Do Proactive Personality and Self-Efficacy Really Matter in Shaping Social Entrepreneurial Intention?

The primary aim of this paper is to provide insights into the determinants of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) among students in Malaysia. For data collection, a self administered questionnaire was distributed among students in public and private universities. The structural equation modelling-partial least square (SEM-PLS) technique was employed to test the research hypotheses. The data was analysed using the SmartPLS software. Research findings indicated that attitude toward social entrepreneurship (ATSE) is the most significant factor in shaping the intention to become a social entrepreneur, followed by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy (SE-SE) and proactive personality (PP). Additionally, proactive personality contributes to shaping favourable ATSE. Understanding the factors that impact SEI could help us to identify the people who are more likely to establish a social venture in order to equip them with the necessary resources. Nevertheless, lack of awareness and “social entrepreneurial mindset” among students was found an obvious obstacle to SEI, which requires further attention of policymakers and the ministry of higher education. To date, an abundant body of literature confirms that attitude is one of the most significant determinants of intention and consequent behaviour; however, the antecedents of attitude are yet to be discovered. The original contribution of this study is extending the theory of planned behaviour by examining the factors that affect SEI.