Entrepreneurial Competencies of MBA Students A Study in Songkhla Thailand

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1 Entrepreneurial Competencies of MBA Students A Study in Songkhla Thailand 1. Chutima Wangbenmad,Hatyai Business School,Hatyai University, Songkhla, Thailand, drchutima@hu.ac.th 2. Jedsarid Sangkapan,Faculty of Liberal Arts and Education,Hatyai University,Songkhla,Thailand, sapichai@yahoo.com Abstract This paper attempted to analyse the main entrepreneurial factors perceived by MBA students which impact on the intent to start new business. The data was collected by questionnaires from 258 students studying in Master of Business Administration program during For the entrepreneurial competencies variables, 52 items were analysed by principal component analysis with varimax rotation in factor analytical technique. The results indicated the separately identifiable six core competencies namely 1) relationship and network 2) management of business operation 3) accounting and financial management 4) creativity and opportunity recognition, 5) problem solving, 6) marketing. These factors, when ranked in their order, the relationships and networks is the most importance factor which impacts on intent to start new business, then the university has to teach them how to build the network skills and help them to create more network activities. Keywords: Entrepreneurial competencies, MBA students, factor analysis, Thailand 629

2 Background 7 th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences A promoting new entrepreneurs startup of government as a key to creating new businesses in order to build a strong economic growth. The government has used different approach and various systematic for supporting the new entrepreneurs by partnering with universities all over the country for set up business incubators and startup fund project. Kesinee Juthavigit (2009) studied the entrepreneurial and intention of university students and found university students had a quite low level of entrepreneurial intention and an entrepreneurial of students was at a moderate level. In the university position as the academics who responsible for MBA program, we are motivated to study the entrepreneurial competencies of MBA student for starting up new business and the significance of the study is to build the students in program master of business administration more confidence for creating new venture. Objectives/Research Questions 1. Establish core competencies that students perceive as important to start up new business. 2. Suggest on the basis of the results, items to include in the curriculum, to improve the training of students and facilitate the intention to become an entrepreneurs. Research Methodology This is a survey Research. The population was students who studying in master of business administration program during in Songkhla province, the total of 368 people. The researchers calculated the size of the sample represented by Taro Yamane formula provides a confidence level of 97% and sample size is 276 people as shown in Table

3 Table 1: A Stratified Sample of MBA students 7 th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences University in Songkhla Population MBA students Sample Size 1. Prince of Songkhla University Taksin University Rajabhat University Rajamangala University of technology Srivijaya Ramkhamhaeng University Hatyai University Total However, in this study, the researchers were able to collect data amount 258 students. Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to assess how well the questionnaire items represent the underlying construct. The purpose of factor analysis is to achieve data reduction or to retain the nature and character of the original items, and to delete those items which had lower factor loadings and cross loadings In conducting factor analysis, this study follows 6 assumptions that recommended by Hair et al. (2006). First KMO value must exceed.50. Second, Bartlett test of Sphericity is at least significant at.05. Third, anti-image correlation of items is greater than.50. Fourth, communalities of items must be greater than.50. Fifth, Minimum factor loading (cutoff) of.50 for each items Sixth, eigenvalue is greater than 1 for the factor analysis extraction. Findings Exploratory principal component factor analysis was employed in order to assess the validity of the entrepreneurial competencies construct. Initially, there were 52 items for measuring entrepreneurial competencies; principle components analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation was used to determine the items that are grouped together to form a factor. Initial results of the analysis on the 52 entrepreneurial competencies items denoted that nine items have been deleted due to factor loading less than 0.5. Further factor analyses were consequently performed on the remaining 43 entrepreneurial competencies items. Table 2 provides the results of factor analysis on entrepreneurial competencies variables. 631

4 Table2: Factor names and their loadings Factor1 Relationship Variable and Network Competence I can ask for cooperation from others Factor2 Management of business operation Factor3 Accounting and financial management Factor4 Creativity and opportunity recognition Factor5 Problem solving Factor6 Marketing I have a friend who support and help at all times I sought advice from people who I know. I have relatives who support at all times. I know the resources to provide assistance. I talk to people with diverse career as well. I can build good relations with the people around. I am trying to build and maintain relationships with others. I can negotiate with other people as well. I know how can build teamwork I know the ways to measure performance. I know the ways of recruiting employees. I know how to build the long term in supplier relationships I know how to control the service and product quality. I know how to build product quality I know how to give suggestions to solve work problem. I know the ways to develop vision I know the ways to manage the crisis I know how to implement the manufacturing technologies. I know where to record each business transaction and implementing the business transactions. I know how to identify and categorized the business transactions. I know how to explain the business transactions. I know how to explain financial statements such as income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows I know source of funds and kinds of capitals I know how to evaluate sources of finance

5 Variable Factor1 Relationship and Network Competence Factor2 Management of business operation Factor3 Accounting and financial management Factor4 Creativity and opportunity recognition Factor5 Problem solving Factor6 Marketing I know investment loans planning for new ventures I always seek to adopt new ways of working all times. I dare to bring new ideas to apply for a work. I myself like to create work in differently from others. I do not restrict myself to the original ideas and I always looking for new ways to apply for a work. I dare to think of innovativeness with differently from the others. I always open up my mind to receive information and a variety of ideas of different. I seek opportunities rather than waiting opportunities to come. I see the problems that may occur and find ways to fix so quickly. I able to think and resolve a problem shortly. According to my decision making and choosing alternatives based on the ways which can achieve the best result. When I face the problems, I can figure out all the time. I deal with the obstacle situations more efficiently When a problem happens, I able to explain what cause it. I know the ways to launch products into market. I know the detail in Market analysis I enable establish market research to formulate marketing strategies. I know how to maintain and increase market share Eigenvalue Proportion of Variance Explained 42.79% 9.68% 5.01% 4.75% 3.26% 2.91% Cumulative Variance Explained 42.79% 52.47% 57.47% 62.22% 65.48% 68.39% Alpha The names of the factor statements and factor loadings have been summarized in Table 2.The percentage of total variance explained by the six factors was 68.39%. The first factor to be most important with highest explained variance of %. This factor was represented by nine variables with factor loadings ranging from.818 to.539 (Cronbach's alpha =.91). The factor has been named as relationship and network 633

6 . The second most important factor accounts for 9.68% of the variance, ten variables with loadings ranging from.726 to.547 (Cronbach's alpha =.94). The factor has been named as management of business operation. The third noteworthy factor accounts for 5.01% of the variance, factor loadings of these variables ranged from.796 to.566 (Cronbach's alpha =.925). The factor has been named as accounting and financial management. The fourth factor with seven items account for 4.75% of variance, their factor loadings ranged from.765 to.516 (Cronbach's alpha =.905). The factor was named as creativity and opportunity recognition. The fifth factor with six items is a very significant factor, which accounts for 3.26% of variance. They carried factor loadings of.760 and.638 respectively (Cronbach's alpha =.894). The factor was named as problem solving and the sixth factor with four items which accounts for 2.91% of variance, their factor loadings ranged from.756 to.646 (Cronbach's alpha =.913). was named as marketing. Discussions The study uses the analytical tools of exploratory factor analysis to achieve the objective, we found the MBA students perceive the main six groups of competencies as important to start up new business as (1) relationships and networks (2) management of business operation (3) accounting and financial management (4) creativity and opportunity recognition, (5) problem solving, and 6) marketing by respectively. To the best our knowledge the relationships and networks is the most importance factor which impact on intent to start new business. Therefore offers contributions to the literature on entrepreneurial intentions, bonding and bridging relationships social networks influence entrepreneurial intentions (Kim & Thomas, 2011) and social networking is a source of developing entrepreneurial intentions (Zafar, Yasin & Ijaz, 2012). Recommendations The curriculum should consider how to develop relationships and networks, management of business operation skill, accounting and financial management skill, creativity and opportunity recognition skill, problem solving skill, and marketing skill in 634

7 order to improve and facilitate the students entrepreneurial competencies to become an entrepreneur. References Fatoki, O., & Chindoga. L. (2011). An investigation into the obstacles to youth entrepreneurship in South Africa. International business research, 4(2), Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed). NJ, USA: Pearson International Edition. Josée Audet, Université Laval. (2004). A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of university students. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 10(1), Kakkonen. (2011). Students perceptions of their business competences and entrepre neurial intention. Management, 6 (3), Kim, K., & Thomas, S. (2011). How Social Network Structure Shapes Entrepreneurial Intentions? Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 1(1), McStay, D. (2008). An investigation of undergraduate student self-employment intention and the impact of entrepreneurship education and previous entrepreneurial experience. Doctoral dissertation. Bond University, Australia. Mohammed, M., & Aparna, M.P. (2011) Entrepreneurial Intentions of MBA Students A Study in Hyderabad. Entrepreneurial Practice Review, 1(4), Muhammad, A., Asif, T., Owais S., Sahaab, A., and Shaheer R. (2013). Intention of business graduate and undergraduate to become entrepreneur: A study from Pakistan. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 3(1), Zafar,M J., Yasin, G., & Ijaz, M. 2012). Social Networking a Source for Developing Entrepreneurial Intentions among Entrepreneurs: A Case of Multan Pakistan, Asian Economic and Financial Review, 2(8),