Title: Surviving small and medium tourism accommodation businesses: aligning strategic entrepreneurship orientations with industry programs

Authors: Melissa Li Sa Liow; Aik Lee Chong; Angelina Seow Voon Yee

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Law, International University of Malaya-Wales, Ground Floor, Block A, City Campus, Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Law, International University of Malaya-Wales, Ground Floor, Block A, City Campus, Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Abstract: Arising out of defunct national and enterprise programs, there is a call to identify strategic entrepreneurship orientations to ensure the survival of small and medium tourism accommodation businesses. Building on previous entrepreneurship literature, a performance framework was constructed from 322 respondents through a postal survey. Based on multivariate analysis and primary data, we found that the survival factors included: a need for more entrepreneurial owners and managers to operationalise a knowledge creation process in their businesses. A knowledge creation process is found to have positive effects on their business performance. An important finding identified by this study revealed that brand-related initiatives are redundant, but forging unique customer experiences is indispensable. Our program recommendations aim to guide policymakers and entrepreneurs in following these identified factors. Finally, our findings in Malaysia may be useful for small and medium tourism accommodations businesses in other developing countries.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; small businesses; small and medium enterprises; developing countries; travel and tourism; branding orientation; entrepreneurial orientation; customer orientation; knowledge creation process; performance; structural equation modelling; analysis of moment structures; Malaysia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2018.091447

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2018 Vol.34 No.1, pp.35 - 67

Received: 02 Sep 2016
Accepted: 19 Nov 2016

Published online: 01 May 2018 *

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