Entrepreneurial Attributes and Entrepreneurial Intention among Hospitality Students in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions: An Educational Approach

Abstract

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employability of recent graduates is one of the primary worries expressed by academics. However, assessing the entrepreneurial qualities among undergraduate students seems like an initial effort that may enhance career opportunities and marketability. Given the significance of entrepreneurship to a nation's economic growth, it's crucial to begin instilling entrepreneurial values from a young age which can lead to the readiness to become an entrepreneur for employment after graduation. This research aims to explore the significance of entrepreneurial attributes on entrepreneurial intention among Malaysian hospitality students in their last year of study. This study adopted a quantitative method and conducted an online survey on 297 hospitality undergraduates from five (5) Malaysian public higher education institutions (PHEIs). The establishment and collection of self-completion questionnaires was followed by the usage of SPSS to conduct different inferential analyses. According to the findings, opportunity recognition was the most important entrepreneurial attribute for hospitality undergraduates' entrepreneurial intention. Concurrently, the data demonstrated that environmental influences have a substantial implication on students' entrepreneurial intentions. The findings reinforced entrepreneurial characteristics among hospitality students have a substantial effect on their aspiration to become entrepreneurs. Thus, this study may offer a feasible suggestion for the PHEIs and the hospitality sector on hospitality undergraduates' entrepreneurial behavior. Lastly, this study could also serve as a reference for managing the employability of hospitality graduates in the future.

Hospitality Management Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions and Perceived Challenges: A Case Study of Takoradi Technical University, Ghana

“…The fact that several of their seniors they know have successfully launched their own businesses and are succeeding served as a source of motivation for them. This finding corroborates with Fadzil et al (2022) who observed that hospitality operators that have established enterprises are considered successful entrepreneurs.…”