Research
Business Success in Malaysian SMEs: A Quantitative Approach
Purpose: It is becoming increasingly hard to ignore the importance of the little and medium enterprises (SME) sector in the financial development of a nation. In view of their increasing importance, this paper intends to identify the factors that influence the success of SMEs in the city of Malaysia. Design: The study embraced a quantitative approach in order to validate the underlying conceptual framework, developed from a systematic literature review, and to increase some bits of knowledge on the perceptions of managers. Questionnaire was distributed to 365 industrial SMEs that were selected from the official website of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Free Industrial Zone Malaysia. Findings and conclusions: Results of the quantitative study validated the underlying conceptual framework. It was discovered that the internal factors, for example, age, size, and area of the business; age, education, family foundation, and experience of the entrepreneur; managerial and utilitarian competences of the entrepreneur; and need for achievement and hazard taking propensity of the entrepreneur were correlated with business success. Then again, accessibility of finance, tax assessment, access to technology, access to networking and access to customers and suppliers were the identified correlated external factors. These findings provided bolster for the development of an underlying contextual model that features the effect of internal and external factors on business success. Limitations: Findings of the study remain limited and ought to be circumspectly interpreted since the perceptions about business success factors, derived from the literature in different contexts, were imposed on respondents. This did not permit an enough understanding of participants‟ worldview of the vital factors in the specific context of Malaysia which may be different from other contexts. Originality/Value: This is perhaps among very few studies that address the issue of pri
Impact of Effective Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management on Business Success: An Empirical Study of SMEs in Malaysia
Purpose: This study aims to explore and develop a clearer understanding of the factors that influence success in Malaysian small and medium enterprises by implementing entrepreneurship and strategic management, as perceived by local owner and/or managers. Design/methodology/approach: Using a qualitative approach, fifteen in-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected owner-managers of SMEs, forming a judgmental selection, to explore their experiences, beliefs, and attitudes with respect to the external factors of success. Findings: The study suggested that there are three generalized factors that influence success and performance in SMEs based on the entrepreneur’s perceptions: the “owner and manager attributes†which involves the language skills factor, financial and networking partnership, and business characteristics with a focus on the location factor, which was mainly associated with the selected districts in Malaysia. The importance of financial resources stemmed from the substantial challenges faced by SMEs in Malaysia. A response to these challenges often adopted an equity model of financial resources. Furthermore, the concepts of conduct, equipment, and commitments, clearly explained the importance of a good infrastructure to the appreciation of success in this type of business. Originality/value: The study contributes to the understanding of the impact of critical external factors on the success of SMEs in Malaysia. The three significant factors could be considered to be ways of understanding the external environment by small business owners and managers, allowing the impact of external factors to become part of the way that the small business owners conduct their business.
