September 4th, 2019

By Nooraslinda Abdul Aris and Halim Shuhaimi Yeop Johari 

Introduction

Entrepreneurship education is claimed to be an important subject in developing more enterprising individuals. Entrepreneurship is an evolving process comprising of vision, change, and creation. The process requires an energetic and passionate individual for the formation and execution of new ideas and creative resolutions. Researchers accord that entrepreneurship activities produce employment, generate wealth and inspire economic development (Zamberi Ahmad & Xavier, 2012). Entrepreneurship is considered vital in the revolution of nations, politically and socio-economically (Matlay, 2005). As an effect, the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) has taken a serious initiative in promoting entrepreneurship education among students of higher learning. This is in line with Malaysia Vision 2020 to achieve the status of a developed country, putting substantial emphasis on education towards building a knowledge-based economy.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability

Entrepreneurship is regarded as a central engine for economic and non-economic development, prompting job creation and enhanced products and services (Koe, Omar, & Majid, 2014). The main objective of the entrepreneurs is to gratify an unsatisfied need or to advance the current way the need is being satisfied. Such promise and objective do not necessarily infer the creation of positive social or environmental values. Traditionally, the entrepreneurial activity is linked to environmental with considerable social impact. Progression on economic and technological without bearing societal development and environmental impact in mind is unsustainable and no longer viable. Hence, to assist the transition to a sustainable economy, there is a need for entrepreneurs to assume sustainable practices within their organization. Such practices are the result of entrepreneurs’ interaction with social and physical environments (Elkington, 2006).

 Advancement in the entrepreneurial field has inspired researchers to consider and investigate the area of sustainable entrepreneurship. Sustainable entrepreneurship has been extensively accredited as the response to environmental issues (York & Venkataraman, 2010) and social challenges (Zahra, Gedajlovic, Neubaum, & Shulman, 2009). Sustainability entrepreneurship is held towards contributing to resolving social and environmental glitches, particularly in emerging and developing countries. Sustainability entrepreneurship acts at the interface of politics, business, and civil society to mobilize new resources and aim at a structural change towards socially and environmentally sound economic activities. With its innovative business models, they develop new markets, generate new sources of income – particularly for socially disadvantaged population groups – and contribute to a sustainable approach to green economy (Greco & De Jong, 2017).

Entrepreneurship Traits

Stokes and Wilson (2010) argue that the definitions of entrepreneurship are related to three main domains: process, behaviour, and outcomes. Schumpeter’s definition of entrepreneurship (1934) is one of the earliest and most cited, stating entrepreneurship as an innovative course of creative destruction, expansively addressing the three spheres indicated by Stokes and Wilson (2010). Identically, Majid and Koe (2012) define entrepreneurship as “A process of identifying, evaluating and pursuing opportunities through creativity, innovativeness, and transformations to produce new products, processes, and values that are beneficial” basing on the similar criterion.

An entrepreneur aim is to establish a business of his desire. The entrepreneur features inherent in an individual may be allied with several traits, consist of both internal and external to the individual. Entrepreneurial attitude includes personal elements (need for accomplishment, internal control, risk-taking), personal environmental factor (family standing, gender, family own business), personal objective factor (owner instead of employee, financial assurance, vision), business environment factor (rivalry, society attitudes towards new businesses, loan availability) and business idea factor (Naffziger, Hornby, & Kuratko, 1994). Other than that, geographical factors and external assistance may also influence an entrepreneur in establishing a new business.

The characters and roles of the entrepreneur in today’s challenging business world are dynamic cause by globalization, modernization and technology advancement. It was argued that the required attributes and skills of entrepreneurs could not be produced via the traditional education system. Thus, substantial changes are needed in the learning content and process should more entrepreneurs are to be developed. It has been a recommendation on the need to modify the emphasis from educating “about” entrepreneurship to educating “for” it.

Entrepreneurship Education for Sustainability

Conventionally, entrepreneurship education is regarded as an education that informs the skills required to set up a new business (Rahim et al., 2015). Few scholars of entrepreneurship education highlights that the existing entrepreneurship education as hindering the expansion of entrepreneurial skills and excellence. Entrepreneurship education is not only about knowledge acquisition. It is about developing the entrepreneurial mindset of the lecturers and students so that they are able to act in an entrepreneurial manner, attitude, and behaviours. Entrepreneurial competencies are not only embedded through traditional lectures; other approaches have also been used in order to achieve the desired learning outcome particularly through proper pedagogical practices which could enhance the employability of its graduates. To inspire entrepreneurial success, entrepreneurship education provides students with vast knowledge, a variety of skills, and motivation. A common goal of entrepreneurship education is to reinforce entrepreneurs with value orientation for a sustainable society (Lindner, 2018).

Producing entrepreneurial graduates is crucial to the future of higher education and the supply of excellent human resources in developing countries. The succession of entrepreneurship education will allow the country to arouse economic development, generate wealth and employment in Malaysia (Zamberi Ahmad & Xavier, 2012). The ingredient of such promotion is by the to create an entrepreneurial environment and to have competent entrepreneurial staff. Ideally, an entrepreneurial culture must be developed first by setting a comprehensive entrepreneurial environment for the students and employees. In terms of guiding the young entrepreneurs, teaching lecturer must be well equipped and involved in various initiatives adjacent to entrepreneurship. They must consistently advance their knowledge, develop their careers and actively take part in activities that are innovative and entrepreneurial in nature. Research and consultancy initiatives across disciplines should also be carried out in assessing the effectiveness of current programmes as well as finding ways to improve the current standing on entrepreneurship education quality.

The Initiatives of UiTM’s Faculty of Accountancy

UiTM has been awarded as the Entrepreneurial University for three consecutive years in 2012, 2013 and 2015 by MOHE on the efforts taken in creating an entrepreneurial culture in the university. Taking the lead is the Malaysian Academy of SME & Entrepreneurship Development (MASMED) whose vision to be a well-recognized Center of Excellence  in entrepreneurship education at national and international levels. UiTM has also introduced a new Transformation Plan that emphasizes on the birth of Bumiputra entrepreneurs, their role in nurturing entrepreneurial culture and in seeking opportunities for revenue generation.

As part of the winning team for the Entrepreneurial University award, UiTM’s  Faculty of Accountancy has also initiated several entrepreneurial activities. The faculty’s Entrepreneurial Implementer team is headed by the MASMED Coordinator with the aim of planning and organizing event in support of the University Entrepreneurial Thrust. Among the activities conducted at the faculty level include “1SME 1Account” workshop and Social Entrepreneurship-Book Keeping for the ‘Pasar Tani’ retailers. The workshop was held among the SME Bumiputra entrepreneurs in order to help them understand the importance of financial management and to offer the accounting and financial expertise needed. The workshop also provided a platform for the accounting lecturers in conducting consultancy, training and research work. Contrary to the workshop, the Social Entrepreneurship-Book Keeping offered an opportunity for accounting students to be a junior consultant for the small retailers in understanding the importance of having accounting records for their business activities. To ensure the success of the program, the accounting lecturers acted as the mentors who advise and coach these junior consultants. At the end of the program, the junior consultants were asked to present their findings.  

Both activities clearly support the UiTM Entrepreneurial Thrust. Pursuant to that, more efforts and activities could be planned in the future. For instance, the entrepreneurial culture will need to be inculcated on a larger scale by creating the right environment among both the students and staff. With the existence of technology, such application may need to be made known and could be used to get people to engage in an entrepreneurial culture without jeopardizing the work and study responsibilities. On a further note, more collaboration (internal and external) and research on the area could be undertaken considering its importance towards promoting entrepreneurship education for a sustainable future. By having the right entrepreneurial culture and competent lecturers, we would be able to produce more flexible graduates who may opt to become entrepreneurs as their career path. This is in line with the government motion on encouraging young people to engage in entrepreneurship through the provision of related facilities, especially for the young generation. Entrepreneurs preserve the economy and society spirited by executing new ideas. Due to that, society desires people with entrepreneurship proficiencies which could be established via entrepreneurship education. A mutual goal of entrepreneurship education is to reinforce entrepreneurs with an orientation towards a sustainable society.