The effect of business development services on SMES performance in Sabah: the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation / Noraini Ombi

This study sets to examine the relationship between business development services (relating to financial services and non-financial services) and the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sabah. The present study also looks at entrepreneurial orientation as a mediator variable between business development services and SMEs performance. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 200 SMEs in Sabah between August until November 2016. Data collected were analysed using SPSS 19.0 and Partial Least Square (PLS) software. PLS is used to interrogate the relationship between business development services and SMEs performance and the mediating effect of entrepreneurial orientation. The results of this study revealed a positive relationship between financial services and entrepreneurial orientation on the SMEs performance. In addition, the results also showed that non-financial services are significant to entrepreneurial orientation. However, entrepreneurial orientation was found to mediate only the relationship between non-financial services and SMEs performance. The outcome of this study provides new knowledge and important insights for the government agencies, such as SME Corp. This information will allow them to appraise advisably all programmes and guidelines and enforce better policies towards improving the performance of SMEs throughout Malaysia.