Insights into public export promotion programs in an emerging economy: The case of Malaysian SMEs

• We study the impact of export promotion programs moderated by export status.
• Companies demonstrate higher awareness, usage and perceived usefulness of programs related to export information and sponsored international trade fairs/shows than those related to financial assistance, such as credit consultancy.
• Frequency of use and the perception of usefulness for most programs are positively correlated with exporters’ years in operation and years exporting of exporters, but not their export turnover.

This study evaluates the impact of public export promotion programs (EPPs) among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Three indicators, level of awareness, frequency of use, and perception of usefulness, were examined according to a firm's export status. The global evaluation suggests that exporters are more frequent users of EPPs and perceive them to be more useful than non-exporters. Nonetheless, both groups demonstrate higher levels of awareness, are frequent users, and perceive the programs relating to export info/knowledge are more usefulness than programs relating to financial assistance. Further analysis also reveals that the frequency of use and the perception of usefulness for most programs are positively related to export experience, but not to export turnover. This study offers insights into the effectiveness of export programs for encouraging export initiation and expansion in an emerging economy.