IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ibrjnl/v11y2018i8p142-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Mediating Effect of Innovation on Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success in Malaysian SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Azmi Umar
  • Che Mohd Zulkifli Che Omar
  • Mohd Sahandri Gani Hamzah
  • Azizah Hashim

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of entrepreneurial competencies and innovation on business success in SMEs in Malaysia. Specifically, this study tested the mediating role of product innovation and process innovation between the relationship of entrepreneurial competencies and business success. The statical sample population of this research includes 407 owner and manager involved in SMEs, both manufacturing and services & other sectors. For data collection, a standard questionnaire using seven-point Likert scale and 72 items was used to evaluate 12 entrepreneurial competencies (strategic competency, commitment competency, conceptual competency, opportunity competency, organising and leading competency, relationship competency, learning competency, personal competency, technical competency, familism competency, ethical competency & social responsibility competency), seven items for innovation (product & process innovation) and, ten items for business success (financial & non-financial). Four hypotheses were developed in this study. The SPSS version 21.0 and Structural equation model (SEM)-AMOS version 21.0 techniques were used. The findings indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between the entrepreneurial competencies and innovation on business success in SMEs. Moreover, there is a positive and significant relationship between all dimension of competencies and business success. The product innovation and process innovation served as partial mediator between entrepreneurial competencies and business success. Limitations and implications for future studies are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Azmi Umar & Che Mohd Zulkifli Che Omar & Mohd Sahandri Gani Hamzah & Azizah Hashim, 2018. "The Mediating Effect of Innovation on Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success in Malaysian SMEs," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(8), pages 142-153, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ibrjnl:v:11:y:2018:i:8:p:142-153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/download/76012/42442
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/view/76012
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 2008. "Innovation in Large and Small Firms: An Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 1, pages 3-15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Hoque, Zahirul, 2004. "A contingency model of the association between strategy, environmental uncertainty and performance measurement: impact on organizational performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 485-502, August.
    3. Tang, Jianmin, 2006. "Competition and innovation behaviour," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 68-82, February.
    4. Chandler, Gaylen N. & Hanks, Steven H., 1993. "Measuring the performance of emerging businesses: A validation study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 8(5), pages 391-408, September.
    5. Bougrain, Frederic & Haudeville, Bernard, 2002. "Innovation, collaboration and SMEs internal research capacities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 735-747, July.
    6. Rosenbusch, Nina & Brinckmann, Jan & Bausch, Andreas, 2011. "Is innovation always beneficial? A meta-analysis of the relationship between innovation and performance in SMEs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 441-457, July.
    7. Umeze, Gerald E. & Ohen, Susan B., 2015. "Marketing Mix Strategies and Entrepreneurial Competence: Evidence from Micro Restaurants in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211928, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nabila Abid & Michael Dowling & Federica Ceci & Junaid Aftab, 2023. "Does resource bricolage foster SMEs' competitive advantage and financial performance? A resource‐based perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5833-5853, December.
    2. Carmen Dolores Blázquez Puerta & Guillermo Bermúdez-González & Ismael P. Soler García, 2022. "Human Systematic Innovation Helix: Knowledge Management, Emotional Intelligence and Entrepreneurial Competency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natalia Strobel & Jan Kratzer, 2017. "OBSTACLES TO INNOVATION FOR SMEs: EVIDENCE FROM GERMANY," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-28, April.
    2. Anderson, Brian S. & Eshima, Yoshihiro, 2013. "The influence of firm age and intangible resources on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm growth among Japanese SMEs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 413-429.
    3. Frida Thomas Pacho, 2018. "Diversified Network Effects on Innovation Performance in Tanzania: Innovation Strategy in Service Firms," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, Macrothink Institute, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, vol. 5(1), pages 1-1, December.
    4. Fischer, Denise & Greven, Andrea & Tornow, Mark & Brettel, Malte, 2021. "On the value of effectuation processes for R&D alliances and the moderating role of R&D alliance experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 606-619.
    5. Hana Kim & Eungdo Kim, 2018. "How an Open Innovation Strategy for Commercialization Affects the Firm Performance of Korean Healthcare IT SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-14, July.
    6. Pascal L. Ghazalian & Ali Fakih, 2017. "R&D and Innovation in Food Processing Firms in Transition Countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 427-450, June.
    7. Joern H. Block & Christian O. Fisch & Mirjam van Praag, 2017. "The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 61-95, January.
    8. Luca Farè, 2022. "Exploring the contribution of micro firms to innovation: does competition matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1081-1113, October.
    9. Patricio Duran & Nadine Kammerlander & Marc van Essen & Thomas Zellweger, 2016. "Doing More with Less : Innovation Input and Output in Family Firms," Post-Print hal-02276703, HAL.
    10. Luca Farè & Marcus Dejardin & Eric Toulemonde, 2024. "Bankruptcy recovery rate and small businesses’ innovation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(32), pages 3870-3903, July.
    11. Huang, Shuangfa & Battisti, Martina & Pickernell, David, 2023. "The roles of innovation strategy and founding team diversity in new venture growth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. M. Moore, 2021. "Collaboration in Coworking Spaces: Impact on Firm Innovativeness and Business Models," Papers 2111.09866, arXiv.org.
    13. Youngwoo Lee & Martin Hemmert, 2023. "Performance implications of combining innovation and internationalization for Korean small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms: an exploration–exploitation perspective," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 1-25, February.
    14. Sheikh Muhamad Hizam Sheikh Khairuddin & Zuhaib Hassan Qureshi & Rosni Ab. Wahid & Shehnaz Tehseen & Zulfiqar Hussain Pathan & Mohammad Rafat Khan, 2019. "A Conceptual Study on Contingent Impact of External Integration on Innovation Sme Business Success Relationship," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 370-380, August.
    15. Carmen González-Velasco & Marcos González-Fernández & José-Luis Fanjul-Suárez, 2019. "Does innovative effort matter for corporate performance in Spanish companies in a context of financial crisis? A fuzzy-set QCA approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1707-1727, May.
    16. Espasandín-Bustelo, Francisco & Rufino-Rus, José Ignacio & Rodríguez-Serrano, M. Ángeles, 2023. "Innovation and performance in social economy enterprises: The mediating effect of legitimacy for customers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    17. Wenwen Zhao & Zhe Zhang, 2020. "How and When Does Corporate Giving Lead to Getting? An Investigation of the Relationship Between Corporate Philanthropy and Relative Competitive Performance from a Micro-process Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 425-440, October.
    18. Annalisa Caloffi & Marco Mariani & Fabrizia Mealli, 2013. "What kinds of R&D consortia enhance SMEs productivity? Evidence from a small-business innovation policy," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0172, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    19. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2021. "Determinants of successful adoption of the Balanced Scorecard in Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises," OSF Preprints 5hx2r, Center for Open Science.
    20. Daniel Feser & Till Proeger, 2017. "Asymmetric information as a barrier to knowledge spillovers in expert markets," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 211-232, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    entrepreneurial competencies; innovation; business success; SMEs; Malaysia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ibrjnl:v:11:y:2018:i:8:p:142-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.