TY  - JOUR
T1  - Determinant of Technical Efficiency of Small and Medium
Enterprises in Malaysian Manufacturing Firms
AU - Ismail, Rahmah AU - Abidin, Syahida Zainal 
JO  - International Business Management
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
SP  - 299
EP  - 307
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1993-5250
DO  - ibm.2017.299.307
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=ibm.2017.299.307
KW  - Technical efficiency
KW  -small and medium enterprises
KW  -manufacturing firms
KW  -frontier production model
KW  -enterprise
AB  - Technical efficiency is the ability of an enterprise to produce the maximum output using a set of input
or minimizing the use of input in producing a certain level of output. When an enterprise is operating at its most
efficient, operating costs can be reduced and profits can be increased. This article attempts to analyses the level
of technical efficiency of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Malaysian manufacturing firms and
identifies the determinants of their efficiency. The analysis uses the data obtained from the Department of
Statistics of Malaysia 2009 Manufacturing Survey, which covers 4661 SMEs. In the analysis, SMEs will be
divided into three categories, namely, the micro-Sized Enterprises (CSEs) the Small-Sized Enterprises (SSEs) and
the Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSEs). To achieve the objectives of this study, we estimate the frontier
production model to obtain technical efficiency scores simultaneously with technical inefficiency determinants
model. In this study, we adopt the translog production model in obtaining the technical efficiency scores and
the linear technical inefficiency model to determine factors affecting the firms’ inefficiency level.
ER  -