Technology entrepreneurship development in Malaysia: a case study of the national automotive industry

Abstract

This study focuses on firm-level technology entrepreneurship capability. Technology entrepreneurship is the merging of technology knowledge and ability with entrepreneurship skill and competency. It includes four interrelated and complementary factors: context, firm, technology, and entrepreneur; the merging of these factors is essential to create competitive advantage. To assess firms’ technology entrepreneurship capability level, an improvised innovation capability audit tool as introduced by Bessant et al. (2000) and promoted by the World Bank was used. This tool was modified following technology entrepreneurship definition. The improvised tool enables the firms to be analyzed according to eight key dimensions of technology entrepreneurship identified from the four technology entrepreneurship factors: awareness and search from the context factor; strategy and core competency from the firm factor; technology paradigm and linkages from the technology factor; and learning and leadership from the entrepreneur factor. A summation score obtained from all the dimensions is then used to determine the technology entrepreneurship capability level of the firms and simultaneously categorize the firms as ‘Passive’, ‘Reactive’, ‘Proactive’, or ‘Innovative’. The findings suggest that the majority of the national automotive vendor firms recorded high awareness of environmental changes, and poor ability in developing strategies. Other apparent weaknesses are the key dimensions of firm and technology. The results from the eight key dimensions reveal that the national automotive parts and components industry is in the ‘Proactive’ category, which reflects that the majority of firms have an adequate knowledge-base, good leadership quality, and the capability to search for opportunities and identify threats; however they lack the capability to apply the knowledge to create competitive advantage and sustain competitiveness. Thus, an interesting pattern emerged from the results obtained: vendor firms showcased a higher level of technology awareness compared to the level of technology preparedness. The firms recognized environmental changes, and are able to search for opportunities and identify threats; however, they do not have the capability to complement their strength with implementation, which is essential to achieving competitive advantage.