Examining the impact of knowledge on export performance: The case study on Malaysian SMEs

Abstract

This study emphasises that knowledge as a primary resource of the export performance and becomes organisation’s basis capabilities. Drawing from resource-based view and knowledge-based view, the knowledge as an asset valuably found in organisation is vital to achieving the superior performance in export undertaking. This study also emphasised the export knowledge and experiences that held by managers and staff becoming a primary factor that associated with export performance via export marketing strategy, and managers’ knowledge on business environment. A survey was commenced to collect essential information from registered SMEs actively pursuing exporting activities with a focus on the manufacturing sector in Malaysia. 211 SMEs responded to the survey by sharing their organisational data, including the background of the organisation, manager knowledge of the business environment, export marketing strategy for managing export operation. In a nutshell, this study is a quantitative research in nature by employing multiple regression in order to comprehend the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variables in the model. The present study has established both managers’ knowledge of the business environment and export marketing strategy are associated with export performance, managers’ knowledge of the business environment and export performance is moderated with years of exporting experience, and export marketing strategy and export performance is moderated by number of staff are associated export performance of Malaysian SMEs. However, export knowledge and experience of staff, export knowledge and experience of staff and export performance is moderated by number of employees, managers’ knowledge of the business environment and export performance is moderated by number of employees and export marketing strategy and export performance is moderated by years of exporting experience are not associated with export performance of Malaysian SMEs. This study finding is useful for existing and potential SMEs’ exporters that are embarking on export initiative in the manufacturing sectors and related industries. This study is also of fundamental importance for decision-makers on policy related to empowering SMEs in Malaysian and developing countries. Decisively, this study emphasises the perpetuation of knowledge inside organisation is crucial to enhance organisation performance in a globalised business environment.