The COVID-19 pandemic has had a direct impact on the manufacturing industry in Malaysia because all economic activities had to be suspended for some time. This study explores the role that eco-innovation capabilities might play in improving sustainable business performance during the ongoing pandemic. This study employs a quantitative method by distributing online questionnaires to 80 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In the study, the relationship between sustainable business performance and the three variables of eco-innovation capabilities, i.e., eco-product innovation, eco-management innovation and eco-logistic innovation, were determined using multiple regression analysis. The results indicate that two hypotheses are accepted and the other one is rejected. The findings indicate that most manufacturing SMEs in Klang Valley have adopted eco-management innovation and eco-logistic innovation as crucial capabilities for their businesses during the pandemic. However, due to the challenges faced by these SMEs during the pandemic, eco-product innovation was found to have an insignificant relationship with sustainable business performance. It is insignificant because of the low productivity rate observed during the pandemic. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused manufacturing SMEs in the Klang Valley to not be able to maintain their operations and stay on track. Therefore, this research may contribute to the efforts of policymakers, government agencies and managers of manufacturing SMEs in developing a strong innovation platform on which manufacturing SMEs may rely for support in enhancing their business capacity and performance.

The objective of this study is to look at how Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are applying eco-innovation capabilities in order to sustain their business performance. Eco-innovation capabilities are represented in this study by five different types of practices, with the indication of unexpected circumstances: eco-product innovation, eco-process innovation, eco-organisational innovation, eco-marketing innovation, and eco-technology innovation. The qualitative research approach was used in the study, and the content analysis was based on in-depth interviews with six top-level managers/owners of Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. According to the data, more than half of SMEs acquired eco-innovation capabilities in order to continue their business performance and thrive in the business sector, while having to confront certain hurdles due to unforeseen situations. According to the findings, eco-innovation capabilities encourage SMEs to engage in waste management, recycling or reusing resources, research and development, sustainable goods that utilize customer requests, and the use of environment management machines. Thus, the findings of this study may aid the efforts of government agencies, policymakers, and top-tier manufacturing SMEs in building an exceptional innovation platform on which SMEs may rely for assistance and support in preserving their business performance in the future and beyond.

The COVID -19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented threat to the hospitality industry. Numerous hospitality firms have been impacted by strategies used to flatten the COVID-19 curve. Hospitality firms are required to significantly alter their operations in the COVID-19 business climate in order to secure industry survival and to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. As a result, this study focuses on small and medium-sized accommodations (SMSAs) on Malaysia’s East Coast, which are particularly hard hit by the pandemic. The study of SMSAs on Malaysia’s East Coast discovered that marketing and human resource management contribute significantly to accommodation performance, while the other two factors have a negligible effect on accommodation performance during this pandemic, as determined by multiple regression analysis.

The number of small and medium-sized accommodations (SMSAs) has increased in Malaysia in tandem with the growth of the tourism industry worldwide. The states involved in this study were Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang. The SMSAs in these states are rated using Orchid rating, namely 1-Orchid, 2-Orchid and 3-Orchid, generated by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia (MOTAC). This study applied the Resource-based View (RBV) theory to investigate four factors (marketing management, human resources management, innovation capability management and information technology) assumed to be competitive capabilities that may influence accommodation’s performance. The objective of the study is to examine whether the four factors influence the performance of Orchid-rated accommodations located in the East Coast of West Malaysia. The results revealed that the four factors do not have any relationship with the accommodation’s performance. The analysis also singled out one argument of the director of SMSA that competitive capabilities are not important to their business. This argument coincides with the results of the analysis that the four factors are not significant with regards to the accommodations’ performance.