Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine social network among SME firms in Malaysia. Specifically, this paper aims to investigate the usage of social network among Malay ethnic entrepreneurs in the start-up phase of SME firms in manufacturing sectors. Secondly, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between social network and business performance of the start-up manufacturing SME firms in Malaysia. The research data were collected through self-administered and mail questionnaire with a stratified random sample of 83 SME firms around Malaysia. The hierarchical regression was used for hypothesis testing. The result shows that Malay entrepreneurs used extensively business contact in their social network. For the hypothesis testing, the hierarchical regression shows that social network has significantly positive relationship with business performance. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge especially to the social network theme in Malaysia which is considered to be in the infant stage still. The discussions of the results, the contribution to the body of knowledge as well as limitations of the study are also discussed.
Keywords
- Social Network Search this journal for Social Network (opens in a new tab)
- Start-Up Phase Search this journal for Start-Up Phase (opens in a new tab)
- SMEs Search this journal for SMEs (opens in a new tab)
- Malay Entrepreneurs Search this journal for Malay Entrepreneurs (opens in a new tab)
- Malaysia Search this journal for Malaysia (opens in a new tab)
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Copyright (c) 2015 Ehsan Fansuree Surin, Ismail Ab. Wahab, Mohd. Hazman Fitri Hussin, Mohd. Najib Saad, Mior Harris Mior Harun (Author)

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Keywords
- Social Network Search this journal for Social Network (opens in a new tab)
- Start-Up Phase Search this journal for Start-Up Phase (opens in a new tab)
- SMEs Search this journal for SMEs (opens in a new tab)
- Malay Entrepreneurs Search this journal for Malay Entrepreneurs (opens in a new tab)
- Malaysia Search this journal for Malaysia (opens in a new tab)
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Vol. 7 No. 5 (2015)
Financial Inclusion, Complexity & Digital Communication
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