title: Insights into public export promotion programs in an emerging economy: the case of Malaysian SMEs.
abstract: This study evaluates the impact of public export promotion programs (EPPs) among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Three indicators, level of awareness, frequency of use, and perception of usefulness, were examined according to a firm's export status. The global evaluation suggests that exporters are more frequent users of EPPs and perceive them to be more useful than non-exporters. Nonetheless, both groups demonstrate higher levels of awareness, are frequent users, and perceive the programs relating to export info/knowledge are more usefulness than programs relating to financial assistance. Further analysis also reveals that the frequency of use and the perception of usefulness for most programs are positively related to export experience, but not to export turnover. This study offers insights into the effectiveness of export programs for encouraging export initiation and expansion in an emerging economy.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Economics and Management, National University of Malaysia, Malaysia. Electronic address: abuhanifah.ayob@ukm.edu.my.
authors.forename: Abu H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Ayob
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: juan.freixanet@upf.edu.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Freixanet
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006077:Government Agencies; D007221:Industry; D038622:Internationality; D008296:Malaysia; D018803:Models, Economic; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Emerging economy; Export promotion programs; Frequency of use; Level of awareness; Perception of usefulness; SME