Unveiling the Mindset of Future Digital Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

Abstract

Entrepreneurship business has mushroomed in recent years and has been populated mainly by the young generation who intend to start up their new venture, especially those who are in their 20s. Thus, the study aimed to examine the factors that affect digital entrepreneur intention (DEI) among university students from both public and private institutions in Malaysia. The study conducted a survey on 480 students and a variance-based partial least square-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) is adopted to analyse the collected data. The result shows that self-motivation is the most important factor to affect DEI, followed by entrepreneur education and self-efficacy. Interestingly, the study found that market support has a negative effect on DEI. This may be due to the fact that market support is viewed more as a marketing tool on social media platforms than as a means of promoting DEI and students need time to adapt to the ever-changing technology transformation. On the other hand, while perceived desirability has direct and indirect effects on DEI, perceived feasibility needs to rely on the perceived opportunity to affect DEI. This shows that how the students perceived opportunities and seeing hope in the future is important to boost their confidence and change their perception of their self and collective efficacy. Thus, more entrepreneurial opportunities need to be created to encourage more DEI among the youth.