Entrepreneurship in Early Childhood Care: A Malaysian Study

This report delves into the landscape of childcare entrepreneurship in Malaysia, examining the industry's growth and the factors driving it, such as favorable macroeconomic conditions, increasing demand for childcare services, and government support. It defines entrepreneurship and explores the key players and entrepreneurial ventures within the Malaysian early childhood care and education (ECCE) sector. The report highlights the positive impacts of entrepreneurship on the development of childcare facilities, including the emergence of various models like government-owned, workplace-based, and home-based care. Furthermore, it investigates the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the industry, such as competition and financial constraints, and identifies key success factors through the analysis of successful entrepreneurs. The conclusion summarizes the main findings, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of entrepreneurship, the industry's growth, and the importance of overcoming market challenges.

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Childcare
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A. Entrepreneurial opportunities in Malaysian Early Childhood Industry:
Introduction:
Entrepreneurial ventures are often signified as the drivers of economic growth in
economies. Entrepreneurs recognize gaps in the market which are either not met successfully ro
not met at all to bring bring about new products which are capable of meeting the gap.
Entrepreneurs usually seek to enter markets, which are experiencing fast growth and are capable
of giving higher returns. As per Omar (2016) early childhood industry is one of the fastest
growing industries in countries like Malaysia. The market is attracting entrepreneurial ventures
owing to favourable factors like availability of financial assistance from banks. The aim of the
paper would be exploring the entrepreneurial opportunities in Malaysia. The paper after defining
the term entrepreneurship would go on to describe the early childhood care and education in
context of Malaysia followed by an exploration of the main entrepreneurs in the sector. Then the
researcher would go on to describe the impact of entrepreneurship on the development and
growth in sector. The second part of the research would go on to explore the key success factors,
challenges and methods to over the challenges by interviewing an entrepreneur.
Analysis:
Entrepreneurship can be defined as the process of launching and carrying out new
business ventures. Gutterman, A. (2015) mentions in his work that the term entrepreneurship ,
though one of the most studied topics of management, lack a fixed definition. Dentchev et al.
(2016) defines the entrepreneurship from the view of bring about goods in order to create value
to the society. Koe, Omar and Sa’ari (2015) though do not contradict the views of the previous
authors; point out to the term the view of profit generation. As per their views, entrepreneurship

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can be described as the process of launching and running businesses in order to earn profits by
taking risks. One can point out that entrepreneurship can be carried out in the forms as sole
proprietorships, partnerships as well as multinational corporate organisations. The analysis of
brings into light four aspects of entrepreneurship. The first aspect is that entrepreneurship results
in development of new products in the society. The second aspect is that entrepreneurship is
generation of profits while the third aspect of entrepreneurship is taking risks. The fourth aspect
is creating value for the customers and the society at large by offering products which would
create value.
Early Childhood Care and Education industry in Malaysia is one of the fastest growing
service industries in the country owing to several favourable macroeconomic contexts. Omar
(2016) sheds light on the first context, which is leading to the growth in the industry. The author
mentions that the advent of career opportunities in the country and increasing professional
pressure often require the residents of the country stay away from their children for a long time.
This factor has given rise to needs for institutions, which would take care of children during the
long hours of absence due to professional commitments. The article further mentions owing to
more parents admitting their children in early childhood care services; there has been a steady
growth in the numbers of the nurseries and kindergarten service providing firms.
The article points out to the second factor in the Malaysian context, which is encouraging
further growth in the industry. Mikkelsen and Mikkelsen (2017) point out that the kindergartens
in Malaysia design their service packages in alignment with the preferences of the parents, their
customers in order to ensure satisfaction to the latter. These early childhood care-providing
nurseries take into aspects like expectations of parents regarding the food and entertainment
services, which would be provided to their children. These childcare service-providing

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companies in pursuit of creating products to meet the specific expectations of the parents, have
succeeded in bringing about proliferation in the service ranges. This proliferation of products has
led to the expansion in the early childhood care providing industry both in terms of customer
base and revenue generation.
The third factor, which has led to development of the childcare bodies in Malaysia, is
passing of specific acts dealing with the sector. The Child Care Centre Act 1984 passed by the
Government of Malaysia and amended in 2008 clearly describes the act as, ‘An Act to provide
for the registration, control and inspection of child care centres and for purposes connected
therewith. (Agc.gov.my. 2019)’. It is clear from the statement that the early childcare centres in
Malaysia, both private early childhood care-providing firms and the ones run by the government
come under the purview of the act. This intervention of the government means that the early
childhood providing playschools are bound to comply with the laws and are bound to maintain
certain levels of ethical standards while functioning. The Government of Malaysia is not only the
lawmaker in the early childhood car industry but a player as well. The Government operates
early childhood care centres like Taska dalam komuniti, which provides childcare facilities at
lower rates compared to their private counterparts.
The fourth factor, which has provided opportunities to early childhood care centres to
develop and thrive in Malaysia, is availability of financial assistance. Mukhtar et al. (2019) point
out in this respect that the availability of easily availability of financial assistance lead to
development and expansion of industries. One can point out in this respect the fact applies to the
early childhood care industry in Malaysia as well. Malaysian banks provide loans to establish
nurseries and kindergartens. This easy availability of financial resources has attracted several
entrepreneurs to the industry. Thus, it is evident that the availability of financial support to the

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industry has led to the development and expansion of the early childhood care providing bodies
in Malaysia. This analysis of the four aforementioned factors shows that the favourable
macroeconomic contexts in Malaysia has led to the expansion of the early childhood care
industry in the country.
The favourable market conditions in Malaysia and worldwide has led to development of
several chains of early childhood care providing bodies. As far as Early Childhood Care and
Education (ECCE) institutes offering early childhood care in Malaysia are concerned, the leading
institutes are R.E.A.L Kids, Anggun City (Rawang), Knowledge Tree+ Montessori
Kindergarten, Plaza Arkadia Desa ParkCity and Tadika Genius Kids' Land, Setia Alam, Shah
Alam (Kiddy123.com. 2019). As far as the early childhood care providing schools in Malaysia
are concerned, most of these schools operate within the country. However, on a global context
schools like Aukamm Elementary School operates in as many as three continents (Dodea.edu.
2019). Thus, one can infer that on the whole the industry of early childhood care services has not
only developed in Malaysia and on the global front, it has become extremely competitive with
global players like Aukamm Elementary School operating across several markets.
The increase in the amount of entrepreneurial ventures has positive impacts on the
growth and development of the early childhood development bodies. This is evident from the
increase in the numbers of early childhood care providing bodies operating according to different
models like government owned, workplace based, institution based childcare facilities and home-
based child care facilities. For example, the Guardian reports that multinational companies like
Yahoo and Goldman Sachs are providing corporate childcare facilities for their respective
employees (Jenkin, 2016). It can be pointed out that in this respect that corporate childcare
centres (workplace model) can be described as the entrepreneurial ventures launched by these

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companies. The Malaysian companies in comparison to the global companies, generally do not
invest in the workplace child care models due to safety concerns of the children, especially in
factories and cost cutting. (Bunyan, 2018). This lack of entrepreneurial investments in the
workplace based early childcare facilities in Malaysian companies, force employees to seek
services of home-based early childhood care services Thus, it can be pointed out that lack of
workplace based child care facilities in Malaysia has encouraged growth of other models like
home based and institution based early childhood care systems. However, the picture is slowly
changing in Malaysia as well. Leading international financial business conglomerate CitiGroup
has launched corporate childcare facilities for its Malaysian branches (Citigroup.com, 2019).
Thus, it is clear that the entrepreneurial ventures are having positive impact on early childhood
care industries in Malaysia, In fact, the growth is taking place largely due to investment of
foreign companies in the industry.
B. Challenges and key success factors of a successful entrepreneur:
An interview of Alon Musk, the co-founder, the chief executive officer and product
architect of Tesla Inc. brings to light several success factors responsible for the success of
entrepreneurs like skills, opportunities and knowledge. One of the most remarkable leadership
skills of Musk is his stakeholders’ concern. This is evident from Musk’s investment in SolarCity
which generates solar energy which can be used for domestic consumption. The second critical
attribute of Musk is its participative leadership skills. The entrepreneur encourages engineers
working under his leadership to participate in decision-making activities. Thus, on the whole the
interview of Musk reveals that entrepreneurs have certain attributes which lead to their success.
It cannot be denied that entrepreneurs face several challenges during the course of
their entrepreneurial ventures, which they have to overcome. Hobolt and De Vries (2015) in

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their work point out that first challenge entrepreneurs face in the market at least in the initial
phase-competition. They point out that entrepreneurs have to face stiff competition from
established entrepreneurs upon entering the market. For example, new early childhood facility
providers have to compete with the established players in the industry. Omar (2016) can
reiterated here again to mention that the new players in order to overcome the competition
should offer superior quality childcare services at legitimate rates and operate ethically. Bhatia,
Chauhan and Gurugram (2019) point out that the second challenge which the new childcare
facilities would face is scarcity of financial resources. For example, the sole proprietorship
businesses in childcare industry in Malaysia are financially too weak to compete with their
corporate counterparts held by MNCs like CitiGroup (Citigroup.com, 2019). The smaller
entrepreneurial ventures in child care industry which is already extremely competitive should
market their services to attract more customers which in turn would generate higher revenue.
C. Conclusion:
One can conclude the above discussion by highlighting several salient findings. First, the
discussion points out that entrepreneurship has several aspects. The term assimilates social value
creation, customer value creation, profit generation and new product development. However,
these aspects are accompanied by risks. Secondly, favourable market conditions boost growth of
industries and the early childhood care industry is no exception. The industry has proliferated in
Malaysia owing to favourable market factors. However, the childcare industry in Malaysia is far
underdeveloped compared to its global counterpart. In fact, the workplaces in Malaysia, mainly
the resident companies in general tend not to provide corporate childcare services. However,
inception of corporate childcare facilities by the MNCs in the country is slowly changing the

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picture. Finally, the discussion can be closed by pointing that entrepreneurs face challenges in
the market and have to overcome them.

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References:
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Bhatia, K., Chauhan, A., & Gurugram, H. (2019). Challenge for Women Entrepreneurship: A
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Bunyan, J. (2018). Malaymail.com. Retrieved 17 September 2019, from
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Jenkin, M. (2016). TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 17 September 2019, from
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