Determinants of Youth Readiness for Social Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Malaysia

Social entrepreneurship has not merely grown globally but has emerged as a telling sign of how societies reconfigure their ways of dealing with persistent social and economic crises through ventures that claim sustainability not only in financial terms but in their capacity to reproduce meaningfully within communities. The shift is not simply about “profit plus community” but about the practical redefinition of what entrepreneurship itself entails when its justification must include social impact as a criterion of legitimacy. Yet in Malaysia, youth participation in social entrepreneurship remains limited, signaling a readiness gap and a lag between policy aspirations as codified in the National Entrepreneurship Policy 20202030. Drawing on qualitative methods, this study employed semi-structured, in-depth interviews with six social entrepreneurs to examine how readiness is discussed and experienced. The thematic analysis thus revealed three dimensions: awareness regarding social issues, entrepreneurial support, and the impact of role models on social enterprises. According to the findings, respondents emphasized that the dynamic character of readiness emerged through practice, contextual learning, and the encounter with lived challenges, rather than as an initial precondition for entry into the field. In this way, this study contributes to ongoing discussions of social entrepreneurship by foregrounding practitioner voices. For policymakers, educators, and institutions, these findings highlight how the cultivation of readiness cannot be mandated but must be nurtured as a social and practical repertoire that would enable Malaysian youth to inhabit entrepreneurial roles that are both economically viable and socially meaningful.

Social entrepreneurship, youth entrepreneur

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