Title: The effect of government support on market differentiation in Iraqi small and medium-sized enterprises

Authors: Mohammed R. Yaseen Zeebaree; Rusinah Bt. Siron

Addresses: Technical College of Akre, Duhok Polytechnic University (DPU), Iraq ' Graduate Business School, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Malaysia

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the effect of government financing and regulations that support market differentiation in the sector of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Iraq. A quantitative approach will be used and a survey instrument employed to collect data from 279 SMEs in the targeted sample size of 2,136 managers of SMEs working in Erbil city in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Structural equation modelling will be used to test the direction of the relationship between the variables. The results of this study showed that government regulation in Iraq positively affected competitive advantage and indicated that financing has an insignificant effect on the competitive advantage of Iraqi SMEs. This study also suggested several main policy implications of these findings as well as the limitations and recommendations for future research on supporting SMEs.

Keywords: government support; market differentiation; small and medium size enterprises; SMEs; management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2020.107392

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2020 Vol.19 No.2, pp.89 - 108

Accepted: 22 Jul 2019
Published online: 26 May 2020 *

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