Operational Challenges, Market Environment, and Business Opportunities toward Business Sustainability among SME Entrepreneurs in Malaysia’s Custom Clothing Digital Printing Sector

This conceptual paper examines the factors influencing business sustainability among SME entrepreneurs in Malaysia’s custom clothing digital printing sector. The study focuses on three main factors: operational challenges, market and industry environment factors, and business opportunities. Although the digital printing sector offers growth potential through product customisation, digital marketing, and online platforms, SMEs continue to face financial constraints, skilled labour shortages, production issues, and intense market competition. Guided by the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, and Contingency Theory, this paper proposes a conceptual framework to explain how internal challenges, external market conditions, and business opportunities influence SME business sustainability. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on an underexplored SME segment in Malaysia’s digital printing industry and provides a foundation for future empirical research.

SME entrepreneurs, digital printing, custom clothing

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