in Sabah close the gap with their Chinese counterparts and in the end increase the competitive advantage of all entrepreneurs in Malaysia.