Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young

Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

Noor Azuan Hashim*, Ahmad Raflis Che Omar, Mohd Radzuan bin Rahid, and

Farhana bt Sidek

Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia

Abstract. Many countries, particularly developing ones, have recognized the

value and the growing role entrepreneurship as drivers of growth and job creation,

and as effective tools for poverty alleviation. As such, entrepreneurship has

become a catchphrase in almost everywhere, particularly in the business and

management area. Governments worldwide have now increasingly recognized

their interest in entrepreneurship education and have introduced it to variety of

settings, not only among the officials but also schools, colleges and universities.

In most colleges and universities in Malaysia for example, students are

compulsory to take entrepreneurship introductory courses during their college

years and even can take other more advance entrepreneurship courses. In fact,

some colleges have started to offer a degree or certificate in entrepreneurship.

This is to provide the students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to

encourage entrepreneurial success and finally become a job creator rather than a

seeker. Despite the initiatives given, not many students, particularly those who

are majoring in entrepreneurship, have really embarked being entrepreneurs.

Thus, to understand these scenarios, this paper aims to explore what are the

factors that motivate and hinder these students to be entrepreneurs. Thirty-three

students who recently finished their Bachelor degree in entrepreneurship and

innovation (BEI) were surveyed. Almost half of the students wanted to be

entrepreneurs, however, their main concern is about having cash. Surprisingly,

some are not really sure if they really want to be entrepreneurs. Most students opt

to work first but at the same time try to find what to sell or offer to customer. In

addition to the survey, ten of the surveyed respondents who available were called

for semi-structured interviews to understand the issues being studied. The study

raises a number of additional findings that are of interest but not directly related

to this work.

Keywords: Effectiveness · Entrepreneurship · Entrepreneurship Education ·

Higher Learning Institution · Malaysia

1 Introduction

A topic which attracts the most attention among academicians and journalists is

Entrepreneurship. Researchers have been focusing on the function of an entrepreneur

which is to serve the economy (Sugiato et al., 2014; Shane et al., 2003). The concept of

entrepreneurship can be understood as a process of vision, change and creation. The act

of entrepreneurship needs a certain amount of energy and passion to create and

Hashim, N., Omar, A., Rahid, M. and Sidek, F.

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students.

DOI: 10.5220/0009574200002900

In Proceedings of the 20th Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics, Management and Accounting (MIICEMA 2019), pages 5-20

ISBN: 978-989-758-582-1; ISSN: 2655-9064

implement new ideas. There seems to be an agreement that the act of entrepreneurship

involves creating something new (Jolanda, 2008). In addition, entrepreneurship can be

interpreted as a “process” rather than one-time event, action or decision. It is all based

on the level of creativity a person has to uncover new ideas and also to arrange the

resources in ways that have not been done before (Sugiato et al., 2014). Based on

Malaysia SME statistics 2019, there are 907,065 establishments and 98% of this

establishments are micro enterprises or small businesses (SMECorp, 2019). There is

less known on how many entrepreneurs actually in the country currently; however,

Ridzwan et al. (2017) reported that there are 2.6 million of entrepreneurs in 2014. The

prosperity of a country can be achieved if the country has at least 2% of entrepreneurs

in their country’s population (Ridzwan et al., 2017)

Entrepreneurship is an important concept for discovering opportunities and

stimulating growth. It has become a powerful tool for creating jobs and improving

economic power in the labour market and economy as a whole (Byun et al., 2018). This

is more obvious with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, a variety of

competencies such as creativity, innovation, and agility are required for start-ups (Kim

et al., 2017). In addition, Omoruyi et al. (2017) found a positive relationship between

entrepreneurship and economic development, and they suggested in order to decrease

unemployment rate and stimulate economic growth in a country, entrepreneurial spirit

should be fostered from an early age. As such, entrepreneurship education and

entrepreneurship courses have been introduced to nurture students to be future

entrepreneurs. In fact, most institutions currently provide entrepreneurial training

programs with the belief that the importance of entrepreneurship and the knowledge

and skills needed to become an entrepreneur can be taught, and the proportion of policy

support toward entrepreneurship education has been increasing in many countries

around the world (O’Connor, 2013; Walter and Block, 2016). Following the same vein

in other countries, Malaysian government has taken an active role in the establishment

of entrepreneurship education (Rahim et al., 2015). Many initiatives have been

designed to encourage nation, particularly students to venture out or set-up their

business. All universities in Malaysia are now offered entrepreneurship courses in line

with the government aspiration to have more success entrepreneurs and a true

entrepreneurial nation by 2030 as stated in Malaysian National Entrepreneurship Policy

2030 (NEP 2030) that was launched on 11

July 2019.

2 Background: Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship

There are many discussions on entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. Several theories

have been put forward by scholars to explain these concepts. These theories have their

roots in many topics such as economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and

management. Among the earliest discussion on entrepreneur was put forward by

Cantillon in the early 1700's who described an entrepreneur as someone who bearing

risk by buying at certain prices and selling at uncertain prices (Carton et al., 1998).

Following Cantillon, according to Carton et al (1998), Jean Baptiste Say broadened the

definition to include the concept of combining factors of production, also noting that

the entrepreneur must have special personal qualities (Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990).

The entrepreneur is the individual or team that identifies the opportunity, gathers the

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

necessary resources, creates and is ultimately responsible for the consequences of the

organization (Carton et al., 1998). Among the prominent concept of entrepreneurship

was introduced by Schumpeter (1934) who defined entrepreneurs as follows:

“The carrying out of new combinations we call

“enterprise”; the individuals whose function it is to

carry them out we call “entrepreneurs.”... But whatever

the type, everyone is an entrepreneur only when he

actually “carries out new combinations,” and loses that

character as soon as he has built up his business, when

he settles down to running it as other people run their

businesses (p.74).

While entrepreneur is someone who locates the need of society and tries to meet the

same, with his/her innovative idea (Schumpeter, 1934), entrepreneurship is about a

process of establishing a business entity, intending to get profit, as a return in the future

(Surbhi, 2019). The term entrepreneurship is derived from the French verb

“entreprendre” and German word “unternehmen,” both of which translate to

“undertake” (Cunningham and Lischeron, 1991). Carton et al. (1998) argued that there

are two distinctly different approaches to define entrepreneurship. The first approach is

to define what an entrepreneur is and then observe them. Based upon the observations,

entrepreneurship would be defined inductively in terms of what the individuals do. The

second approach is to an a priori definition of entrepreneurship and its related

behaviours, and thereby define entrepreneurs as those who engage in entrepreneurial

activity.

Three thinkers were central to the inclusion of entrepreneurship: Joseph

Schumpeter, Frank Knight, and Israel Kirzner. Joseph Schumpeter propounded the

well-known innovative theory of entrepreneurship (Śledzik, 2013). He suggested that

entrepreneurs – not just companies – were responsible for the creation of new things in

the search of profit. Schumpeter takes the case of a capitalist closed economy which is

in stationary equilibrium (Śledzik, 2013). He believed that entrepreneurs disturb the

stationary circular flow of the economy by introducing an innovation and takes the

economy to a new level of development. The activities of the entrepreneurs represent a

situation of disequilibrium as their activities break the routine circular flow (Carton et

al., 1998).

Knight focused on entrepreneurs as the bearers of uncertainty and believed they

were responsible for risk premiums in financial markets (Emmet, 2010). He

distinguished between risk and uncertainty. According to Knight, “risk” refers to a

situation in which the probability of an outcome can be determined, and therefore the

outcome insured against. “Uncertainty,” by contrast, refers to an event whose

probability cannot be known. Knight argued that even in long-run equilibrium,

entrepreneurs would earn profits as a return for putting up with uncertainty (Emmet,

2010).

Kirzner thought of entrepreneurship as a process that led to the discovery. The basic

concept in Kirzner’s theory of entrepreneurship is alertness. Alertness leads individuals

to make discoveries that are valuable in the satisfaction of human wants. The role of

entrepreneurs lies in their alertness to hitherto unnoticed opportunities (Fu-Lai Yu,

2001). Through their alertness, entrepreneurs can discover and exploit situations in

which they are able to sell for high prices that which they can buy for low prices.

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

Kirzner (1973) argues that the existence of disequilibrium situations in the market

implies profit opportunities. Entrepreneurs endeavour to exploit these opportunities,

thus eliminating errors, so that the economy moves towards equilibrium (Fu-Lai Yu,

2001).

Regardless of how researchers debate, discuss and critics about entrepreneurs and

entrepreneurship, it is commonly accepted that an entrepreneur is a person who sets up

a business with the aim to make a profit, while entrepreneurship is about getting out

into the world, doing it and makes it happen (Di Meglio, 2013). Entrepreneurship is not

only simply researching, writing or reading (Di Meglio, 2013). It is the process of

designing, launching and running a new business, which is often initially a small

business. The people who create these businesses are called entrepreneurs. In order to

be aspiring entrepreneurs, ones need to acquire knowledge, both explicit and tacit

knowledge (Byun et al., 2018). With these knowledge, entrepreneurs can spot

opportunities, act on it, and make profit out of it (Fernandes, 2019).

Entrepreneur can be a person who first sells its products/services, or someone who

sets up first online store on the side or a freelancer just starting out. He/she can also be

someone who starts a side hustle that eventually can create a full-time, sustainable

business with employees. In addition, an entrepreneur also is someone who organizes,

manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise (Merriam-Webster, 2019).

A good thing is entrepreneurs see possibilities and solutions, found an idea and turn it

to a business (Drucker, 2007), while an average person does not. Entrepreneurs are the

doer rather than observer. They capture an idea an execute it. In fact, they are the leaders

that strike out on their own to improve society (Drucker, 2014; Fernandes, 2019). Thus,

understanding what an entrepreneur is can help more people recognize the value they

contribute to the world.

2.1 Entrepreneurships Educations

Entrepreneurs have much to give to society. Their contribution to the welfare of society

is of high order (Rahim et al., 2015). A business person, explicitly an entrepreneur,

apart from making money for him or herself also helps the society in many ways in

terms of financially and socially. He/she moves various resources, both tangible and

intangible, promoting capital formation (Kennedy, 2013). In a market full of

uncertainty, it is the entrepreneur who can actually help clear up uncertainty, as he

makes judgments or assumes the risk (Fernandes, 2019). Recognising the importance

of entrepreneurship for the economy, government in both developed and developing

nations have moved a lot of their policies from being directed towards a managed

economy to an entrepreneurial economy (Omoruyi et al., 2017). In addition, the

inability of some graduates of the educational system to get proper jobs of their

qualification has encouraged government everywhere to introduce entrepreneurship

education in colleges and universities (Byun et al., 2018). Part of the reasons is to spark

all these graduates not only as a job seeker but at the same time to have a courage to

become a job creator. It is believed that through this effort can lead to less unemployed

graduates and an increase in business opportunities, which will have a direct impact to

the economy, particularly on achieving the developed nation status (Omoruyi et al.,

2017) as envisioned by many developing countries such as Malaysia.

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

Paolucci et al. (2019) advocate that entrepreneurship education seeks to provide

students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial

success in a variety of settings. It prepares people to be responsible and enterprising

individuals. In addition, it also helps people develop attitudes necessary to achieve the

goals they set out for themselves (Omoruyi et al., 2017). Furthermore, entrepreneurship

education also focuses on the development of skills or attributes that enable the

realization of opportunity, which are divergent from management education that

focused on the best way to operate existing hierarchies (Paolucci et al., 2019).

Entrepreneurship education is not only important for economic development, but also

in improving the quality and quantity of future entrepreneurs (Syed et al., 2011).

Evidence shows that people with entrepreneurial education are more employable than

those who are not (European Commission, 2019).

In Malaysia, the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education has taken the initiative by

making entrepreneurship subjects compulsory to all students in the public universities.

Higher Education Entrepreneurship Development Policy was launched on 13th April

2010 by the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the aim to boost the development of

more holistic and well-organized entrepreneurship programs. Specifically, the

implementation of the policy aims to produce graduates from Higher Education

Institutions (HEIs) with thinking and entrepreneurial attributes as well as to increase

the number of entrepreneurs among graduates who are engaged in businesses as a

catalyst for the achievement of economic transformation in the country (Rahim et al.,

2015). It is also aim to increase number of people from a middle to a high income

economy and at the same time to produce more academics with values, skills, thoughts,

and entrepreneurship qualities. In addition to the policy, the Entrepreneurship Action

Plan of Higher Education Institutions (2016-2020) (MOHE, 2019) was rolled out by

the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in 2016 to promote entrepreneurship

education and entrepreneurship development in institutions and instil entrepreneurial

mind-sets and behaviours into all students as well as those seeking to become graduate

entrepreneurs (Sani, 2018). The four initiatives include high impact education practices,

a job creator framework, improving the student entrepreneur development support

ecosystem and strengthening the entrepreneur teaching force competency. Recently, the

Malaysian government has launched the National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 (NEP

2030) and it is aimed at empowering the B40 (refers to the bottom 40% of households

with monthly income of RM3900 and below) by inculcating a culture of

entrepreneurship. This has even strengthen the needs of having entrepreneurship

education in the early years.

According to Rahim et al. (2015), the entrepreneurship education in Malaysia is

moving forward towards the right direction. Students are not only encouraged to

participate in class but also to take part in many entrepreneurship activities at their

respective universities - training programs, seminars, short courses, conferences and

entrepreneurship events. In fact, study by Badariah et al. (2016) advocated that

entrepreneurship education program which have been offered by the Malaysian public

university are very effective in enhancing the entrepreneurial skills of students. Thus,

it is expected that there should be more graduates become entrepreneurs now and that

they are doing well. However, despite this promising anecdote, not many graduates are

really embarking themselves as entrepreneurs. Some issues and challenges still persist

and researchers still try to understand the real issues behind it. Thus, this paper aims to

understand what are the issues and challenges that these graduates faced – i.e. are they

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

really want to be entrepreneurs, are the courses designed for them are good enough and

what sorts of motivations do these potential entrepreneurs needed to become real

entrepreneurs, and also what are the factors that inhibit them of doing so.

2.2 Bachelor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (BEI)

This programme was launched in Faculty of Economics and Management (FEP) in

2013/2014 session with 27 students as a first cohort in joining this programme. The

objectives of the programme are to i) educate and produce graduates who are able to

create their own job opportunity, ii) instill entrepreneurial qualities and innovative

characteristics among graduates, iii) inculcate leadership and managerial skills among

graduates, and also iv) produce graduates who are experts in negotiation and promote

business ideas to the market (FEP, 2019). The duration of the study is six semesters

(three years) for full time students. Students are needed to complete all 122 credit hours

to full the requirements for graduation. They need to complete the university and faculty

compulsory courses within these three years and at the same time need to complete 22

of entrepreneurship and innovation courses (approximately 70 hours) that were

designed to them by few experts previously. Before they can take these 22 courses,

students are needed to enrol in LMCW1022 – Introduction to entrepreneurship course.

Three cohorts of students have completed the study. One more cohort (Cohort 4)

will be attending their graduation this November, while currently cohort 5 and 6 are

still pursuing their degree. Analysis from students that have graduated (Cohort 1, 2 and

3) shows most of them are working, few continues to do their master degree but only

small number of students embark as entrepreneur. Majority of them are working in any

agency regardless their area of study. The recent cohort who just completed their degree

are still waiting whether to set-up a business, to work or to continue their study. Many

are still waiting to attend the convocation ceremony which will be held in UKM in

November 2019. It is expected that some of them has started their business or be an

entrepreneur since they have completed all the entrepreneur courses. However, it is still

unknown to what extent they have embarked being an entrepreneur or working for

others. Thus, this study intends to understand their current situation, issues and

challenging about this programme and the courses. It is hoped by doing this, more

improvement can be made and more issues can be solved.

3 Methodology

The research was designed as both quantitative and qualitative study. Quantitative

approach purports to be focused more on discovering underlying meanings and patterns

of relationships, including classifications of types of phenomena and entities (Goerten,

2017). It is the systematic empirical investigation of observable phenomena via

statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques (Lisa, 2008). In addition to the

survey, semi-structured interviews were also being carried-out to understand the issues

or challenges faced by the respondents. This method allows researchers to question

interviewees closely on the major constraints and incentives encountered.

Thirty-three students in Bachelor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (BEI) are the

main respondents of this research. They were chosen because they have just completed

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

their undergraduate studies and at the same time, their mind is still fresh with the topics

and courses that they have taken. A questionnaire with 34 items were design in Google

form was sent to them via email. According to Sekaran and Bougie (2016),

questionnaire through the Internet is the most convenient way to get feedback as they

are much simpler and cheaper to reach respondents. Through a link that provided by

this software, respondents can reach and answer the online survey provided they have

access to the internet from various platforms such as email, website, and even in the

Facebook (Nagalakshmi and Treved, 2015). Data update from respondents can be seen

live and results are processed automatically by the application (Harrsion, 2016). Many

researchers have started using this Google form to gather data from wide geographical

survey (Nagalakhmi and Trevedi, 2015; Harrison, 2016).

All thirty-three students completed the questionnaire. Ten respondents who are

available were called to attend for short interview sessions. Semi-structured interviews

were used. All these interviews were tape recorded using a smart phone recorder, and

were then transcribed. Quotes that were relevant to issues being studied were selected.

4 Findings and Discussions

Four parts were developed in the questionnaire for data collection. All the data were

analyzed using the Excel and also Statistical Packages for the Social Science (SPSS)

software.

Respondent Profile.

As mentioned earlier, 33 respondents have posted their answers on Google form link.

Most of the respondents used smart phones and most of them were using IPhone,

Samsung or Huawei to answer the survey. Some of the respondents have more than one

phone and some of them have a dedicated phone for social networking activities,

particularly on Instagram. As expected, most of them are very young since they are all

undergraduate students, age between 21 to 27 years old, and majority are Malays. Their

source of income while studying is mainly from loan such as The National Higher

Education Fund (PTPTN) and government loan. Not many are self-funded or parents’

sponsored. Table 1 displays the respondent characteristics.

Table 1 depicts the respondents’ characteristics. Majority of the respondent age 22

years old, which is expected as they left school at the age of 18, joined Matriculation

for a year and registered as university students and graduated after three years.

Interestingly, there are at least two important distributions in this respondent profile –

gender and household income. As most other universities in Malaysia, there is more

female than male students. Female now has taken role in not only universities, but also

in elsewhere. There are more female now working in both public and private sectors as

well as being entrepreneurs. As expected, majority of the respondents come from the

B40 income group of which their parents’ monthly household income is less than

RM4000. This group of income is considered under poverty and get most support from

the government policies such as the Life Support Programme, e-Kasih, fuel subsidies.

In order to get these support, people in this group of income need to show proofs of

their salary and registered with the government. Usually they were given an ID card

and with this card that can get the subsidy that the Malaysia government granted.

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

Table 1. Respondents’ characteristics (N=33).

Age

9.1%

60.6%

18.1%

6.2% 3%

Source of income Loan

Parents’ sponsored Others

78.8%

18.2%

Gender

Male (9)

Female (24)

27.3%

72.7%

Parents’ monthl

household

income Less RM1000

RM1000-RM2000

RM2001-RM3000

RM3001-RM4000

More than RM4000

13%

25%

32%

22%

Ethnicity

Chinese

Malay

Indian and others

12.2%

84.8%

Student Involvement in Business.

Majority of the respondents did not have a business yet, which is considerably

acceptable because there are still students and will be attending their convocation soon.

One interesting fact is that although they are still students, more than 30% of these

respondents have their own business, whether they start a small business of their own

or they become an agent of stockist or dropshipper for other products. Although this

program does not require students to own a business, but some of these respondents

have taken initiatives to do so. Interestingly, some of them have been able to make sales

upto RM3000 a month.

“I sell all kind of things on Lazada and Shoppe. I become an

agent for several products to earn some income. I am glad I

manage to do, at least

I do not need to ask for my parents for allowance.”

Respondent A

“I own a business with my friends in Bangi. We give services

on design and all sort of things on media. So far so good. I

need to expand my business after I finish this programme.”

Respondent B

There are sixteen respondents that claim that their parents own a business. However,

eleven of these respondents do not interested to continue with their family business.

Most of them want to experience working in a company or find their own path. Only

five of them consider to join their parents’ business. Interestingly, 15% of the

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

respondents who their parents did not own any business or they never have experienced

in business before, own a business.

“When I first join this programme, I have already known

what I want. I just need time to gather things. That is why

I try to arrange my class as minimum days as I can so that

I can also concentrate on my business. But Doc, it is just a

small business.”

Respondent C

“My parents did not pressure me on my career path. They

allow me what I want do or venture out. They are my great

supporters. I will make sure my business will fly high. But

I don’t know when this happen. Just need to try.”

Respondent B

Student Involvement in Activities.

More than half of the respondents (57.6%) said that they benefited from the programme.

They found that the programme has groomed them from someone who are novice to

someone who have more knowledge about what entrepreneurship is all about. Majority

of the respondents stated if they were given another chance to start their first year again,

they wanted to perform better, they wanted to start their own business and they also

wanted to join all sort activities designed for the student regardless whether it is inter-

faculties programme or inter-universities. Many have regretted of doing so. Almost

three quarters of the respondents stated:

“We wish that we have started our business earlier. With the

help of the lecturers and faculty we can grow faster and

better.”

Respondent J

“We wish that we can think like this previously. There is so

many opportunities in the university. But we don’t really

care because we thought life in university is just to study

and pass the exam.”

Respondent H

“Our mistakes. Every weekend we think of going back to

our hometown. We forgot to take up the opportunities here.

It is hard but some of friends have made through. We are

proud of them.”

Respondent B

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

“Hah! Can we just turn the clock back?”

Respondent F

Interviewed respondents claim that during their first year, most of the entrepreneurship

students are less receptive about the programme. They stated the first year of the

entrepreneurship introduction course (LMCW1022) is so hectic because there are too

many tasks to do. They need to make presentation, play business simulation games,

attend seminar and talks, pitch their business, compete with other faculties and also sell.

According to some of the interviewers, some student has become discourage with these

kind of tasks because they have handful tasks to accomplish. On the other hand, some

students which can be considered to have an entrepreneurial mind-set found the

opportunity in this course but the number is too few. These students usually went to

Centre for Entrepreneurship & SME’s Development (UKM-CESMED

) to seek for

further help to attend more entrepreneur advance courses. At the same time, those who

are majoring in entrepreneurship in FEP still need to continue with the programme

because they are compulsory to take the course as part of the requirement to graduate.

Altogether, there are 22 entrepreneurship courses these BEI students need to take after

the introduction of entrepreneurship course. Although there are some issues and

criticism about some of these 22 courses; interestingly, majority of the respondents

asserted that all courses designed for them are suitable to prepare themselves to be

entrepreneurs.

“I wish to have more hands-on courses like these. It helps us

to think more creatively and innovatively.”

Respondent G

“There are so many projects we need to handle; some are

relevant but not others.”

Respondent B

Lecturers’ Involvement in Activities with Students.

Majority respondents agree lecturers play an important part of their journey in pursuing

degree in entrepreneurship and to keep them motivated. Almost half of the respondents

stated some lecturers delivered their course so traditional. Lectures in classroom are

given weekly, no class activity but focus more on quizzes, assignments and exams. For

these respondents, this type of approach is not suitable since they need more hands-on

activities. Majority of the respondents needs activity outside classroom such as

industrial visits, training, talks from succeed and experienced entrepreneur and also

more networking. They stated that entrepreneurs do not seat in class but moving around

with objectives. As such, they required more experience and motivated lecturers to

handle these kind entrepreneurship courses. For them, “chalk and talk” does not work

100% in today’s education but more on meaningful learning experience entrepreneurial

visits. Among the high-score courses which the respondents claimed benefited them

most include (see Table 2):

UKM CESMED – centre that are responsible to provide services and advises to Academic

entrepreneurs and Non-academic entrepreneurs for UKM.

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

Table 2. Courses rated by respondents based on ranking (N = 33).

Likert-scale (%)

5 4 3 2 1

Project Management 67.7 29.4 - 2.9 -

Planning and Starting New Business 58.8 32.4 5.9 2.9 -

Networking and Negotiation 55.9 38.2 - 6.1 -

Strategic Innovation Management 55.9 38.3 2.9 2.9 -

Community Entrepreneurship 52.9 44.1 - 2.9 -

5- Excellent, 4 - Very Good, 3 - Fair, 4 - Satisfactory, 5- Poor

“These modules developed interpersonal skill such as

creating a creative thinking skill and being proactive. The

learning process and environment are efficient and the

lecturers are competent and dedicated upon teaching the

courses.”

Respondent I

“We have acquired a lot of experiences from these courses

and we hope the lecturers maintain the way these courses

were conducted.”

Respondent G

“For student entrepreneurs like us, we really need hands-

on matters. Teaching traditionally mostly in classroom is

not really relevant for us anymore.”

Respondent A

“Please, please,please! We need to meet more

entrepreneurs in all sorts of industries. Can we get them

in this programme? We also need encouragement how to

Respondent D

Despite the criticism impose by the respondents, majority of the 22 courses offered in

this BEI programme are rated as either very good or excellent (more than 75% of

respondents rated the courses as in these two categories). For each courses, not even

25% of the respondents claim that the course is satisfactorily. This means that all

courses offered in this BEI programme are considered being very good or excellent.

Interestingly, none of the courses offered in this programme is rated as poor. Only a

few respondents suggested that new courses such as industrial training, project paper,

social business, and big data analysis should be introduced to them.

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

“I think the courses in this programme should be revised.

Please give an industrial training course like other

programme.”

Respondent E

“I think courses like big data analysis and digital

marketing should be introduced in this programme. We are

talking doing business online nowadays. Thus, we demand

this course in this programme.”

Respondent H

Students’ Opinion on the Programmes.

Respondents were asked to state their opinions on anything they like or dislike about

the programme. An open ended questions were given to them in the questionnaire. They

were asked to state three things that they like about the programme and three things

that they do not. More than 60 opinions on likes and dislikes were list down from all

respondents. These responses were rearranged accordingly and those who stated their

opinions in Malay language has been translated to English. There are five themes

discovered in their responses:

Motivation.

Majority of the respondents stated they needed some sorts of motivation to embark on

their own business. They concluded that some lecturers motivate them quite well that

they feel so many businesses they can venture into. At the same time, other group of

these respondents stated that some lecturers are good in giving lectures but not in

encouraging students to carry-out activities or even to start their business. In fact,

according to them, some lecturers themselves were not motivated enough to teach some

of these entrepreneurial courses. Part of the reasons is that the lecturer themselves have

never owned or advised any business at all: “A lot of theories. Students sit in the

classroom and listen to the lecturer. Not interactive enough for two ways

communication.”

“I enjoy class which is enthusiastic and lively. It motivates

me to perform better.”

Respondent I

“Every time this lecturer enters our classroom, we already

prepare to participate. And yes, there are so much sharing

and stories. I need more.” Respondent J

Industrial Engagement.

More than half students stated that they are unclear about what they want to be after

they finished their studies. Majority of them still wanted to look for a job, however,

they felt that the degree they pursued in entrepreneurship and innovation is not suitable

to work in company. They were still sceptical on what they can offered to the company.

They felt that other students who majoring in other programmes are luckier since they

have experienced industrial training. Some dislikes’ comments include: “No industrial

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

offer in this programme. Should include industrial training. I want to have working

experience”.

“We need industrial training courses in this programme.

Not all of us wants to be entrepreneur. Thus, we need to get

exposure to work in a company before we complete our

study.”

Respondent E

Classroom Setting.

One of the comments that most respondents’ comments is about the classroom

arrangement. They stated that classroom such as lecture halls are not suitable for

entrepreneurial students. They claimed that as entrepreneur they need some sort of like

laboratory and incubator style classroom where they can generate their ideas more

creatively and efficiently. They wished that they can stay in a lab to do their projects

and to put their ideas without having to move from classroom to another: “Once the

class finish, we need to go out. We need to book the classroom every now and then to

work on our project. Ideas sometimes comes at night, no special room for us.”

Practical Tasks.

Another substantial comment is about the practical tasks that students need to do.

Majority respondents agreed that as an entrepreneur student, they needed to be hands-

on and brush on their skills. As such, they needed active learning and more outside

classroom activities such as industrial visits, attending seminar, training and others.

Currently, not all of the courses offered active learning. Some courses still implement

exams and even some lecturers are too rigid with their slide lectures: “Some courses

have no elaboration. Lecturers still read form slides. We want more practical stuff such

as handling outside project or public speaking for us to be more confident.”

Mentorship.

Respondents also asserted that during their course they did not have a dedicated

supervisor to guide them to be an entrepreneur. Currently, the faculty only assigns one

academic member to at least ten faculty students regardless their background. Most of

the assistance given to these respondents was about the planning of completing their

studies or something to do with their academic. None of these academicians supervise

them about the business they want to do. Most respondents either work on their own

task or they seek help from the entrepreneur club advisors or the assistant dean. These

are some support they got from the faculty. They wish to have a dedicated mentor for

them to make sure their business proposal executes and the business becomes reality:

“I have no mentor to discuss my business. No dedicated staff to help me to run my

business. We should have a success business person to be our mentor.”

“The club advisors give us support but they are also busy

with other tasks.

I am hoping to have a lecturer to be my advisor or my

business partner.”

Respondent D

Issues and Challenges in Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: A Study with Entrepreneurship Students

5 Concluding Remarks

The results of this study has given some sorts of overviews about this entrepreneurship

education programme running in the university. It indicates some issue should be

addressed to keep the momentum of the students who choose entrepreneurship and

innovation as their major. In general, most students are happy with the courses offered

to them except three to four courses that they think need to be improvised. More digital

courses and practical courses should be offered so that they are more hands-on to polish

their skill. In addition, they also need some sort of public speaking and negotiating

skills so that they can appear to be more confident.

Interestingly, some other findings emerge from this study. These include

motivation, industrial engagement, classroom setting, practical tasks and mentorship.

Some of other studies also found that mentorship and motivation need to be embedded

in the programme to encourage students to embark in any business projects (These

findings can help the course designers or the academicians to steer their programme

towards what is needed by the students). Students also asserted that need information

in setting-up their business as early as the first year of study. In addition to the finding,

one implication that can be acknowledged that not only students need support in

entrepreneurial skills, academician who taught these courses should also be expert on

the subject matter both theories and practical. To do that, they need to attend courses

on entrepreneurship, become members of some entrepreneurship societies, and even

possibly own a business or work with the student to successfully execute the business.

In addition, business talks and seminars with real entrepreneurs (whether a success or

failure) and visits to entrepreneurs’ sites should be more frequent so that more

information and knowledge can be learnt and more experiences can be accumulated to

prepare students to be real entrepreneurs.

Learning about entrepreneurship project is an important part in terms of

entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurship projects such as talks; seminars or visits

are made to enhance university students in entrepreneurial skills. Therefore, University

students should be supported by positive learning environment so it can create

independent character, initiative action, goal oriented, and collaborative personality

students.

6 Future Research Directions

This study focuses only on BEI students in Faculty of Economics and Management.

This programme has just been offered six years ago and only three cohorts have

graduated. Thus, this programme is still new and more improvement should be made to

strengthen the programme. The current study only focus to the fourth cohort who are

graduating this coming November 2019. Many information has been gathered from this

study which give a new, possibly fresher, certainly wider and more inclusive

perspective to programme. Building on this present issue, there are opportunities for

further work especially on the key issue of profiling students who choose to embark in

this programme and how to help these students to achieve the country intention to have

more future entrepreneurs.

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

This study adopts a small survey and interviews with students who are majoring in

entrepreneurship and innovation. Further investigation is needed to investigate other

entrepreneurship programme in other universities and more entrepreneurship students

should be involved. It is interesting to explore the characteristics of these students in

general. Future research should also embark on more rigorous methodology such as

longitudinal studies using multivariate statistical analysis as a tool to provide a stronger

conclusion on the issues being investigated.

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