Authors : Norasmah Othman, Hariyaty Ab Wahid and Haliza Hussein
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between resilience and competitiveness of students in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), who are actively participating in the SIFE Program in Malaysia. Resilience dimension in this study consist of resistance to stress, adversity and risk; while competitiveness dimension are strategic communications, planning and administration, strategic action, multi-cultural and self-management. About 124 HEIs’ students who participated in SIFE National Exposition 2011 and 124 students who did not participated SIFE Program, were selected as respondents. Quantitative approach using the survey method was used in this study. Questionnaires were used as the main instrument to collect data and data obtained were analyzed using SPSS. Overall, the resilience of SIFE participants was found to be at a higher level compared to the non-SIFE participants. The level of competitiveness among the two groups of students was at a moderately high level. The result showed a very high positive correlation between resilience and competitiveness with the Pearson correlation coefficient value of 0.83. The implication of this study is the Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia should encourage greater participation of university students in the SIFE program as an effort to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness among students.
Norasmah Othman, Hariyaty Ab Wahid and Haliza Hussein, 2012. Resilience and Competitiveness among Students in the Free Enterprise (SIFE) Program. International Business Management, 6: 652-659.