Resources, Social Network Competence and Youth Entrepreneur Success: A Proposed Framework

Becoming self-employed among youth is increasingly more relevant in the future. As Malaysia is a small country, youth can no longer rely on job opportunities. From that, the issues of unemployment in the local economy have led to the need for youths to find opportunities in self-employment. Although it is proven that there is a huge potential in current market and despite considerable government support and assistance in terms of grants, funding, provisions of training and consultative services, but many businesses operate by youth still fail and the failure rate remains high. Studies have found that every ten (10) entrepreneurs, only two (2) of them survive and successful every year. In a multi-ethnic country like Malaysia, lack of exposure in term of managing and utilising resources from various sources like from their own resources, from cultural orientation, economic conditions and political linkages are often cited as factors that depict their different behaviours and hinder certain ethnic group ventures or growth into entrepreneurship. On the other hand, the present study will also explore the role of social network in enhancing their businesses. The researchers argue that the entrepreneurs’ resources orchestration is insufficient to contribute to the youth entrepreneurs’ success without the social network strategies. The present study therefore aims to develop entrepreneur’s success model based on the combination of various resources for development of resource orchestration based on resource-based theory and the role of social network competence based on sociological theory in achieving successful business performance. The outcome of this research will give impact on both practical and theoretical implications as well as guiding the youth entrepreneur for their business growth.