Beyond Digital Skills Training: How Digital Support Access Shapes Entrepreneurial Readiness Among B40 Women in Malaysia
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Abstract
This paper conceptualises why entrepreneurship training does not lead to digital entrepreneurial readiness among women in Malaysia’s bottom 40% (B40) household income group. This research paper lays out a focused capability-conversion framework that distinguishes three analytically distinct conditions: training-based digital capability, access to digital entrepreneurial support, and digital entrepreneurial readiness. The paper draws on the Training Transfer Theory, Sen’s capability approach, research on women’s digital entrepreneurship, and recent evidence on gendered entrepreneurship ecosystems to develop an integrative conceptual synthesis. The analysis asserts that just knowing how to employ digital tools is not the same as having the connectivity, devices, platform access, technical guidance, payment infrastructure, market support and post-training assistance to use those skills entrepreneurially. It also differentiates between the two based on the perception of being prepared and able to apply a range of digital tools in business activities. There are three propositions: that transferable digital capability supports digital readiness; that accessible digital entrepreneurial support supports readiness; and that access to digital support functions as a conversion mechanism between learnt capability and readiness. The model builds on previous work that has systematised training and ecosystem access for B40 women, but isolates the digital pathway rather than reconstituting the broader mediation model. It provides a theoretical foundation for developing post-training interventions that can later be tested empirically among Malaysia's B40 women.
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