Entrepreneurial Readiness Towards Venture Creation Among Bop Community

Hasliza Abdul Halim, Noor Haz

Abstract

Converting the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) community into active entrepreneurs has become the agenda of the Malaysian government to eradicate the poverty by the year 2020. However, little is known on the factors influencing BOP community readiness to venture into new business. The paper aims at providing preliminary insights into the under-researched area of understanding the influence of government, information and training support on their entrepreneurial readiness. A questionnaire-based survey was distributed to BOP community in Northern Malaysia and a total of 110 usable responses were received. The analysis was conducted via SMART PLS and findings suggest that government support influences the BOP entrepreneurial readiness (attractiveness and learning). Training support provides significant relationships with all dimensions of entrepreneurial readiness. Surprisingly, information support does not produce any relationship with entrepreneurial readiness. This study generates insights for researchers to reach more conclusive evidence about the entrepreneurship among the BOP community in Malaysia.