A Study on Social Entrepreneurial Attitudes Towards Start-Up Intention in Malaysia

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is a contemporary phenomenon of the socioeconomic and sustainable development in Malaysia. The main motives of social entrepreneurship are social welfare and value creation through the display of innovativeness, leadership, and risk management of the business. Meanwhile, social entrepreneurial attitude (SEA) as an individual or group who is willing to take risks and put the effort forth to create the positive changes in society through their innovative idea that will have the potential to solve a community problem and achieving the business sustainability. The aim of this study is to identify the factors influencing the social entrepreneurial attitudes towards start-up intention. It illustrates the context-specific nature of the phenomenon and factors for fostering the social entrepreneurial attitude as a positive force for social and economic development. Several important factors, which contribute to the success of the social entrepreneurship, are motivation, government support, passion, networking, belief and social value. The findings of the present empirical study reveal that personal attributes such as motivation, belief and passion are main factors for SEA towards start-up intention whilst the rest play the role of more complementary attributes towards the intention. Further, the results enlighten that Malaysian entrepreneurs in Northern Region are prone to become social entrepreneurs if the three attributes present within themselves.