MAJCAFE

Zuraidah Binti Mohamed Isa, Norhidayah Binti Ali, Dahlia Binti Ibrahim
Faculty of Business and Management, University Teknologi MARA

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Abstract

Since the inception of the microcredit programmes, various studies have been carried out to assess their impacts. Earlier studies seemed to focus on the impact of microcredit programmes on the participants’ income, and consequently on poverty. However, recent impact studies of microcredit programme have looked into the participants’ well-being instead of their income to measure their quality of life. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the impact of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM)’s microcredit programmes on the participants’ quality of life using a more comprehensive measure. Different from earlier research, this study takes on a different perspective by examining aspects of personal attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behaviour in assessing the impact that the microcredit programmes have on the participants’ quality of life. In this study, the hypotheses are tested using a cross-sectional data of 638 participants of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM). The findings of the study show that all hypotheses are significant and supported, where there was a positive and significant influence between participants’ attitude and entrepreneurial intention; participants’ subjective norm and entrepreneurial intention; participants’ perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention; participants’ perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial behaviour; participants’ entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behaviour; and participants’ entrepreneurial behaviour and quality of life.

Keywords: Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s Microcredit Programme, Entrepreneurial intention, Entrepreneurial behavior personal attitude, Participants’ quality of life, Perceived behavioral control, Subjective norm