WELL-BEING AND ETHICAL VALUES OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN MALAYSIA: A COMPARISON ACROSS ASEAN COUNTRIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46754/umtjur.v5i2.411Keywords:
Well-being, ethical values, women entrepreneurs, Malaysia, ASEANAbstract
Studies on women entrepreneurs remain limited as compared to their men counterparts. Furthermore, existing literature mainly emphasizes the conventional issue of business performance measured through financial indicators. This study is unique from conventional research that focused on financial performance particularly among male entrepreneurs. To advance, this research embarks to examine the well-being and ethical values of women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Drawing on data from the World Values Survey wave 7 (2017-2020), I also compare the condition in Malaysia with five other ASEAN countries. In general, I found that women entrepreneurs in Malaysia exhibit a low level of well-being, particularly in terms of happiness, and life and financial satisfaction. Also, they are perceived as moderately ethical towards cheating on taxes and accepting a bribe. Overall, this research contributes to shed light on a novel perspective of entrepreneurship particularly among women. This paper examines two unique dimensions of women entrepreneurship in Malaysia: Well-being and ethical values. It utilizes the recent World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017-2020) data to study five elements in the former (happiness, health, freedom, life satisfaction, and financial satisfaction) and two elements in the latter (perception of cheating on taxes and perception on accepting a bribe). This study employs the recent WVS wave 7 (2017-2021) data to compare all well-being and ethical values across women entrepreneurs in five ASEAN countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar). The results show that women entrepreneurs in Malaysia exhibit a low level of well-being, particularly in terms of happiness, and life and financial satisfaction. Also, they are perceived as moderately ethical towards cheating on taxes and accepting a bribe.
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