Abstract
Research generally concludes that small businesses contribute to economic development. In Malaysia, small firm’s particularly Chinese small firms have played a very important role for economic growth in this country. Chinese firms have managed to survive, grow and succeed either in Malaysia or anywhere else in the world. Most prior research found that the success factor was related to their socio-cultural context. However, previous studies have found the similarities on the cultural values of the Malays and Chinese which derived from ‘Budi Complex’ and ‘Confucianism’ respectively. It was particularly on certain selected values related to self, time and epistemology. Therefore, this paper tries to identify other reasons behind the success factor of the Chinese as compared to the Malay small firms. Thus, looking at the perspective of Knowledge Base View theory, this paper proposed that cultural values are not a mere factor that affect the way Chinese small firms market their operation. The current study thus proposed that how Chinese and Malays acquire and share knowledge, have significant contribution to their success or their failures.
Highlights
The authors were interested in the following questions: How does the cultural study and knowledge acquisition process lead to their success?; What are the differences between the Malay and the Chinese cultural values and knowledge acquisition that contributed into their business success?
Self is seen as a totality encompassing the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Both Budi Complex and Confucianism look at self as one that is socially constructed by others
Malaysian Chinese marketing activities are influenced by the growth and development of East Asian economies such as four Newly Industrialized countries (NICs) of East Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan and even South Korea whose culture was under the influence of Confucianism (Wah, 2002)
Summary
The works of many western researchers have triggered the growing body of research into the relationship between market orientation, marketing philosophies and business performance. Hong and Chen, (1998), revealed that for Chinese small firms in Taiwan and Hong Kong, their market orientation was a critical determinant for their performance. Siu (2000) on the other hand found that the success of Chinese small businesses in Hong Kong was not solely influenced by the marketing philosophy, but by doing favors for others. The authors were interested in the following questions: How does the cultural study and knowledge acquisition process lead to their success?; What are the differences between the Malay and the Chinese cultural values and knowledge acquisition that contributed into their business success?. The section would attempt to deal with particular theory of knowledge and culture, and, the authors would take the position to propose the success factors of Chinese and Malay, related to the role of knowledge and culture The section would attempt to deal with particular theory of knowledge and culture, and in the final section, the authors would take the position to propose the success factors of Chinese and Malay, related to the role of knowledge and culture
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
