The Future of Social Enterprise Café in Malaysia: A Study on Millennials’ Perception and Intention

Abstract

Over the past decade, there have been a growing number of social enterprises in Malaysia, especially in the food and beverage industry. However, social enterprise cafes face various challenges in liquidity and lack of public awareness that hindered their progress. In view of this, millennials are the potential target market for social enterprises due to their rapid growth in population and increasing purchasing power. Millennials have high awareness of social issues and support for socially responsible organisations. Based on a survey collected from 424 millennials in Malaysia, data were analysed using the structural equation modelling. Results indicate that millennials are influenced by perceived price and attitude, followed by social norms, while social enterprise knowledge had a significant but weak influence on their intention. In moving forward, the findings suggest that social enterprise cafes could emphasize more on creating value through their pricing strategy and encourage knowledge sharing and attitude towards social enterprises to strengthen purchase intention towards social enterprise cafes. This study not only sheds light on millennials but also assist social enterprises to sustain their business and have a long-term impact on society and environmental causes.