Int. J. Business Competition and Growth, Vol. 1, No.

2, 2010 177

Business challenges and strategies for development

of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
in Malaysia

Syed Zamberi Ahmad*

College of Business Administration,
Prince Sultan University (PSU),
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
E-mail: sahmad@oyp.psu.edu.sa
E-mail: drszamberi@yahoo.com
*Corresponding author

Nazatul Shima Abdul Rani

Marketing and Management Department,
The School of Business,
Curtin University of Technology Sarawak, Malaysia
E-mail: shimarani@curtin.edu.my

Siti Kasmah Mohd Kassim

School of Foundation and Continuing Studies,
Curtin University of Technology Sarawak, Malaysia
E-mail: ctkasmah@curtin.edu.my

Abstract: Despite their significant role in both the developed and the
developing economies, Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are faced
with the greater risk of business failure with past statistics indicating that over
half of all new ventures will not enjoy long-term success. They face various
types of difficulties and business challenges. This paper attempts to examine
the issues, and explain how the business owners of SMEs in Malaysia
strategise their operation to overcome the failure. The study highlighted several
challenges faced by the firms, and to overcome these issues, SMEs have
followed numerous strategies. The study revealed that business success is a
result of implementing a mix of business, operation and management strategies.
The paper concludes with the possible remedies, recommendations and future
enhancements.

Keywords: SMEs; small- and medium-sized enterprises; entrepreneurship;

new business venture; Malaysia; business challenges.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Ahmad, S.Z.,

Abdul Rani, N.S. and Mohd Kassim, S.K. (2010) ‘Business challenges and
strategies for development of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
in Malaysia’, Int. J. Business Competition and Growth, Vol. 1, No. 2,
pp.177–197.

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