Business Administration and Business Economics

Noor Fzlinda Fabeil ·Journal of Economics and Business ·2019

This study explores the impact of entrepreneurship education in the university on student’s entrepreneurial behaviour, in terms of their entrepreneurial attitudes and start-up intention. The paper aims to investigate the perceived influence that various entrepreneurship education courses have had on third-year undergraduate students from business and non-business study programs in University Malaysia Sabah. The questionnaires were distributed via Google Forms, which gathers students’ perspectives on their entrepreneurial attitudes (achievement, innovation, personal control and self-esteem), and start-up intention. The results of chi-squared test revealed that innovation, personal control and self-esteem are the most influential impacts of entrepreneurship education among undergraduate students. In addition, the results of One-Way ANOVA showed significant differences among types of student's degree programs in terms of their achievement, innovation, external support and start-up intention. The study also provides qualitative insights from students' perspectives about the challenges that they think could hinder students to start a business. This study hopes to contribute to the university and other institutions of higher learning in Malaysia in preparing the appropriate entrepreneurial education approach for the students towards materialising the government agenda to become ‘Entrepreneurial Nation' by 2030.

Siew Imm Ng · Jo Ann Ho · Xin Jean Lim · Kee Lin Chong · Khairunnisak Latiff ·Young Consumers ·2019

Purpose In this digitalization age, smart technologies are on the cusp of changing all business sector including retailing. Today’s consumers desire to shop in a smart store where the physical products on display are connected to the internet world. This study aims to propose a model for investigating Generation Z (Gen-Z) consumers’ expectations towards the smart retail technology (SRT) in the Malaysian context through the application of the stimulus-organism-response framework. Design/methodology/approach By using a purposive sampling technique, a self-administered questionnaire was conducted. A total of 220 usable responses were collected from Gen-Z consumers who had experience in using SRT. The data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings This study underscores the role of perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived value on Gen-Z consumers’ attitude and word-of-mouth (WOM). Expectations on usefulness, enjoyment and value provide some ideas on Gen-Z consumers’ value who put a high emphasis on functional value, fun value and value for money when adopting the SRT. On the other hand, the result also demonstrates the mediating role of consumers’ attitude in connecting perceived value and perceived enjoyment on WOM towards SRT. Practical implications The findings of this study provide beneficial insights for a retailer who desire to pursue a smart-related acquisition strategy. Retailers are recommended to embrace on the following three key features: innovative solution (high usefulness), reliable benefits (high perceived value) and fun experience (high enjoyment) to provide Gen-Z consumers with compelling experiences. Additionally, retailers are suggested to acknowledge the importance of managing consumers’ attitude in driving positive WOM evaluations. Originality/value This paper responds to Ting et al.’s (2018) call in uncovering values and lifestyles of generation in details. In Malaysia, retailers ought to incorporate of the high level of usefulness, value and enjoyment when designing their SRT to constitute the Gen-Z consumers’ expectations. Moreover, similar to Ting’s conclusion, this cohort members are very much into technologies and they tend to embrace SRT in their lifestyles.