Undergraduates’ motivations for entrepreneurial intentions: the role of individualistic values and ethnicity

Abstract

Research on new venture creation is often criticised for its deficits of theoretical sophistication and methodological rigour. This paper develops a framework by combining the values theory and the intention theory and validates it by conducting a rigorous structural equation modelling analysis based on responses obtained from 355 Malaysian entrepreneurship undergraduates. The individualistic values of openness to change as the salient motivational factor of entrepreneurship undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intention over and above the demographic control variables suggested by extant body of literature contributes to a cumulative knowledge about motivations for entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, in the context of Malaysia, ethnicity does not moderate the relationship from openness to change to entrepreneurial intention. A clearer understanding of the salient dimension of individualistic values on entrepreneurship undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intentions allows various entrepreneurship stakeholders to distinguish potential future entrepreneurs prior to their emergence. This valuable insight has the potential to inform substantive entrepreneurship knowledge and practice, entrepreneurship education and public policy to promote entrepreneurship among undergraduates at the pre-nascent stage of entrepreneurship.

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