Gauging the Impact of the Digital Ecosystem and Skill on SMEs’ Performance

Abstract

Mastering the digital ecosystem has become crucial to a business’s continued success in recent years. Therefore, Malaysia has started producing entrepreneurial graduates with high entrepreneurial characteristics. To assess the effectiveness of the Malaysian university curriculum in entrepreneurship, this paper therefore tries to gauge the impact of the digital ecosystem and digital skills on the performance of university graduates in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Primary data was collected from 321 university alumni who are entrepreneurs using purposive sampling. Findings demonstrated that digital ecosystem factors such as knowledge management, e-readiness, and ICT utilization influence SME performance. Digital skill also depicts a positive significant relationship with SME performance. Overall, the findings imply that management involvement in fostering the empowerment of the digital ecosystem and digital skill in business management is required. In addition, universities’ curricula must prioritize the focus areas and strategies for developing a more positive digital ecosystem and digital skill.