ARTICLE REVIEW

TITLE: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Competing in the Global Business Environment:
A Case of Malaysia

PRINCIPLES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ENT530)

FACULTY & PROGRAMME : BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

SEMESTER :4
NAME : NURUL IZWANI BINTI JALALUDIN
GROUP : BA250 4A
LECTURER : MADAM NADIAH MAISARAH
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I am very grateful to Allah S.W.T for giving me chance to complete this
Article Review that I have to accomplish as one of the requirements in the course work
assessment for the subject code ENT530.

This portfolio would not be complete if it is not because of all the support and
cooperation from others. Thank you to my parents and friends who have helped me to
complete this article review. Not to forget my ENT530 lecturer, Madam Nadiah Maisarah for
kindly helping me during the completion of this article review. She has provided me endless
guidance and provided us with useful information regarding this article review. I would not be
able to complete this assessment without her guidance.

Last but not least, to those who had involved and contributed to this assignment
either directly or indirectly, I am very grateful for all the help and effort that they have shown
throughout the completion of this portfolio. I apologize to those that I did not mentioned that
also has helped me in various way. I hope through this article review assignment, I could
gain a lot of knowledge in reviewing an article critically and as a guidance to write a better
research article in the future.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE
COVER PAGE 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

INTRODUCTION 4

FINDING AND DISCUSSION 4-5

CONCLUSION 6

REFERENCES 7

APPENDINCES 8
INTRODUCTION

The article titled ‘Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Competing in the Global
Business Environment: A Case of Malaysia’ written by Zulkifli, Kamal, Rushdan, Zakiah
(2010) was chosen for review because of the relevance of the topic. Nowadays, most
businesses are jumping on the bandwagon to go global to have a wider market and to gain
more opportunities. The term SMEs is an acronym for “small and medium scale enterprises”.
In this case there are firms or businesses which are small and medium in sizes. They are
firms or businesses arising as a result of entrepreneurial activities of individuals. Through
this article review, the author has analyzed the challenges that SMEs faced in competing
globally and discussed the government supports in helping the SMEs get through it.
Although the author has some good points, the article still has some weakness that will be
discussed in this review.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

As indicated in the article, the overall purpose of the article is to discuss the
competitiveness facing SMEs in global business environment by looking at the opportunities
as well as the government initiatives in helping SMEs survive globalization. The author also
analyzes challenges that Malaysian SMEs faced in global business environment. The article
consists of four sections which starts with an introduction to the research paper, background
of SMEs in Malaysia, the challenges that Malaysian SMEs faced in global business
environment and the last one is government’s initiatives in helping SMEs to compete
globally. Besides the main focus of the article, the new ideas found in the article is
suggestions and advices that the author conveyed to SMEs in order for them to adapt
themselves in global market by taking available opportunities. However, the author did not
express new ideas directly but instead, it was stated very briefly in some paragraphs.

These ideas are important to publish because SMEs are particularly important in any
economy nowadays since they are responsible for job creation and global economic
development. Based on recent statistic, 98.5% of business establishments in Malaysia are
SMEs and they contributes 38.3% of Malaysia GDP in 2018. However, most SMEs
disappear in their early years because they could not respond to the challenges of global
competitiveness but as soon as they disappear, other enterprises are created and the cycle
goes on. It is such a waste for these SMEs that may have potential to move to the higher
level and improve our economy to just ended up being shut down. As stated by the author,
most SMEs require support and assistance from the government especially to be more
competitive in the global business environment. Therefore, the author brough to light the
government initiatives in supporting SMEs in global market and the opportunities that SMEs
should take.

As for the conclusion part, the author first includes a brief summary of the paper’s
main focus and conclude the article by quoting a suggestion on how government policies
can be more effective. Though the research methodology is not stated directly, but as seen
from the whole article, this study is based on secondary data that are collected from various
sources. The author mainly use data from websites, books, e-books, previous published
article, case studies and various research reports in order to gain findings and support the
discussion. The basic results or findings from the research are the challenges in the global
business environment that Malaysian SMEs faced which the author had collected from
several existing literature. The author then discussed on the government supports and
opportunities which is the result of their research on several real events regarding SMEs in
Malaysia. All the evidence in the discussion are well stated and real evidence are used
which managed to support the discussion.

In my opinion, the article is useful for SMEs as an assistance in getting aware of the
government supports that actually exists which could help them move to higher levels
globally. This topic has to be brought to light in order to help SMEs to take as much
opportunities as they can. Johor South SME advisor, Teh Kee Sin stated that many small
and medium enterprises (SMEs) are still unaware of the funding options available for them to
go digital, especially government initiatives (Zazali, 2019). Therefore, all the various
government supports that have been stated by the author could create more awareness
among SMEs regarding the existence of government supports especially for SMEs to
compete in global business environment. The strength of the article is the author managed
to conveyed the focus of the article and answer the topic question with the data from various
literatures and real events as evidence to support the discussion.

However, the author may have included a lot of quotation from other article or raw
data from their references that it is difficult to see any new ideas except for some
suggestions and advices. Besides, the author could have stated the new ideas in the article
more specific or clearer. Despite having succeed to fully conveyed the focus of this article, it
could have been much better if the author relates the discussion of government support with
their analysis on challenges that Malaysian SMEs faced in global market environment. It is
also lack in research methodology such as quantitative or qualitative data (questionnaire or
interviews) which could make the research topic even more convincing and reliable to the
audience.

CONCLUSION

SMEs play an important role in spurring the development of our country’s economy.
Therefore, government have to encourage these small and medium enterprises with various
supports such as those mentioned in the discussion in order for them to get through the
challenges faced in global business environment. This research is significance in creating
awareness among SMEs about the government initiatives which are still unknown to some of
them. The accurateness of this article can be proven by the use of real event evidences
used by the author in the discussion on government supports. However, if it were to have
more research methodology, it could have been more precise. As for further research
recommendation, adding a qualitative or quantitative data such as questionnaire to the
research could improve the evaluation of the topic. The ‘competitiveness’ can actually be
measured by the data collected from a questionnaire as it is timelier and more accurate
instead of just referring to existing literatures.
REFERENCES

Here's Why SME Matters in Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://www.smeinfo.com.my/profile-of-smes

Why small businesses matter. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
https://www.ebrd.com/what-we-do/sectors-and-topics/why-small-businesses-
matter.html

Smevebqu, & Desk, N. (2018, August 09). SMEs should go global! Why? Retrieved June 20,
2020, from https://www.smeventure.com/smes-should-go-global/

Musa, Z. (2019, August 01). Many SMEs unaware of funding options to go digital. Retrieved
June 20, 2020, from https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2019/08/01/many-
smes-unaware-of-funding-options-to-go-digital

Ortega, A. O., Hernández, E. S., Corona, J. R., & Montaño, O. (2011). Knowledge, Learning
and Development: The Challenge of Small and Medium Enterprises to Global
Competition. INTECH Open Access Publisher.

SME and Entrepreneurship Challenge. (n.d.). Private Sector and Enterprise Development.
doi:10.4337/9781781951194.00013

APPENDICES
Muhammad, M. Z., Char, A. K., bin Yasoa, M. R., & Hassan, Z. (2010). Small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) competing in the global business environment: A case of
Malaysia. International Business Research, 3(1), 66.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hassan_Zakiah/publication/42385949_Small_and_Medi
um_Enterprises_SMEs_Competing_in_the_Global_Business_Environment_A_Case_of_Mal
aysia/links/54c4eb9d0cf2911c7a510985/Small-and-Medium-Enterprises-SMEs-Competing-
in-the-Global-Business-Environment-A-Case-of-Malaysia.pdf