Competitive factors of semiconductor industry in Malaysia: the managers’ perspectives

Abstract

In an emerging global competitive environment, the Malaysian semiconductor industry is facing threats from low cost countries with limited innovative capabilities. It urges for improvement in competitiveness of the Malaysian semiconductor industry. This study focuses on the perspectives of the managers towards the enhancement of competitiveness. Through a focus group interview and data collected from 200 managers working in semiconductor‐manufacturing units in Malaysia, the study identified twenty‐two competitive factors for the improvement of competitiveness of the semiconductor industry in Malaysia. Since the collected data did not form a normal distribution, nonparametric tests such as Chi‐squire test and Mann‐Whitney U test were used to test the framed hypotheses. Based on the analysis, ten key competitive factors were identified out of the identified twenty‐two competitive factors through focus group interview. Further, the study also highlighted the differences in the opinion of competitive factors of technical and non‐technical job functioning managers.

Citation

Solucis Santhapparaj, A., Sreenivasan, J. and Chong Kuan Loong, J. (2006), "Competitive factors of semiconductor industry in Malaysia: the managers’ perspectives", Competitiveness Review, Vol. 16 No. 3/4, pp. 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/cr.2006.16.3_4.197