Antecedents of Marketing Adoption: An Empirical Study among Small and Medium Scale Malay Entrepreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia

This study examines the influence of external, internal and organizational factors on marketing adoption among small and medium scale Malay entrepreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia. Marketing adoption was operationalized as a firm behavior manifested by the number of marketing activities being carried out by the entrepreneur. From a survey of 249 Malay entrepeneurs in the manufacturing and service sectors, it was found that the three external factors of demand condition, competitiveness, and seasonality played an insignificant role in explaining the different levels of marketing adoption by the entrepreneurs. Similarly, the three internal factors of business aspiration, marketing importance, and business success also failed to exert a significant influence on marketing adoption. The only significant antecedent of marketing adoption was that of business sector suggesting that Malay entrepreneurs tended to cany out a set of marketing activities that seemed to be dominant in a particular sector.