ABSTRACT. Globally, life insurance anchors people’s wealth development. The industry is intensifying and developing steadily with increased standards of living in developing countries. Numerous recent studies examining entrepreneurship have disclosed specific characteristics of entrepreneurial orientations in the insurance sector, specifically relating entrepreneurial orientation to sales performance indices. This study explores the conceptual understanding of entrepreneurial attitudes by relating diverse insurance agents’ sales performances to the various dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation as suggested by Lumpkin and Dess (1996). Consistent with this view, Morris, Avila, and Teeple (1990) argued that sales activities are inherently an entrepreneurial pursuit. This research will examine 120 life insurance agents’ behavioral attitudes in Sabah. It is worthwhile to stress that the data collected were mainly focused on demographic background and sales performance for the past five years. The analysis will highlight some of the keys factors influencing these behavioral approaches of insurance sales agents in their normal setting or in their working environments. A five-point Likert scale instrument is used to assess attitudinal variables; namely, willingness to assume risk, opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial orientation and intuition. pp. 1-17

Keywords: Life insurance, Sabah, behavioral approaches, intuition and entrepreneurial orientation, Malaysia