INTENTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TO BECOME SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

Abstract

Social entrepreneur is the people who harness the power of market forces and business principles to solve social problems, from poor health care, alleviating hunger, improving education to unemployment. Since year 2012, social entrepreneur has risen and has been attracted by the society. It is different with traditional entrepreneur and other types of entrepreneur which social entrepreneur does not emphasize on maximizing profit. The social entrepreneurs normally came with brilliant ideas and adhere to their ideas. Social entrepreneur not only looks for the new opportunities in the market to serve for the society, but also undertakes in learning, adaptation, and innovation continuously. Therefore, this study examines the factors that influence the intention of university’s students to become social entrepreneur. The independent variables tested in this study are impact, personal motivation, consider of social and economy aspect, self-efficacy, and social influence. The theoretical foundations for this study are based on Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). A total of 150 respondents from a Multimedia University, Malaysia participated in this research. Samples were selected using convenience sampling and the respondents answered the questionnaire via Google form. Data analysis methods used in this research were Descriptive Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Pearson correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis. This study concluded that only impact, personal motivation and social and economic aspect have a significant relationship with the intentions of university students to become social entrepreneur. The findings of this study will be highly beneficial and valuable to students, NGOs and the government as we are able to gauge and understand the factors influencing students’ intention to become social entrepreneur. In addition, it will also help the University Entrepreneur Development Centre to encourage and organize more entrepreneurial activities among students in developing and producing more graduates that have high interests to become an entrepreneur.