Using EAO Model to Predict the Self-Employment Intentions among the Universities’ Undergraduates in Malaysia

Abstract

The statistics have shown that the market is oversupplied with young and inexperienced graduates as the number of graduates has been increasing over the years. At the same time, the growing funds created to assist small enterprises in Malaysia have steadily increased. Hence, to solve the unemployment issue among graduates, there is a potential to make this self-employment an option for graduates to start on their careers. Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO)scale was used to measure the students’ entrepreneurial attitudes. A survey approach was adopted by sending questionnaires to 2000 students of the public and private universities. The results show that personal control, self-esteem and innovation were found to have significant and positive relationships with self-employment intention. Meanwhile achievement was found to have no significant relationship with self-employment intention. These findings provide important insight to promote and produce a positive image of entrepreneurship as a career.