Özet:

It has been recognized that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facilitate economic growth worldwide especially in the developing and developed countries. To remain viable SMEs are required to create network and relationships with various parties in the business environment, including business chambers. Despite the fact that SMEs in Malaysia are supported with numerous assistance and facilities from the government agencies and business chambers at the regional and national level, however, the exploration of their roles and duties in contributing to the SMEs success are still under researched. Furthermore, the extent to which these business chambers provide support to SMEs has been less explored. Therefore, this paper is going to answer these objectives; to identify the business chambers that the entrepreneurs have connected to, to explore the factors for the connections, and to study the extent to which these business chambers provide support to the SMEs. This qualitative research employs in-depth interviewing technique that has been carried out with 15 owner-managers of indigenous small business-owners in the Southern Region of Malaysia. The findings of this study have implications for the owner-managers and provide useful insights to the management of the business chambers and the policy makers. Key Words: SMEs, Business Chambers, Network, Indigenous (Bumiputera) Entrepreneurs.

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