Profiling entrepreneurial commitment across cultures: A Malaysian perspective

Abstract

Is it true that certain cultures are known to illustrate higher levels of commitment to their businesses, hence complimented for their entrepreneurial triumph? And does this mean that certain cultures behave less committed to their businesses, occasioning lower entrepreneurial success? This pioneering study acknowledges the possibility of measuring entrepreneurial commitment, and seeks to characterise the psychological construct of 'commitment' in entrepreneurs across three major cultures in Malaysia - Malays, Chinese and Indians. The entrepreneurial commitment model was applied using the PLS-MGA approach to analyse the changes in the magnitude of commitment across all three cultures. Changes in the magnitude of affective, normative and continuous commitments were detected, portraying the uniqueness of certain components of commitment to certain cultures. A change in the magnitude of total entrepreneurial commitment was also seen, with the Chinese illustrating the highest, while both the Malays and Indians sharing similar levels. What this study puts forward signals the importance of acknowledging the fact that entrepreneurial commitment is measurable and that it can be profiled accordingly.