Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Motivational Intentions of Social Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

Social business takes the intermediary stands between profit-making business organization as well as social cause driven organization (i.e. NGO). The number of social enterprise and social entrepreneurs in Malaysia is still significantly low as compared to our neighboring countries. Therefore, this paper aims at contributing to the field of social entrepreneurship in Malaysia by deducing the social entrepreneurial intention within the country. This study also can be used to revamp the existing platform initiated by Malaysian government and private sector to promote social business. The credibility of existing entrepreneurship studies on intention formation could not be adapted to the current needs due to time as well as geographical factor. Most of the social entrepreneurial intention studies were conducted in foreign country (i.e. mostly in U.S.A.). Hence, the studies on social business conducted in Malaysia were not on intention formation but on wealth creation of a particular society enhancement in social business. Furthermore, since social entrepreneurs operate in a social value creation context, it embraces the possibility that the antecedents to the variables might differ from the ones found in the traditional entrepreneurship literature. The elements in the classic entrepreneurial intentions model by Krueger (1993) was enhanced to suit the nature of the social business; to seek how intentions to create a social venture which can be considered as the tangible outcome of social entrepreneurship get formed. The model is tested through analyzing primary data collected through questionnaire from 1000 respondents who are affiliated with social business and social enterprise throughout Malaysia. Combining insights from traditional entrepreneurship literature and anecdotal evidence in the field of social entrepreneurship, this study will focus on the behavioral intentions to create a social venture are willpower motivated