The Internationalization of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Automation Industry of Penang, Malaysia

Abstract

With the rise of globalization, internationalization of companies has become a new business order, as globally, boundaries are no longer a barrier to firms as they can develop competence to enter international market and gain competitive advantage at global marketplace. The significance of this proposal is by integrating in a single framework the relationship between a pull factor (networking) and push factors (management attitude and entrepreneurial orientation) on the internationalization of SMEs in automation industry as well as testing the moderation effect of marketing characteristics (market attractiveness) on these constructs. This study proposes a research framework that examined the association between networking, management attitude, entrepreneurial orientation and internationalization of SMEs in the automation industry of Penang, Malaysia, with marketing characteristics (market attractiveness) as moderator. Underpinned by the Eclectic Model (OLI Framework) and Network Theory, the proposal examines the function of networking to obtain resources and access market opportunities; the positive management attitude and entrepreneurial orientation of firms as strategic intangible resources, and the marketing characteristics to function as moderator between the predicting and criterion variables. Theoretically, the study investigates empirically the association amongst the three independent variables (networking, management attitude and entrepreneurial orientation) and the dependent variable (internationalization of SMEs). In addition, this study has incorporated a moderating variable (marketing characteristics) into the research model. This proposal was unique in the sense that it is pivoted in SMEs automation industry in Penang, Malaysia. Thus, this proposal will enrich literature on the moderating effect of marketing characteristics (market attractiveness) and the relationship amongst the variables in SMEs automation industrial setting and context. Keywords: internationalization, automation, Small & Medium Enterprise, Penang, Malaysia. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-18-03 Publication date: September 30 th 2021