Soft Skills Training Program as a Moderator on the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Channel Performance

Abstract

This study focuses on soft skills training program whereby soft skills refer to a person's ability to relate with others as well as with one's own self (Nayak, 2014). Soft skills are often studied and discussed compared to hard skills of an individual to resolve some technical problem or liaise with intellectual challenges based on their knowledge and ability. The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effects of soft skills training program on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking) and channel performance. Soft skills training programs can have a positive impact on entrepreneurship and help to increase channel performance in a number of ways. The methodology of the study was guided most generally by positivist research in using precise, objective measures and is usually associated with quantitative data (Cavana, Delahaye, & Sekaran, 2000). A sample of 320 top-ranked MLM sales agents across the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) industry in Malaysia was selected to participate in this structured questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to test the moderating effect of soft skills training program on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and channel performance. The findings showed that soft skills training program moderates each of these relationships, which are proactiveness and innovativeness, whereas risk-taking showed the negative impact on channel performance with a moderator effect. This study gives new exploration in MLM industry of Malaysia whereby soft skills training program as a moderator delivers some significant relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and channel performance.