Document from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Trade
and Distribution, University Kuala Lumpur (Faculty of Economics and
Administration, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ),
language: English, abstract: As evidenced for many decades, small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) have been the major and fundamental
contributors to employment generation, poverty alleviation, value added
creation and economic development around the globe. Due to the growing
significance of internationalization, engaging in export drive has grown
up among SMEs for seeking natural growth. Literature on export has shown
that the effectiveness and efficiency of distribution channel become a
critical issue for export performance. Whilst acknowledging that the
characteristic of distribution channels is generally difficult to change
once established findings of previous studies strengthen the indications
that firm performance is also governed by affiliation among channel
members on managing coordination, avoiding conflict, achieving sales and
profit, exchanging information, trusting and holding commitment as well
as how the applications of non formal channels, position of channel
members; multiple distribution channels' establishments; importers
linkage establishments; and decentralization. The importance of
innovation including innovation in distribution channels as the driver
of performance is inconclusive. Additionally, such a study is extremely
limited in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, this study
examines the impact of distribution channel innovation on the activities
upon firm performance. Based on the existing literature gap, a special
attention was given to the mediating role of distribution channel
performance in the relationship between distribution channel innovation
and firm performance of SMEs. Using a total of 120 samples collected
from export-oriented agriculture-based SMEs in DIY province and the
surrounding areas of the Central Ja
