Assessing the Impact of Knowledge of Government Business Support Services on Propensity of New Graduates to Venture into Business

As part of its SME development agenda in the country, the Malaysian government promotes entrepreneurship as a career among university students by offering educational programs at local universities in form of core subjects or part of the curriculum. Nevertheless, the impact of this strategy has not been satisfactory as these programs have not been able to encourage young graduates to venture into entrepreneurial activities. Young entrepreneurs often lack the capital for starting a business or face technical problems in executing and developing a business idea. To help young entrepreneurs overcome these obstacles, government business support services (GBSS) has been set up to provide them every possible help to start their own business. This paper examines if knowledge of GBSS is a positive factor that can assure young graduates of receiving the requisite support and encourage them to set up their own business. Using a quantitative technique, this study measures the impact of awareness of GBSS, product knowledge and procedural knowledge of acquiring the services among potential graduates on their intention to pursue a business opportunity. Data analyses were conducted via two principal stages using SPSS 19.0 and Smart PLS 2.0. This study found that while awareness of the GBSS and knowledge about the procedure of acquiring a service affect the readiness of potential entrepreneurs to venture into their own business, interestingly, product knowledge about the service offered did not have a significant impact at all.