ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS USING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION MODEL

: This study investigated undergraduate students’ entrepreneurial intentions using the Entrepreneurial Intention Model (EIM). The model was adapted from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Three variables, namely professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity were included in the study of entrepreneurial intention based on the EIM. This study applied a modified version of the Entrepreneurial Intention Question (EIQ) by Liñán and Chen. A convenience sample was drawn and a total of 136 students from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia participated in the study. The questionnaire was distributed using Google forms through various social media applications such as WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook. The collected data was analysed using multiple linear regression analysis. Three hypotheses were generated in this study and the results showed that all three hypotheses were supported. Professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity had an influence on university students' entrepreneurial intention. The results of this study showed that the students have a strong desire to become entrepreneurs and that they are interested in pursuing entrepreneurship as a career path in the future. Their social circles were also important to them, despite the fact that they were aware that entrepreneurship was not a high priority in their social circles. Apart from that, they are aware of the necessary skills, attitudes, and abilities to become entrepreneurs. This study is useful for higher learning institutions and governmental and non-governmental agencies to further enhance entrepreneurship development programs at the university level, particularly during the post-COVID-19 pandemic period.


INTRODUCTION
In the past decade and recent years, economic and political crises have become more frequent (McGuire, 2015), causing working conditions to be uncertain and unpredictable, leading to an increase in unemployment. Technological change is another reason for skyrocketing unemployment. Then came the COVID-19 health crisis in 2019, and in a short time, it hit the whole world severely and paralysed various sectors across industries, directly affecting the economic sector. The economic shock brought on by COVID-19 was three times worse than the one brought on by the 2008 financial crisis (Verick et al. 2022). During the pandemic, businesses have begun to dwindle in size, halt hiring, and reduce the workforce, making it difficult for graduates to obtain employment. It has been even more challenging for those who have just finished their studies, as they do not yet have work experience. The graduate labour market is also disproportionately impacted by these changes.
The COVID-19 recession of 2020 and the ongoing difficulties of 2021 have exacerbated the already terrible circumstances for graduates. In Malaysia, for instance, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) (2021), the country saw its number of unemployed graduates rose to 4.4% during the pandemic in 2020 from 3.9% in 2019 and decreased to 4.1% in 2021. As the pandemic improved in 2022 compared to 2020 and 2021, along with the country shifting towards COVID-19 endemicity, the official statistics show a decrease in joblessness. Nevertheless, many graduates are still struggling to find jobs.
Ample research has been conducted to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on university students' entrepreneurial intentions. However, these studies yielded mixed and inconsistent results. For example, Ruiz-Rosa et al. (2020) proved that social entrepreneurial intention declines in times of acute socioeconomic crisis and considerable uncertainty, such as those caused by COVID-19. In contrast, Lopes et al. (2021) reported that entrepreneurial activity did not decrease in the face of macroeconomic changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the positive side, Maritz et al. (2020) and Alvarez-Risco et al. (2021) stated that the pandemic environment generated abundant entrepreneurial opportunities and inspired people to pursue entrepreneurship instead of regular employment. Another study by Anik Puspa Ningsih et al. (2021) found that the number of entrepreneurs among university students significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This state of affairs creates a rich sine qua non for entrepreneurship among students (Sheng and Chen, 2022).
In addition to unfavourable economic, political, and health crisis conditions, the throng of graduates produced by higher education institutions (HEIs) has added to unemployment and job marketability issues. For instance, Malaysia's higher education development has grown monumentally, with 21 public-sector and 38 private-sector universities cumulatively producing over 200,000 graduates annually (Kadir et al. 2020). Yet, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), one out of five graduates remain unemployed (Kadir et al. 2020), and nearly 60% continue to be unemployed one year after graduation based on a graduate tracer study report by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) (D'Silva, 2020).
Over the years, the problem has ballooned because fresh graduates enter a labour market crowded with the preceding year's unemployed graduates. The problem becomes more acute as the number of job seekers exceeds the number of job vacancies. As such, competition for jobs between graduates is intense, and many are still struggling to find employment. Therefore, alongside high unemployment, an under-employment situation occurs, in which there is a mismatch between employment opportunities and a graduate's skills and education level.
The absence of employment opportunities for graduates has persisted as a worldwide concern. Hence, many countries have begun to explore entrepreneurial initiatives as a means of facilitating job creation and developing inclusive economic growth. Consequently, entrepreneurship has been regarded as one of the solutions to graduates' unemployment problems and an essential element in spurring a country's economic growth, innovation, and development (Lim et al. 2021;Mengesha, 2020;Meyer and Meyer, 2017). As such, entrepreneurship, as a research field, has attracted the interest of many researchers. Although entrepreneurship and its potential impact, particularly on the economy, have been widely studied over the past two decades, the research field is still evolving and expanding (Neumann, 2021). Facebook. A questionnaire method allows researchers to collect a large amount of data from a diverse group of people quickly, conveniently, and efficiently, and it is also economical. Additionally, the online survey was chosen because it has useful validation features that ensure respondent has completely answered all questions. Convenience sampling was used, and respondents were assured that their responses would be kept private and confidential. A total of 136 students enrolled in HEIs in Malaysia completed the survey questionnaires.
The questionnaire was divided into two sections. The first section contains general questions on the respondents' demographic information, such as gender and age. The second section consists of statement of agreement with entrepreneurial intentions, professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity. All items were adopted from the modified version of the EIQ developed by Liñán and Chen (2009). The items were measured by asking respondents questions on a seven-point Likert scale. The data collected were analysed using multiple linear regression analysis.
Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process that requires formulating and implementing new ideas and solutions (Youssef et al. 2021). Therefore, studying and comprehending human behaviour to understand the spirit of entrepreneurship in individuals is crucial. Umpteen studies have examined entrepreneurial behaviour, and among the variables that best predict entrepreneurial behaviour is entrepreneurial intention (Lee and Wong, 2004;Salhi, 2018). Hence, studying entrepreneurial intention and the factors influencing entrepreneurial intention constitute a valid research area.

Entrepreneurial Intention
Individual entrepreneurial intention is a complicated topic to research (Krichen and Chaabouni, 2022). The reasons are owing to the numerous variables that influence intention (Nikou et al. 2019), such as purposeful behaviours underlying cognitive processes (Entrialgo and Iglesias, 2020) and the complexities of perception-based processes (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). Therefore, scholars have defined entrepreneurial intention according to the context of their study. Unfortunately, the literature is divided on what constitutes entrepreneurial intention. However, Krueger et al. (2000) provided the most cited definition.
This study was conducted among undergraduate students in Malaysia where entrepreneurship development is growing steadily. The objective of this study was to investigate undergraduate students' entrepreneurial intentions, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to examine this objective, this study used an EIM adapted from the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). In addition, a revised version of the entrepreneurial intention questions (EIQ) established by Liñán and Chen (2009) was used to determine entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students.

METHODS
This study used a questionnaire survey to assess undergraduate students' entrepreneurial intentions using EIM. The online questionnaire survey was distributed through Google Forms on several social media applications such as WhatsApp, Twitter, and et al. (2016), Rashid et al. (2012), Hunjra et al. (2011), Hyder et al. (2011, and Liñán and Chen (2006) found a significant relationship between professional attraction and entrepreneurial intention. Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: H1: There is a significant relationship between professional attraction and entrepreneurial intention.

Social Valuation
Social valuation aims to ascertain whether being an entrepreneur is regarded more highly than other professions and careers in an individual's immediate social circle. It also aims to establish the degree to which society sees becoming an entrepreneur as favourable. Studies by Logaiswari et al. (2020), Tegegn et al. (2016), Hunjra et al. (2011 and Liñán and Chen (2006) provided evidence that social valuation influences entrepreneurial intention. Thus, it is hypothesised that: H2: A significant relationship exists between social valuation and entrepreneurial intention.

Entrepreneurial Capacity
Entrepreneurial capacity highlights an individual's ability to launch an entrepreneurial project or business. It also requires the capacity to effectively manage and oversee projects. Thus, an individual's traits and characteristics, like opportunity recognition, creativity, innovation, problem-solving, communication, and networking, are examined. Previous studies by Logaiswari et al. (2020) Liñán and Chen (2006), and Kim and Huruta (2022) reported that entrepreneurial capacity significantly influences entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, it is postulated that H3: There is a significant relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and entrepreneurial intention.
In summary, the dependent variable in this study is entrepreneurial intention and the independent variables are professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity. The intended variables and the hypotheses developed for this study are presented in the conceptual framework in Figure 1.
They decipher entrepreneurial intention as a potential entrepreneur's subjective attitude and expectation of whether or not to engage in entrepreneurship activities. Another popular definition was by Thompson (2009), who defined entrepreneurial intention as a person's self-declared desire to start a new business and to actively and consciously plan it for the future.
Researchers have used several theories and models to examine entrepreneurial intention. However, Azjen's TPB is the most popular and widely used (Barba-Sánchez et al. 2022), either in its original construct (Ferri et al. 2018) or with adaptations (Liñán et al. 2013). Other theories identified in the literature besides the TPB are Luthje and Franke's model, the entrepreneur event model, the social networking theory, and the EIM. Recently, the EIM developed by Liñán and Chen (2009) was adopted as a framework for examining entrepreneurial intention because it appears to be highly compatible (Krueger et al. 2000) and a more reliable model for forecasting entrepreneurial intention (Hoda and Fallatah, 2022). Thus, the EIM was employed in this study.
The EIM has roots in the TPB and focuses on an individual's internal processes and interactions with their surroundings to foster entrepreneurial intention (Srivastava et al. 2019). The model highlights professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity as antecedents for predicting entrepreneurial intention. To measure EIM, Liñán and Chen (2009) established the EIQ. Among the studies utilising the EIM model were Logaiswari et al. (2020), Tegegn et al. (2016), andHyder et al. (2011). They used the EIM to examine the differences in entrepreneurship intentions among students. They found a significant relationship between these three antecedents and entrepreneurial intention.

Professional Attraction
Professional attraction describes an individual's career aspirations, the type of profession they would decide and select based on the external environment from a medium to a long-term viewpoint, and whether being an entrepreneur appeals to them or otherwise. Previous studies by Logaiswari et al. (2020), Tegegn

Descriptive Analysis
The study sample comprised 136 students enrolled in HEIs in Malaysia. Of the 136 responses, 22.1% were male, and 77.9% were female. In addition, 83.1% were aged 20 years and below, and 16.9% were between 21 and 25 years of age. Of these participants, 66.9% were non-business students, and 33.1% were from business programs. The participants were also asked if anyone in their family was involved in the business, and the majority (51.5%) said yes. Finally, the majority of respondents (70.6 %) indicated that they seriously considered becoming entrepreneurs. Table 1 shows the respondents' profiles. Table 2 shows the reliability scores for all the variables measured in this study. The Cronbach's alpha scores for all items measuring each item were above 0.70, indicating high internal consistency.

Correlation Analysis
The descriptive analysis and intercorrelation values of each variable in the study are presented in Table 3. The descriptive statistics for the four variables show that all the factors ranged from 3.86 to 4.96, which according to Nunally and Berstein (1994) is between mediumhigh and high. This shows that the respondents are generally positive about professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity and also intend to become entrepreneurs.  Following Hair et al.'s (2007) interpretation of correlation analysis, the intercorrelation values of students' entrepreneurial intentions, professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity of the students were .70 and below, indicating that there is no evidence of multicollinearity.

Regression Analysis
A simple linear regression test was conducted to evaluate the prediction of professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity on entrepreneurial intention. Before conducting a regression analysis, the regression assumptions of normality, linearity, independence, homoscedasticity, and multicollinearity were checked, and the results suggested that all assumptions had been met. Multiple regression analysis is used to test hypotheses (Hoyt et al. 2006), to predict the single dependent variable by a set of independent variables (Miah, 2016), and to determine the significant effect or influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable (Ndubisi, 2006). Table 4 presents the model summary of the regression analysis. The R 2 is 0.664, which means that 66.4% of the independent variables of model 1 can explain entrepreneurial intention. The remaining 33.6% of the model is explained by other factors that can influence entrepreneurial intention.
As illustrated in Table 5, the F-ratio in the ANOVA table tests whether the overall regression model is a good fit to the data. The table shows that the independent variables statistically significantly predict the dependent variable, F (3, 132) = 86.840, p < .0005. As shown, professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity all have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. Thus, this model is significant and useful for measuring the significance of the relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable.    In H1, professional attraction is positively significantly related to entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.502, t = 5.016, p = .000). H2 was also supported by the significant negative relationship between social valuation and entrepreneurial intention (β = -0.170, t = -2.498, p = 0.014). Finally, H3 was supported, in which entrepreneurial capacity was found to significantly influence entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.620, t = 7.892, p = 0.000).
This study investigated students' entrepreneurial intention by utilising the EIM and the improved version of the EIQ by Liñán and Chen's (2009). Specifically, this study explored the relationship between professional attraction, social valuation, entrepreneurial capacity, and entrepreneurial intention. EIM states that human intentions are influenced by the environment in which they interact (Liñán and Chen, 2009). This theory predicts and explains a wide range of entrepreneurial intentions. Because entrepreneurship is the source of economic growth and job creation, it is critical to comprehend the factors that influence students' entrepreneurial intentions, especially in developing economies (Ezeh et al. 2019), such as Malaysia.
The descriptive analysis of the study found that even during the pandemic, students showed interest in becoming involved in entrepreneurship. Further analysis of the hypotheses using multiple regression analysis, this study found professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. These findings corroborate the findings of previous studies (Logaiswari et al. 2020;Tegegn et al. 2016;Rashid et al. 2012;Hunjra et al. 2011;Hyder et al. 2011;Liñán and Chen, 2006) indicating that entrepreneurial intention among students is associated with professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity. Professional attraction was the most influential factor in entrepreneurial intention among all the behavioural categories, followed by entrepreneurial capacity and social valuation.
The first hypothesis (H1) was developed to examine the relationship between professional attraction and entrepreneurial intention. The results emphasised the critical role of professional attraction in shaping students' entrepreneurial intentions. The student's decision to become an entrepreneur or pursue an entrepreneurial career is highly determined by their desire and interest in doing so. The finding of H1 is in line with those of several studies (Logaiswari et al. 2020;Tegegn et al. 2016;Rashid et al. 2012;Hunjra et al. 2011;Hyder et al. 2011;Liñán and Chen, 2006).
The second hypothesis (H2) suggests that social valuation significantly determines entrepreneurial intention. Although this result supports H2, the relationship was negative. These findings echo that of the previous study by Hyder et al. (2021), indicating that social valuation is negatively correlated with students' entrepreneurial intention. As a result, entrepreneurship is not socially admired by students' close social networks or the society to which they belong. This result conveys that entrepreneurship must be further enhanced and promoted by providing appropriate consultancy and a platform to encourage and promote a sense of security among entrepreneurs.
The third hypothesis (H3) claims a significant relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and entrepreneurial intention, which is also found to have a significant positive relationship. Entrepreneurial capacity involves students' belief that they can control entrepreneurship through self-efficacy, opportunity recognition, creativity, innovation, problem-solving, communication, and networking. This finding is consistent with those of many previous studies (Logaiswari et al. 2020;Kim and Huruta, 2022).

Managerial Implications
This study also makes a practical contribution in that the findings can assist universities in developing actions that promote an even more robust environment aimed to determine the entrepreneurial intention of undergraduate students. By combining theoretical research with empirical data collected through questionnaires, this study found that professional attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial capacity influence entrepreneurial intention among university students.
This study is based on undergraduates' perceptions about entering the workforce. This study produced interesting results for undergraduate students. First, there was a high intention to become entrepreneurs. Second, the attraction to choose entrepreneurship as a profession for their future career plans and third, the awareness that entrepreneurship is less valued among their social networks. Finally, they are mindful of the skills, attitudes, and abilities to embark on entrepreneurship.

Recommendations
There are some limitations to this study. The first limitation was the small number of participants in the survey (136 respondents). The second limitation was that the study used convenience sampling. Hence, it cannot be generalised to a country's entire population. In order to address these limitations, future studies should expand the sample size and investigate the various reasons for the differences in entrepreneurial intention across demographic groups. A comparative study of the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students in other ASEAN countries or developing countries can also be conducted in the future. Third, the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequent research is vital to assess entrepreneurial intention during the post-pandemic or endemic transition period.
It is also suggested that other variables be included, such as entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial experience, and educational support.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to thank Che Ku Muhammad Aiman Che Ku Abu Bakar, Hanis Safia Ahmad Azahari, Muhammad Irfan Amir Mohd Taufik, and Siti Nurannisa Mohd Roslan for their help with the data collection.
that encourages entrepreneurial activities. In addition, this research is equally helpful for the government in providing HEIs students and the general public with more accurate and valuable entrepreneurship information and guidance. As a result, they may make more informed decisions, and people with entrepreneurial aptitudes and ideas could be encouraged to take on business ventures, helping to boost economic activity and restart the economy. In addition, the communication gap between practitioners, industry players, and SMEs must be narrowed further. Their roles must be made more effective in encouraging entrepreneurship among young people.
Theoretically, this study adds to the burgeoning literature in the area of entrepreneurship. The present study solidifies the EIM using the EIQ proposed by Liñán and Chen (2009) to confirm the students' entrepreneurship context. The study concluded that professional attraction was the strongest predictor of entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students, followed by entrepreneurial capacity and social valuation. In practice, the research findings help students looking for work better understand the current employment situation and market opportunities, allowing them to make more informed career decisions.

Conclusions
Unemployment among graduates in Malaysia is not new. It has been an issue for a long time, with many contributing factors, such as the country's unstable economic and political situation and prolonged health crisis. In acknowledging this issue and the hardships that graduates face, the Malaysian government has continuously put concerted efforts and resources into producing balanced and holistic graduates. Various efforts have been made to introduce entrepreneurship education into HEIs. The objective is to stimulate new employment, resulting in the acceleration of economic development and innovative talent, which are important driving forces for future growth.
Uncertain economic and unstable political conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic have markedly affected many people, including university students. This study