Empirical Analysis Of Malaysian Government Export Assistance Programs

The goal of this doctorate research is to understand the effectiveness of Malaysian Government export assistance programs and the impact of these programs on internationalization and export performance of SMEs. Despite numerous of studies on the impact of export assistance programs by trade researchers, so far none has been done effectively to address the issues faced specifically by Malaysian SMEs in the process of Internationalization.To determine the effectiveness of the export assistance programs, this study focused on the following variables:(1) the level of awareness of the government export assistance programs among the SMEs,(2) the level of perceived usefulness of the government export programs among the SMEs,(3) the level of helpfulness of the exporting programs among the SMEs, and (4) the level of benefits received by the SMEs from using the exporting programs.Structural questionnaire is being used as the research instrument for this dissertation. The data for the study were collected through mail questionnaires sent to the selected SMEs. Structural questionnaires were sent to the owners and senior managers of the600firms selected. Out of the total number of600questionnaires mailed234questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of39%.206SME firms were identified and selected as sample from the listing obtained from the Small and Medium Industry Development Corporation (SMIDEC).Structural equation modelling based on partial least squares path analysis had been applied to conduct reliability and validity. The results from this study confirmed the hypotheses and the hypothetical conclusions were drawn. Related theoretical models and approach such as the Uppsala Model, the Innovation-related Internationalization Model, Network Approach of Internationalization, Social Network model of the Guanxi Networking and Bamboo Networking, International New Ventures, and Resource-based Approach had been used as the theoretical basis to explain the findings for Internationalization process of the Malaysian SMEs.Our study found that awareness, perceived usefulness and helpfulness of export assistance programs have positive beneficial impact on the SMEs performance. The types of benefits that the SMEs received from using the various export assistance programs had increased their market growth, export sales and overall sales as well as improved their product quality and packaging design. This shows that the programs are actually effective and beneficial to the SME. Consequently, it is theorized that the helpfulness of government assistance programs is beneficial to Malaysian SMEs.The knowledge obtained through this study would help the government policy makers and agencies executives to design effective export assistance for the internationalization development of SMEs. The findings would also help the government agencies to retain the programs that have successfully proven to have effective impact on the internationalization of SMEs and formulate better programs as well as reformulate the programs that are less effective.