Impact of Entrepreneurial Personality Traits on Nascent Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Medical Students: Implications for Medical Education

Abstract

Purpose: Increasing unemployment among youth is a cause for concern that has led to an increase in entrepreneurial studies among university students. Unfortunately, medical students' entrepreneurialism has been widely ignored. To fill this gap, the current study investigated the influence of entrepreneurial personality traits on medical students' nascent entrepreneurial behavior. Method: The research utilized quantitative methodology and a cross-sectional design. Using an adapted questionnaire and the traits model of entrepreneurship on a sample of 318 Malaysian medical students selected by disproportionate stratified random sampling, we examined three entrepreneurial traits and nascent entrepreneurial behavior. The influence of entrepreneurial traits on nascent entrepreneurial behavior was investigated using multivariate analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings: Medical students demonstrated high levels of need for achievement, locus of control, and self-efficacy, according to the results. Nevertheless, they exhibited a moderately low level of nascent entrepreneurial behavior. A significant positive relation between entrepreneurial traits and developing entrepreneurial behavior was observed among the study population (b=0.451, t=9.998, p<0.01) with a predictive accuracy (R²) of 0.283. Implications: This study provides unique insights into the entrepreneurial characteristics of Malaysian medical students. Moreover, despite the positive impact of entrepreneurial traits, the study population exhibited bad nascent entrepreneurial behavior. This draws the attention of policymakers to the need for entrepreneurial education in medical curricula incorporating digital technology to promote self-employment among Malaysia's future physicians.