Entrepreneurial Intentions among Technical Students

The objective of this study is to determine the relationships between professional attraction, entrepreneurial capacity and entrepreneurial experience toward entrepreneurial intention among the students enrolled in technical courses of a university in the South of Malaysia. All variables are measured from developed instrument using 5-point interval scale: professional attraction (6 items) and entrepreneurial capacity (5 items) as the exogenous variable, while entrepreneurial experience 3 items) and entrepreneurial intention (6 items) as endogenous variables. Questionnaires were distributed to 129 students, based on random sampling method selected from various races and genders, for the purpose of data collection. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The result shows that the goodness of fit indices of structural equation model are achieved at GFI=0.951, P-value=0.249, RMSEA=0.036 and ratio (cmin/df) =1.163. The finding supports three significant direct effects in the revised model, thus supporting the hypotheses regarding professional attraction is positively related to entrepreneurial intention (β=0.648, CR=2.324, p<0.05), professional attraction is positively related to entrepreneurial experience (β=0.407, CR=2.270, p<0.05), and entrepreneurial capacity is positively related to entrepreneurial experience (β=0.597, CR=2.245, p<0.05). The structural model explains 93.1 percent variance in entrepreneurial intention. The result is discussed in the perspective of technical students’ intentions toward entrepreneurship.