Being Entrepreneurial, the Brunei Perspective

Brunei, a country producing oil and gas for over 80 years, faces the need to boost entrepreneurship to diversify the country’s economy and to increase its non-oil or gas dependent income/revenue. This economic diversification can have important benefits for the country, both economically and socially when the finite fossil fuels run out in the near future. The current generation of young Bruneians will be the future business leaders and decision makers. Accordingly, the quantitative research is interested in investigating the attitudes and opinions of the young Bruneians towards entrepreneurship and the factors influencing the development of entrepreneurial qualities to complement existing or future government initiatives in this area. Therefore, the research study (survey by responding to questionnaire method) is targeted at members of the younger generation (age from 18 to 23 years old) of Brunei from the secondary school students and the university undergraduates. The authors analysed, interpreted and discussed on the findings, and subsequently highlight the key obstacles to entrepreneurial thinking in Brunei, The authors also recommend the ways that the government can espouse and implement to get their people to being more entrepreneurial. This includes to promote an entrepreneurial frame of mind; having an open mind and making people a bit hungry as well as making them think proactively learn, being more independent or simply toughen them up. This research study demonstrates the importance of individual’s personal attributes, such as psychological and demographic factors, which combine with environmental factors that would encourage and promote entrepreneurship. Agreeably, the individual’s discovery of an opportunity and the successful exploitation of that opportunity are also in the promotion of entrepreneurship in the Brunei context.