Dissecting Behaviours Associated with Business Failure: A Qualitative Study of SME Owners in Malaysia and Australia

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of the first phase of a larger research project on inter-country differences of business failure in entrepreneurial firms. This initial phase involves an exploratory comparative study into the perceptions of 20 Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) founder-owners in Australia and Malaysia on what they felt were ineffective behaviours and competencies that were strongly associated with their experiences of difficulties or failures in their own ventures. Drawing on real life lessons from the founder-owners on their actions or inactions, the research contributes to the understanding of behavioural differences in the context of business failure between founder-owners in two relatively different cultural settings.