Entrepreneurial Orientation and Personal Values of Malay Entrepreneurs

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: complete, , course: Business Management, language: English, abstract: This study examines personal values for its influence on entrepreneurial orientation, and determines the role of mediator [self efficacy (SE)] and moderator [business environment (BE)] variables on the relationship between personal values (PV) and entrepreneurial orientations (EO). The examination of the mediator-moderator effect involving PV, SE, BE, and their subsequent influence on EO was also undertaken. A survey was administered with the assistance of MARA officers the whole of West Malaysia. The data generated was based on 162 owner managers¿ selfrating of PV, SE, BE and EO.
Rasch Model and SPSS programs were employed to analyze the data using several different analyses. Multiple regression, hierarchical stepwise regression, One Way ANOVA and Independent t-tests were used to test the hypotheses. The results provided general support for five out of the six hypotheses. Specifically, the direct relationship between personal values (especially religious values) and entrepreneurial orientations was found to be positively related. Different dimension of personal values predicted different dimension of entrepreneurial orientations. Self-efficacy was found to have positive relationship with entrepreneurial orientations; mediate the relationship between personal values of hard work and discipline, and also entrepreneurial orientations. However, business environment did not moderate the relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial orientations. Therefore, the Rasch Model has developed a new entrepreneur competence measure as it generates four classifications of Malay owner managers. As this is a fresh finding, it serves as a new contribution for the present study.
The results suggested that religious values and self-efficacy motivation were needed to influence entrepreneurial orientation. Hence, the Malaysian government needs to improve the performance of Malay owner managers by providing them with training, focusing on reinforcing their religious values. This is particularly important for Malay owner managers who have just started in business and those who have survived in their business. The new construct developed for religious values, and the entrepreneurial competence measure employed were important contributions that should be replicated in other countries or other religions, to confirm on the applicability of the measure. [...]