Mustafa Zakaria

Business strategy and performance of small and medium manufacturing firms in Malaysia

Although business strategy has attracted much attention in the literature, the review of past research suggests limited number of studies have attempted to investigate business strategy in the context of local firms, particularly among the small and medium manufacturing firms (SMMFs). The purpose of this study was to address this research issue. More specifically, this study attempted to examine whether the performance of the SMMFs differs with the type of business strategy being adopted. The data for the study was collected from 125 SMMFs. Analyses of the data provide empirical evidence that indicates significant difference between the performance and the business strategy being employed by the SMMFs in the study.

Internationalisation incentives and problems: insight from Malaysian SMEs

As an area of study, internationalisation has received limited research attention in the Malaysian context. More specifically, the review of the small business literature reveals that research on internationalisation among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia has not been emphasised. The purpose of this study is to address this issue. This study examines the incentives and problems of internationalisation among 73 SMEs in the manufacturing sector. The results of the study suggest that the SMEs in the study in general agreed that the internationalisation incentives had contributed to their success in exporting. In addition, the SMEs reported that their firms encountered 20 pressing internationalisation problems.