Scientific Papers

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES


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ISSN: 2306-3483 (Online), 2071-8330 (Print)

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Examining the effectiveness of micro-enterprise development programs in Malaysia

Vol. 10, No 2, 2017

 

Noor Raihani Zainol

 

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan,
Kota Bharu, Malaysia
Email: raihani@umk.edu.my

 

 

Examining the effectiveness of micro-enterprise development programs in Malaysia

 

Abdullah Al Mamun

 

Global Entrepreneurship Research and Innovation Centre (GERIC),
Kota Bharu, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan
Email: abdullah.a@umk.edu.my

 

 

Hasannuddin Hassan

 

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan,
Kota Bharu, Malaysia
Email: hasann@umk.edu.my


Rajennd A/L Muniady

 

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan,
Kota Bharu, Malaysia

Email: rajennd_57@yahoo.com

 

 

 

Abstract. Previous studies on socioeconomic development have examined the effect of development initiatives (i.e., access to finance and training) on several socioeconomic indicators (i.e., income, empowerment, asset, quality of life, employment). These studies have focused mostly on the outcomes of specific types of programs offered by specific development organizations. This study however focuses on informal women micro-entrepreneurs’ participation in various development programs available to them and their influence on entrepreneurial competencies, human capital development, competitive advantages, economic vulnerability, supportive environment, and performance of micro-enterprises. This cross-sectional study adopted the purposive random sampling method and collected data from 384 informal women entrepreneurs from the local markets in different districts of Kelantan, Malaysia. The findings show that the development program participants have relatively higher levels of entrepreneurial competencies, human capital development, and higher levels of enterprise performance compared to non-participants. It is also noted that the level of economic vulnerability is relatively low among participants compared to non-participants. However, these findings contradict most of the earlier studies that show a significant positive impact of micro-credit on socio-economic wellbeing, as the difference in entrepreneurial competencies, human capital development, economic vulnerability, and performance of micro-enterprises among participants and non-participants in this study is not statistically significant. However, findings reported significantly higher levels of competitive advantages, and better supportive environment among the participants compared to the non-participants. Development organizations should therefore focus on expanding their outreach to spread the positive effects of their development programs towards uplifting the economic condition of low and middle-income households in Malaysia.

 

Received: October, 2016

1st Revision: March, 2017

Accepted: May, 2017

 

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2017/10-2/20

 

JEL Classification:  O12

Keywords: effectiveness, development initiatives, informal micro-enterprises