The study of industrial design activity and financial performance of Malaysian firms / Nur Kartika Elani Yayanto

Whilst some research has been carried out on industrial design, lack of studies were empirically tested. However, there is a reason that industrial design activity benefits to a firm. This study analyzes the relationship between the industrial design activity and financial performance at the Malaysian firm level. Previous studies focus the industrial design as one of the effective product design in the market, but not as the protection mechanism. Since, lack of industrial design related studies found in Malaysia, this study derived the idea from the patent and trademark system. The industrial design activity variables are measured based on the industrial design application/renewal, variety and quality of technology classes and complementary assets of industrial design and patent. This study applied a panel dataset from 2008 to 2014 and the model is estimated using panel least square. The main finding from the hypothesis testing is that there is a significant relationship between industrial design activity and financial performance at the Malaysian firm level, but that the impact is rather small and the signs are mixed. Even though the industrial design is well known for its monopoly power, but this situation may be changed due to the market condition that the firms faced.