Title: Innovativeness, environment and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in manufacturing sector in Malaysia

Authors: Mandy Mok Kim Man; Lo May Chiun

Addresses: Henley Business School Malaysia, University of Reading Malaysia, Persiaran Graduan, Kota Ilmu, Educity, 79200 Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract: This study examines innovativeness and environmental factors that can influence the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. Previous research have focused mainly on technological innovation rather than innovativeness in administration process and innovation culture. The present study examines the fundamental nature of innovativeness and relates these various elements of innovativeness to SMEs performance. The present study includes the role of the government. Firstly, in the Malaysian context, the government interferes in the market through new business policies, increasing or decreasing the interest rate, controlling money supply and implementing competition policy law. Secondly, the role of government has been neglected in most previous research in measuring the environment influences on business in spite of their importance in determining the environment indicators, such as, environmental uncertainty and intensity of competition. The present study shows that the innovativeness and environmental factors have significant impact on SMEs performance.

Keywords: innovativeness; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; environment; performance; technology; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIE.2020.110771

International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise, 2020 Vol.7 No.4, pp.444 - 460

Received: 09 Aug 2018
Accepted: 05 May 2019
Published online: 29 Oct 2020 *

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