At the firm level, intense competition under the global economic framework requires small and medium enterprises to reconsider their competitive position vis-à-vis their rivals, amongst others, through innovation. This justifies why innovation, in the last two decades, becomes a centre stage in small business literature, reports and government policy. Little attention, however, has been given to the possible impact of various dimensions of innovation on firm performance. Enriching the literature, this paper evaluates the impact of various innovation dimensions on the performance of SMEs. A total of 284 samples were collected from SMEs in the food and beverage, textiles and clothing and wood-based sub-industries throughout Malaysia. The data were analysed using a hierarchical regression analysis. The findings confirmed the hypotheses that product innovation and process innovation influenced firm performance significantly, where the impact of the former was stronger than the latter. Besides consolidating the existing theory on the importance of innovation for explaining a variation in firm performance, the findings also inform SMEs and policy makers that innovation is a critical factor in today's entrepreneurial activities. Further studies should look into how SMEs could calculate cost-benefit ratio of innovation and how they could opt for internal or external sources of innovation before actual innovation is undertaken.

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Social capital and its dimensions are highly interrelated, and the outcome of social capital provides entrepreneurs with resources and knowledge that are not available in the first place. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of relational and cognitive social capital on structural social capital and the effect of structural social capital on the performance of micro-enterprises owned and managed by women in Peninsular Malaysia. This study uses a cross-sectional approach, and quantitative data are collected through structured interviews. It was found that cognitive social capital has a significant positive effect on structural social capital, and structural social capital has a significant positive effect on micro-enterprise performance. It was found that relational social capital has a positive but insignificant effect on structural social capital. Therefore, women entrepreneurs should emphasize on making the communication process easier and on ensuring that their business values, norms, interpretation, and meaning are shared and communicated to relevant parties to improve network ties and to build a dense network, which is essential in providing access to resources and knowledge. This, in return, is expected to improve the micro-enterprise performance in Malaysia.

In an attempt to promote the mass consumption of environmentally friendly products in Malaysia, this study presents an investigation of the effects of several selected factors upon willingness to pay and purchase behavior of environmental-friendly products. This study employed a cross-sectional design, in which quantitative data were gathered from a total of 380 low-income household heads from 38 coastal districts in Peninsular Malaysia. The outcomes of this study revealed the positively significant effects of eco-literacy and environmental concern upon attitudes towards environmental-friendly products; normative beliefs and perceived behavioral control on willingness to pay for environmental-friendly products; as well as willingness to pay for environmental-friendly products and perceived behavioral control on payment behavior for environmental-friendly products, among low-income households in coastal Peninsular Malaysia. Programs and policies should therefore focus on promoting environmental awareness and knowledge concerning the relative advantages that are expected to improve willingness among consumers to pay for environmentally friendly products.

Purpose -This paper aims to evaluate the microcredit position in the performance of micro and small enterprises (MSEs). In the case of Malaysian MSEs, the paper also aims to examine other relevant factors, especially entrepreneur-specific factors, which may be equally important for improving firm performance. Design/methodology/approach -Primary data were collected from 756 MSE samples in Kelantan, the state where a large majority of the microcredit recipients under AIM and TEKUN run their business. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Findings -Microcredit is positively and significantly related to the performance of MSEs across all the microcredit programs under investigation. Other entrepreneur-specific factors, especially entrepreneurial values and management practices are equally significant for enhancing firm performance.Practical implications -This study reminds policy makers, support institutions and small entrepreneurs that the microcredit program alone is not enough for improving the performance of MSEs. Besides microcredit, entrepreneur-specific factors are equally important for firm performance. Thus, readjustment to the existing microcredit programs, especially on entrepreneurial and managerial developments, should be made so that entrepreneurial values and management competencies of the entrepreneurs could be enhanced from time to time for superior performance of MSEs. Originality/value -This paper proves that microcredit is important for firm performance. It also reminds theorists and practitioners that entrepreneur-specific factors should not be neglected in their theoretical or practical consideration of micro and small firm performance.