The Influence of Attitude, Interest, Teachers and Peers on Entrepreneurial Career Intention

The purpose of this study is to identify the influence of interest, attitude, teachers and peers towards entrepreneurial career intention of religious secondary school students in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to identify the level of interest, attitude, teachers’ guidance, peers and behaviour towards students’ entrepreneurial career intention, and to identify the influence of attitude, interest, teachers’ guidance, and peers towards student behaviour on entrepreneurial career intention. This quantitative study uses a survey design involving 328 religious secondary school students in the Sepang district based on multistage sampling starting from stratified random sampling to simple random sampling. The result of the study showed that the domains of attitude, interest, teachers’ guidance, peers and behaviour of entrepreneurial career intention are at a moderately high level. The result of the analysis also revealed that the domain of attitude, interest, teachers’ guidance and peers have significant influence over behaviour on entrepreneurial career intention at 62.6 percent. The domain of interest is the best way to predict the behaviour of students’ entrepreneurial career intention compared to other domains. On the other hand, the domain of attitude is the worst in predicting the behaviour of entrepreneurial career intention. These findings clearly indicate that religious secondary school students have a moderately high tendency to choose entrepreneurship as a career which is driven by interest, teachers’ guidance and peers. The implications of the study also contribute to the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1991). Meanwhile, schools need to play a role nurturing entrepreneurial attitudes through formal and informal education continuously.