Book Description

The book discusses and reviews issues and challenges, as well as prospects, on the growth and development potential of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the 21st Century. Part one is an introduction that presents the overall scenario of SMEs in the era of globalisation. Part two examines regional perspectives, including: small and medium enterprises in regional development; globalisation and the changing role of East Asia SMEs in the electronic industry; the Asian economic crisis and lesson for SMEs; and government intervention and small industries. Part three refers to the challenges in selected countries including, print advertisements of service firms, the globalised economy and the strategic importance of SMEs in Malaysia; survival in global crisis for small businesses in Indonesia; total productivity in Malaysian SMEs; and quality approaches and human resource practices. BA (Hons-MU), MA (Essex) and Ph.D (London), is the Deputy Director and associate Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, University Science Malaysia, Penang. He teaches on small business management, however, his interest and research focus is mainly on development economics, specifically the development of small and medium enterprises. He has published 12 books and over 20 papers in renowned journals, and presented a number of papers to international conferences. His recent books include: 'Foreign Workers in Malasysia (co-author); 'Foreign Labour in Asia' (co-author); 'Small and Medium Enterprises in Malaysia'; 'Management of Small Enterprises'; 'Small and Medium Enterprises in Asian Pacific Countries' (main editor).