ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS PREDICTING MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY GRADUATES’ CYBER ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION

Abstract

The issue of unemployment, particularly among university graduates has been plaguing the world with no clear solution in sight. Despite various government intervention, the unemployment rate continued to rise especially during the COVID-19 period. Cyber entrepreneurship can be one of the ways for graduates to be self-employed. Having said that, the studies pertaining cyber entrepreneurial intention among Malaysian university graduates is not common where the predicting factors are not well justified. Prior research conducted has revealed the significant role of the government support and university support in influencing graduate’s intention to venture into entrepreneurship, but there are inconsistencies recorded. In addition, there are limited studies being conducted on the role of entrepreneurial drive in mediating the relationship between environmental factors and cyber entrepreneurial intention. Thus, it calls for further investigation on these issues. This study conducted a survey with a sample of 238 students from selected Malaysia public universities. The findings revealed that government support does not influence the student’s cyber entrepreneurial intention while university support did exert significant impact. Besides, entrepreneurial drive only mediates the relationship between university support and cyber entrepreneurial intention.