Exploring the Prospects and Challenges for Entrepreneurship among Rural Small Island Community in Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

In developing countries, especially in rural areas, the role of entrepreneurship has been viewed more crucially as a key strategy to combat poverty. Thus, the Malaysian government has been promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas including the small islands, by encouraging them to earn their income from small scale business activities by making good use of their diverse local resources and cultures. However, despite various entrepreneurial development initiatives that have been provided by the government, there is still low involvement among local community in entrepreneurial activities. In addition, relatively little has been focused on entrepreneurial opportunities on islands where problems tend to be different due to constraint environment in terms of access to infrastructure, market and supply of resources. Therefore, this study investigates among the local people in Mantanani Island, the challenges and prospects for entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, it asks their opinion on ‘what stimulates and hinders a person to start a business in the island. Personal observation and small-scale semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 60 local people of Mantanani Island. The results were presented in Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram, which include several internal and external factors that influence and hinder small business start-up. This study hopes to contribute to the entrepreneurial development organisations (EDOs) on effective support policies for rural island community involvement in entrepreneurship.