The factors that influence the sustainability of Malaysian Bumiputera (indigenous) new technology-based small firms
Creators: name: Abdul Kohar, Umar Haiyat
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: This thesis explored the phenomenon of business sustainability amongst the Indigenous (Bumiputera) in Malaysia. Since its independence in 1957, Malaysia has implemented significant national strategies in the development of its economy through the engagement of the Bumiputera (Indigenous) community into entrepreneurial activity. However, a significant number of Bumiputera entrepreneurs have not been able to sustain their business operations despite the government’s comprehensive entrepreneurship training and development programs. This phenomenon is more prevalent in the technology-based industry, whereby the participation of Bumiputera is less encouraging. Therefore, a study on the sustainability of Malaysian Bumiputera technology-based small firms will fill gaps in explaining the nature of sustainability at the level of a single enterprise in a technology-based industry by the Indigenous people of the country. Based on an inductive qualitative approach, 24 Malaysian Bumiputera technology-based entrepreneurs were interviewed. Additionally, 15 business stakeholders that comprised government officers, academics and politicians were also interviewed in order to further understand factors influencing these Bumiputera entrepreneurs in the technology-based industry. Two main techniques of data analysis were employed in this thesis: thematic analysis and content analysis. The researcher employed both a manual hand coding technique and computer software, specifically NVivo Version 10 to analyse the data. Utilising manual and NVivo approaches ensured that no interpretation of the data was overlooked. The interviews uncovered three main themes that influence sustainability of Bumiputera in business: founder-specific factors; firm-specific resources; and business support and assistance. The identification of Bumiputera entrepreneur’s personalities and their entrepreneurial motivations uncovered some of the reasons why these individuals took risks to venture into business. The evaluation of founder’s human capital and founder’s social capital towards sustainability of Bumiputera entrepreneurs explains some of the reasons why Bumiputera technology entrepreneurs need to possess such factors in sustaining the business. The revisited conceptual framework of this thesis provides direction for Indigenous entrepreneurs in developing countries to operate and sustain its business operations in the challenging technology-based business environment. The combination of findings in this thesis provides implications for the body of knowledge as well as practical contributions. From a theoretical perspective, findings generated from this thesis contribute to the extension of the entrepreneurship literature, which focuses predominantly on western, non-Indigenous population samples in developed countries. Additionally, the findings also provide a significant theoretical contribution to the field of entrepreneurship research, especially to the body of Indigenous entrepreneurship knowledge by exploring factors influencing the sustainability of Indigenous enterprises in the technology-based industry, which to the researcher’s knowledge, has seldom been addressed in the Indigenous entrepreneurship literature. From a practical perspective, this thesis guides entrepreneurs to identify their strengths and weaknesses with regard to the element of entrepreneurial personalities and management skills, which are crucial for them. This thesis benefits government and policy-makers to identify the areas that they need to focus on in promoting entrepreneurial activities to the public, specifically in terms of designing governmental initiatives to promote new firm creation, not only regarding financial support but mainly regarding long-term policies that change beliefs about entrepreneurial behaviour. <br>