Abstract:

Financial capability has become a growing interest in today's society due to the raising bankruptcy rate. Young entrepreneurs who have begun to achieve some degree of financial autonomy are expected to take responsibility of their financial matters. Thus this paper seeks to shed light on the financial capability among young entrepreneurs and to explore the relationships between financial behavior, entrepreneurial traits and financial capability among generation Y entrepreneurs. The selected traits of Generation Y are risk-taking, internal locus of control, creativity and achievement motive. A questionnaire survey was conducted to 300 Malaysian young entrepreneurs between 18 to 40 years old. Based on the 193 completed responses the study reveals that there is a high level of financial capabilities among Generation Y entrepreneurs. In addition the study finds that entrepreneurs' financial behavior, and high level of entrepreneurial traits have significant and positive effects on financial capability. This study provides some interesting clues to financial capability among young entrepreneurs by integrating the elements of entrepreneurial traits and financial behavior.