The Mediating Role Of Attitude Towards Intention To Use Microfinance Among Social Network Women Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Nowadays, businesses over the internet are increasingly widespread and growing in the years to come as access to the social networking sites becomes easier. Conducting businesses via the internet are very flexible in terms of time and budget management, and most importantly, owners can work from home. Thus, many women entrepreneurs grab this opportunity to start and expand their businesses. However, the main problem that social network women entrepreneur’s face is in the financing aspect of their businesses, both for start-ups and expanding businesses. Even though there are microfinance facilities in Malaysia that aim to reduce this problem, these entrepreneurs do not seem aware of its existence. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to test antecedents of attitude and their relationships with the intention of these women entrepreneurs to obtain microfinance. This study was carried out on women entrepreneurs who are conducting online businesses on social media such as Facebook, Blogs, Instagram and Business Websites in Malaysia. Using non-random sampling method, the study had used a sample of 5474 women entrepreneurs, and the hypotheses were tested using 428 returned questionnaires. The data of this study were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 and SmartPLS 2.0.