Abstract

As part of its SME development agenda in the country, the Malaysian government promotes entrepreneurship as
a career among university students by offering educational programs at local universities in form of core subjects
or part of the curriculum. Nevertheless, the impact of this strategy has not been satisfactory as these programs
have not been able to encourage young graduates to venture into entrepreneurial activities. Young entrepreneurs
often lack the capital for starting a business or face technical problems in executing and developing a business
idea. To help young entrepreneurs overcome these obstacles, government business support services (GBSS) has
been set up to provide them every possible help to start their own business. This paper examines if knowledge of
GBSS is a positive factor that can assure young graduates of receiving the requisite support and encourage them
to set up their own business. Using a quantitative technique, this study measures the impact of awareness of
GBSS, product knowledge and procedural knowledge of acquiring the services among potential graduates on
their intention to pursue a business opportunity. Data analyses were conducted via two principal stages using
SPSS 19.0 and Smart PLS 2.0. This study found that while awareness of the GBSS and knowledge about the
procedure of acquiring a service affect the readiness of potential entrepreneurs to venture into their own business,
interestingly, product knowledge about the service offered did not have a significant impact at all.

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