An investigation into the current success factors for small and medium enterprises in Thailand - Essay Example

?Research on Thai SMEs An investigation into the current success factors for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand Jimmy Johnson May, Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1 Purpose of study The purpose of this proposed study is to examine what is below the surface, and identify the underlying success factors for SMEs in Thailand. That is, identifying those characteristics of the enterprise relating to its management, relationships with other entities, contextual variables, etc. that either lead to or contribute in some way to the enterprise being successful. This research thus makes use of the construct of ‘success factor’, which is also mentioned in the hypothesis. The success factors themselves are qualitative because they are not quantifiable. These are possible underlying factors, which could indirectly contribute to the success of the SME based on the information gathered during the literature review. Examples are as a highly knowledgeable manager or a strong link to a supportive larger enterprise so they are not apparent as such. The success however, is measurable, for example, in terms of total sales growth, number of customers, and amount of profits as done by Vichitdhanabadee et al. (2009) or volume of exports. 3.2 Research questions and hypotheses The major research question, which derives directly from the stated purpose of the study, has been framed as follows: What are the underlying success factors for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand? To support this major research question, a number of subsidiary questions will be researched, which will include (but not be limited to) the following: Does the manager have a high degree of knowledge, a strong educational background and work experience? Does the SME possess a strong culture? Does the SME have sufficient access to finance? Does the SME have an effective employee-training program in place? Does the SME have good customer relations? Does the SME receive sufficient support from the government or NGOs? Does the SME have a strong social network? What is the nature of the SME ‘s adoption of computer technology? What is the nature of the SME ‘s marketing strategy? The major hypothesis that will be tested in the quantitative phase of the study will be: There is a significant degree of positive underlying success factors that are contributing to the success of the SME. We assume that it is the preponderance of underlying success factors, such as those identified in Chapter One that lead to the success of a SME. A number of null hypotheses can be constructed, as in the two examples below, for testing the validity of the major hypothesis based on measurable quantities. There is no causal relationship between the value of capital and business performance. There is no causal relationship between the size of the enterprise in terms of the number of employees and total sales. 3.3 Research design and method This study will combine both quantitative and qualitative methods for the data collection and data analysis. It will thus take a mixed method approach, as illustrated in Figure 1. These will then be compared and combined to construct a composite model of the study findings. This research design is shown in the figure below. It is to be noted that the quantitative phase will commence first followed by the qualitative phase. This will therefore be an explanatory sequential model. Figure 1: Mixed method (explanatory sequential) research design to be employed During the quantitative phase, data will be collected from the return of questionnaires from a mail-administered survey. During the qualitative phase, data will be collected by conducting a few case studies, which will involve carrying out interviews of Thai SME managers. In addition, some document analyses will also be conducted for gathering relevant information, such as from company profiles, reports and websites. The analysis of the quantitative data will be in the form of descriptive statistics of the data gathered from the survey. Descriptive statistics are useful for describing “the basic features of the data in a study [as] they provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures” (SMKB, 2006). They will therefore help in better understanding the existing situation with SMEs in Thailand and in identifying their possible success factors. The analysis of the qualitative data will be in the form of descriptions after conducting the case studies, and an interpretation of the responses from carrying out the interviews. This information is summarized in the table below. Table showing the research phases and what each will involve Phase What it will involve Quantitative data collection Mail-administered survey; statistical data from secondary sources Qualitative data collection Case studies and interviews; document analyses Quantitative data analysis Descriptive statistics of the survey data gathered Qualitative data analysis Details of perspective from the case studies; Interpretation of responses from the interviews The types of quantitative data to be gathered will also include demographic characteristics such as size of the enterprise and performance figures. This will help in recognizing the most common and uncommon types of SMEs in Thailand so that the information gathered on success factors can be related to the types of SMEs they are more likely to be found in. Future research could extend the usefulness of the data gathered, for example to identify any causal relationships between a success factor and an actual success if possible. The qualitative data to be gathered will include looking for marketing strategies, sources of finance, use of technologies to support the enterprise, the degree of government support, and so on. 3.4 Population and sampling procedures The population under study is comprised of Thai SMEs. This includes small and medium sized enterprises from all sectors and from all over Thailand. Thus, the geographical focus is on SMEs established in the country of Thailand in South East Asia, whether located in the capital Bangkok, other cities or rural areas. The sectors include the manufacturing/production; wholesale trading, retail and service sectors. The inclusion of all sectors is justified so that the study is representative of SMEs in Thailand in general rather than for a specific sector alone. An enterprise is considered to be an SME if it is relatively smaller than larger enterprises (LEs) in terms of the number of employees or the amount of fixed assets. The specific criteria for recognizing an enterprise as an SME will be according to the definition employed by the Thai Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises (ISMED, 2010). Enterprises in the production and service sectors are considered to be small or medium if they employ no more than 200 employees or have fixed assets of no more than Baht 200 million. Enterprises in the wholesale trading sector are considered to be small or medium if they employ no more than 50 employees or have fixed assets of no more than Baht 100 million. Enterprises in the retail trading sector are considered to be small or medium if they employ no more than 30 employees or have fixed assets of no more than Baht 60 million. This information is summarized in the table below. Table showing the population characteristics Sector Maximum number of employees Maximum amount of fixed assets Manufacturing and Service 200 Baht 200 million Wholesale trading 50 Baht 100 million Retail trading 30 Baht 60 million Source: ISMED (2010) The sample that will be used to study the target population of Thai SMEs, will be obtained by cluster sampling from a directory of Thai SMEs from a range of geographical areas and a cross-section of SMEs according to their size, type and location. Cluster sampling offers the advantage of feasibility, economy and reduced variability (Loverkar, 2010). This therefore makes it suitable for obtaining a sample from the large population of Thai SMEs. It will also greatly assist in the search for suitable SMEs by minimizing traveling and listing requirements. A total of 200 questionnaires have been arranged to be dispatched by mail, but if possible the researcher will attempt to raise this figure up to 250 for an even more representative sample and to minimize potential bias further given that cluster sampling will be used. Even if a modest return is achieved of a quarter of these, this would provide the target of getting a response from at least 50 SMEs from a cross-section of industrial sectors and geographical areas. This minimal expectation is based on an extensive study by Baruch & Holtom (2008), which analyzed 490 other survey-based studies conducted during the first five years of this century contained across 17 journals and involving over 100,000 organizations and 400,000 individuals. For organizations, the average response rate was found to be 35.7% with a standard deviation of 18.8. If this average response rate is attained, the potential sample size could be over 70. Furthermore, the mail survey is preferred over a web based survey because it is likely to yield a higher response rate, as shown in a meta-analysis of 39 study results by Shih & Fan (2008). Also, it will not restrict the survey to those who have an Internet connection and are capable of completing web-based surveys. The characteristics of the target population and sample are summarized below. Target population: SMEs in Thailand of varying sizes and in all regions and sectors Target sample: A cross-section of the target population For the case studies, the researcher will seek out five cases of Thai SMEs perceived to be successful in order to identify the underlying factors for their success. The sample selection will be obtained from among the survey respondents, who exhibit the most impressive signs of success such as rapid growth, high income to size ratio and potential future worth. The managers or other representatives from these selected SMEs will also be invited for interview to gain some in-depth information on these SMEs perceived as successful. These interviews will take place over the phone at a mutually agreed time. A covering letter will accompany the questionnaire and another letter will be sent to invite the five managers for the interviews. The document analyses will involve examining government reports and reports published by other organizations working with SMEs in Thailand such as the SME Bank and educational and training literature prepared by organizations engaged in providing support to SMEs. It will also include examining statistics and studies dealing with the uptake of technology by SMEs. 3.5 Instrumentation 3.5.1 Description of instruments and the design process The questionnaire devised for the survey is attached in Appendix A and the text of the accompanying letter that has been prepared is shown in Appendix B. The letter prepared for inviting SME managers for interview is shown in Appendix C and the questions to guide the interviews are given in Appendix D. The first instrument, i.e. questionnaire, has been divided into four parts. The first part asks four questions about the manager him/herself; the second part asks five questions about the enterprise, and the third part asks for the manager’s views of the enterprise using a five point Likert scale on 12 points relating to the SME. The latter are discussed and justified in a follow on subsection below. The final part focuses on the overriding questions of how successful the enterprise is thought to be, in what ways the success is exhibited, what the manager believes are the main causes of the success and what if any are the main obstacles to success. All but the last two questions are closed type. The final two are open type so as to solicit detailed responses to two key questions. There is a total of 25 questions altogether. The above information on the different parts, the number of questions each contains and the topics of the questions are summarized in the table below. For the questionnaire itself, the procedure began with determining the structure of the questions, selecting the type of questions to include and specifying the wording. The final questionnaire then took shape after setting the sequence and the overall layout. This procedure is shown in Figure 2 below. Table showing the division of the questionnaire and the topics of the questions in each Part/No. of questions Topics of questions Part A: About the manager (Total 4 questions) Age, education, length of experience in enterprise, overall length of experience Part B: About the enterprise (Total 5 questions) No. of employees, amount of fixed assets, main source of capital, sector of operation, length of operation Part C: About the manager’s perception of the SME (Total 12 questions) Culture, human resources, worker morale, training program, use of computer technology, customer relations, marketing strategy, social network, access to finance, government support, NGO support, globalization Part D: About the success of the enterprise (Total 4 questions) Perception of the degree of success, how this success is exhibited, main causes of success, main obstacles to success Figure 2: Process of questionnaire design (Adapted from Spencer & Archer, 2009) The interviews, which will be conducted by phone after seeking permission and arranging a mutually convenient time, will comprise of 6 questions and are expected to take around 10 to 15 minutes each. The interview questions are listed below. Points have also been noted to prompt the interviewee in case it is necessary so that the interviews can yield relevant and useful information, but the researcher will still seek for as much specific information as possible. 1. What are the key factors that are making your enterprise successful? 2. In what ways are they contributing to the success of the enterprise? 3. How important are these factors for SMEs in general? 4. What are the key problems that make it difficult for your enterprise to be even more successful? 5. How are you overcoming these problems? 6. What more would you like the government, NGOs, banks and others to do for SMEs in Thailand? Permission has also been sought from the researcher’s academic supervisor, in particular for getting the proposed research approved and for carrying out the survey and interviews. Permission for individual interviews will be sought from the managers prior to arranging the time for them. 3.5.2 Justification of the questions in part C The twelve statements contained in part C of the questionnaire concerning the managers’ views of their enterprises forms the bulk of this instrument. They amount to almost a half of all the questions/statements and they lead to knowing about this important perception dealing with various aspects. It is therefore useful to justify the selection of these statements because this in turn justifies the appropriateness of many of the main findings of the study by supporting the significance of the point concerned. Each statement in this part of the questionnaire is discussed in turn below with reference to existing literature so as to provide the justification. The table below first summarizes the aspect of the enterprise related to each statement for ease of reference. The statements contained in part C of the questionnaire Number of statement Aspect of enterprise 1 Strong culture 2 Good quality human resources 3 High degree of worker morale 4 Effective training program in place 5 Good use of computer technology 6 Good customer relations 7 Good marketing strategy 8 Strong social network 9 Sufficient access to finance 10 Sufficient support from the government 11 Sufficient support from NGOs 12 Successful coping with globalization All of the above aspects are regarded as possible contributory success factors. With the exception of the ninth statement, all of them are contained in Table 2 in Chapter 2 (Literature Review) as possible success factors for Thai SMEs. These factors are based on researches by Indarti & Langenberg (2004), Apibunyopas & Songmuang (2007), Garengo & Bernardi (2007), Srivihok & Intrapairote (2004a, b) and Vichitdhanabadee et al. (2009) among others. The literature review discusses all these factors categorized into six key areas, namely knowledge-based factors, management-based factors, training, Internet-based factors, adaptability and collaboration, and external support. The first statement on the need to have a strong organizational culture is supported by a study by Cakar & Erturk (2010). Their findings revealed that organizational culture, particularly those aspects related to power distance and uncertainty avoidance, are related to an organization’s capability to innovate and individual empowerment. Cultural dimensions thus play an important role in shaping the work environment. The quality of human resources (statement 2) has the potential “to create a sustained high-performance work system” (Fazzari & Mosca, 2009). The importance of worker morale (statement 3) as well as organizational culture (statement 1) and coping with globalization (statement 12) were shown to be important in promoting the continued growth of Korean IT start-ups in a series of case studies by Cho & McLean (2009). Training (statement 4) is important for SMEs as it improves knowledge and skills. A study by O’Regan et al. (2010) investigated the impact of training on the performance and profitability of manufacturing SMEs. Trained employees were found to perform better than those who only invested in training without input by HR professionals. Information technology (statement 5) is important for innovation, which impacts on performance, albeit indirectly, both in terms of profitability and growth (Dibrell, Davis & Craig, 2008). That meeting customer requirements (statement 6) is essential for improving performance was shown in a survey by Vichitdhanabadee et al. (2009). The importance of marketing (statement 7) to entrepreneurial success was recognized by Hills et al. (2008) based on empirical indications. Strong social networks (statement 8) play another mediating role in the success of SMEs and affect their performance, especially in a global context, as highlighted by Zhou et al. (2007). The mechanism in this case is attributed to three key benefits of social networking, namely (1) knowledge of foreign market opportunities, (2) advice and experiential learning, and (3) referral trust and solidarity. Access to sufficient finance (statement 9) is essential because it removes the constraints to growth (Beck & Demirguc-Kunt, 2006). It improves their access to external financing and helps in leveling the playing field between SMEs of different sizes. Of particular benefit could be leasing, factoring and credit information sharing. External support, particularly from the government (statement 10) and NGO (statement 11) are also helpful to SMEs. Vichitdhanabadee et al.’s (2009) study identified such supports as leading to noticeable improvement in business performance. The importance of coping with globalization (statement 12) is that “it provides new opportunities for expansion and growth by taking advantage of international market possibilities” (Bhatnagar, 2009). It is challenging but necessary to cope because of the increasing exposure to international markets. Technology plays a key role in coping with globalization. 3.5.3 Origin, suitability, validity and reliability of the questionnaire The survey questionnaire that has been devised for this research is an original creation. It is therefore necessary to discuss and demonstrate its suitability, validity and reliability for the population being studied. The three qualities ensure the usefulness of the instrument and justify the quality of the study findings. Permission to carry out the survey was granted by the academic supervisor. The suitability of the questions was a prime consideration and this was therefore kept in mind while the questions were being devised. These questions are original but they are grounded in the information gleaned through researching for the literature review. For example, some of the questions in part B are based on the definition and classification of an SME as defined by the International Finance Corporation (Fan, 2003). The 12 statements in the table in part C are based on the potential success factors for SMEs identified in section 2.2.5 of the literature review and the various studies mentioned in section 2.4. In devising the questionnaire, the procedure described by Spencer & Archer (2009) was followed in which its design is treated as an integral part of the entire research process from being related to the research aims to facilitating the preparation of the final report. This procedure itself is based on Burgess’ (2001) model to which the components of ethics approval and report preparation and dissemination were added. The suitability of the questionnaire is based on research and relevance, and is therefore established. The validity of the questionnaire concerns how well it is able to measure what is being tested. Although it is difficult to determine validity precisely, each question was checked to ensure its ability to measure the construct or provide the information desired to reasonable and acceptable degree of accuracy. The dividing of the questions into parts helped because all the questions in each part relate to a certain aspect or category of information described above. The reliability of the questionnaire concerns its ability to be reused in order to ensure that repeated studies would generally provide similar results. The aim was to minimize random error. Reliability, as well as validity, was tested by having others go through the questions and by carrying out a minor trial with two Thai SMEs. Reliability was ensured by checking whether the results were consistent, accurate, and replicable. The two SMEs involved in the trial gave the same responses as during the actual survey. Having fellow students read through the questionnaire ensured the general face validity of the survey instrument. Further validity was then ensured by checking whether the results measured what the researcher intended during the trial. Furthermore, the questions contained in the questionnaire are appropriate because they have been devised in accordance with the purpose of the research, and keeping in mind the research questions and hypothesis. 3.6 Methodological assumptions and limitations The decision to administer the survey by mail is due to convenience in terms of low cost and ability to access a larger area (Cooper & Donald, 2001), but it is anticipated there may be a low response rate (Dennis, 2003), as discussed earlier. This is the main methodological issue despite proposing to send and track a large number of questionnaires to try and minimize the potential problem. Also, due to the adoption of the cluster sampling method to obtain participants, there is a risk of the sample being biased, for example by containing too many similar SMES, and in containing errors. As regards the qualitative interviews, the researcher will seek to ensure that the findings are precise, credible and transferable. As regards assumptions, the researcher assumes that managers of the SMEs will be willing to participate in the survey and will be cooperative in assisting with the research. They are also likely to be keen to participate in the interviews and divulge any required information for the case studies because it allows them to give their opinions and helps to promote their own enterprise as well. Furthermore, they would see the longer-term benefits of improved support for Thai SMEs. The overall research methodology involving a mixed method also makes an important philosophical assumption. Its premise is that the combination of approaches will lead to a better understanding of the problem than could one approach alone (Creswell & Clark, 2007). The size of the sample is the major limitation of the study regardless of how many SMEs it will comprise because of its effect on generalizability. Even if a very large sample is obtained, it is possible for a proportion of the SMEs involved in the study to cease operation, for regulations to be changed, or other changes to occur. Therefore, the survey results will be reflective of the period of study as well. However, given the large number of potential respondents to the survey, and the fact that SMEs from a diverse range of sizes, locations and sectors will be included, the results are likely to be fairly generalizable to the rest of the population of Thai SMEs. Even if we obtain the minimum target of 50 respondents, this may still hold true assuming the respondents are from a diverse background. The number of case studies and interview are small but this is for practical reasons. Besides, the information will complement the survey by providing deeper insight based on real examples. Hence, the study is well poised to be reflective of SMEs in Thailand and its findings could even be significant for many other SMEs elsewhere as well. Another basic theoretical limitation of relying on the survey method is that it is in fact self-reported. For this reason, it is possible for a researcher to be at variance in his or her understanding of a particular question from what is generally understood. There could also potentially be an issue of poor recollection of the responses and even intentional deception through falsifying or making up the results. Furthermore, the survey method alone is descriptive, and does not therefore provide any information on cause and effect relationships. However, the integrity of the researcher is known to his academic supervisor, so there are no issues related to poor understanding, poor memory or deception. As for being descriptive, the study is largely concerned with providing a picture of the situation with Thai SMEs anyway rather than identifying specific causal relationships. Besides, the survey method will be complemented by other research methods to provide deeper and more meaningful insight. The only other limitation apart from sample size is the selection of success factors in part C of the questionnaire. Although the latter part of the questionnaire does provide scope for respondents to identify other success factors, the selection in part C is predetermined based on a review of secondary sources. No attempt is made to identify the relative importance of these success factors, which would most likely differ for different SMEs anyway, and no claim is made that this list is either applicable to the majority of SMEs, or that it is exhaustive. The researcher assumes that these are possible success factors and simply solicits the views of entrepreneurs on the degree of agreement with the statements. 3.7 Data collection and analysis Data collection will commence with the return of questionnaires from the mail-administered survey and the second phase through conducting the case studies involving interviews and document analysis. A brief description of the data analysis that will be made has already been given above, i.e. descriptive statistics of the survey data and a qualitative interpretation of the case studies and interviews. The procedure was described above in Figure 1 and the collection and analysis portion is relisted below: 1. Cluster sampling from directory of Thai SMEs 2. Dispatch of survey questionnaires by mail 3. Selection of case studies among respondents exhibiting success 4. Conduction of interviews with the SME managers 5. Examination of documents The first two parts of the questionnaire provide for some demographic descriptions of the sample population concerning the manager and the enterprise itself. The results for part C, which makes use of a Likert scale, will be summed so as to provide a representative description of views pertaining to SMEs from the perspectives of their managers. The researcher will then look for indications of skewness towards a particular end, i.e. items showing generally strong agreement or disagreement. These results are more likely to be significant than those that are more balanced. The final two questions are open so they will be qualitatively interpreted, as will the responses to the interviews. The Numbers spreadsheet software, part of the iWorks package, will be used to enter the data in and generate suitable charts to aid analysis. This will begin by constructing a table with rows and columns corresponding to the questions and respondents. In most cases, the charts will show the proportions of particular responses compared to the totals for each question. This should then reflect the views and experiences of Thai SMEs in the sample and by extension the wider population of Thai SMEs. References Apibunyopas, Preeyanuch and Songmuang, Dusanee. (2007). Thai SME's critical success factors: a case study of ABC Furniture Company Limited. Paper presented at the International Conference on Business and Information, July 2007, Tokyo, Japan. Retrieved January 13, 2011 from http://ibacnet.org/bai2007. Baruch, Yehuda & Holtom, Brooks C. (2008). Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research. Human Relations, Vol. 61, No. 8, pp. 1139-1160. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli. (2006). Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint. Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 30, Issue 11, pp. 2931-2943. Bhatnagar, Ashish. (2009). Impact of globalization on SMEs. 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Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 41. Dibrell, C., Davis, P. S. and Craig, J. (2008), Fueling Innovation through Information Technology in SMEs. Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 46, pp. 203–218. Fazzari, Alan J. & Mosca, Joseph B. (2009). Partners in perfection: Human resources facilitating creation and ongoing implementation of self-managed manufacturing teams in a small medium enterprise. Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 20, pp. 353–376. Garengo, P. and Bernardi, G. (2007). Organizational capability in SMEs: Performance measurement as a key system in supporting company development. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 56(5-6): 518-532. Hills, Gerald E.; Hultman, Claes M. & Miles, Morgan P. (2008). The evolution and development of entrepreneurial marketing. Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 46, pp. 99-112. IMSED. (2010). Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises Development. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.ismed.or.th/SME2/src/bin/controller.php?view=first.First. Indarti, Nurul and Langenberg, Marja. (2004). Factors affecting business success among SMEs: Empirical evidences from Indonesia. Paper presented at the second bi-annual European Summer University, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, Sept. 2004. Retrieved January 13, 2011 from http://nurulindarti.wordpress.com/publications. Lovekar, Vipul. (2010). Cluster sampling advantages. Buzzle. Retrieved September 2010 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cluster-sampling-advantages.html. O’Regan, Nicholas; Stainer, Lorice & Sims, Martin. (2010). Training in SMEs and its relationship to profitability. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 10, No. 2. Shih, Tse-Hua & Fan, Xitao. (2008). Comparing response rates from web and mail surveys: a meta-analysis. Field Methods, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 249-271. SMKB. (2006). Descriptive statistics. Research methods knowledge base. Retrieved September 2010 from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.php. Spencer, Caroline & Archer, Frank. (2009). Designing a questionnaire to review cultural competency in Australian and New Zealand paramedic courses. Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care, Vol. 7, Issue 4, Srivihok, Anongnart and Intrapairote, Arunee. (2004). Measuring intellectual capital: Web sites analysis of Thai SMEs. Retrieved January 13, 2011 from: http://pirun.ku.ac.th/~fsciang/km4sme/library/Seminar/International/OKLC04.pdf. Vichitdhanabadee et al. (2009). Performance management practice in the Thai SMEs. PMA Conference, April 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2010 from http://www.pma.otago.ac.nz/pma-cd/papers/1027.pdf. Zhou, Lianzi; Wu, Wei-ping & Luo, Wueming. (2007). Internationalization and the performance of born-global SMEs: the mediating role of social networks. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 38, pp. 673-690. Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire for Thai SMEs These questions are for the manager, owner or proprietor of the enterprise who is most involved in its running. Where there are checkboxes, select the best that applies. Please note that individual responses will remain confidential and will be aggregated to provide the overall results. PART A: ABOUT YOURSELF 1. What is your age? Less than 20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50 or above 2. What is your education? Up to secondary ed. Bachelors Masters Doctorate 3. How long have you been working in this enterprise? Less than 2 years Between 2 & 5 years Between 6 & 10 years More than 10 years 4. Is this your first enterprise? If no, then how long have you been leading an active business life? Yes No; less than 5 years No; between 5 & 10 years No, more than 10 years PART B: ABOUT YOUR ENTERPRISE 1. How many employees are working for your enterprise? Less than 20 Between 20 and 50 Between 51 and 100 Between 101 and 200 2. Approximately how much does your enterprise have in fixed assets? THB 0-10 million THB 10-20 m 20-50 m THB 50-100 m THB 100-200 m 3. What is the main source of capital for your enterprise? Personal finances/savings Loans Grants Other: ______________________________________ 4. In which sector is your enterprise? Manufacturing or production Wholesale trading Retail trading Service 5. How long has your enterprise been in operation? Less than 2 years Between 2 & 5 years Between 6 & 10 years More than 10 years PART C: ABOUT YOUR VIEWS OF THE ENTERPRISE Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements about your enterprise. The SME … Strongly agree Agree Neutral /Unsure Disagree Strongly disagree 1 Possesses a strong culture. 2 Has good quality human resources. 3 Has a high degree of worker morale. 4 Has an effective training program in place. 5 Is making good use of computer technology. 6 Has good customer relations? 7 Has a good marketing strategy. 8 Has a strong social network. 9 Has sufficient access to finance. 10 Receives sufficient support from the govt. 11 Receives sufficient support from NGOs. 12 Is successfully coping with globalization. PART D: ABOUT THE SUCCESS OF YOUR ENTERPRISE 1. How successful overall do you consider your enterprise to be? Not successful Little successful Moderately successful Very successful Highly/Extremely successful 2. In what ways is this success mostly exhibited? Strong sales High levels of output/production High profits Large number of customers/clients Other: ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What do you believe are the main (underlying) causes or reasons for the success of your enterprise? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What are the main obstacles to (greater) success or problems facing your enterprise? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Appendix B: Covering letter accompanying the Survey Questionnaire Jimmy Johnson University of USA 20 May 2010 Dear manager, As part of my research on SMEs in Thailand, I am conducting a survey to identify their underlying success factors. I would be most obliged if you could kindly spare a few moments to assist me with my research by answering a few questions about your own enterprise. A copy of the survey questionnaire is attached to this letter and a prepaid return envelope is also provided. Your cooperation is much appreciated and will help to gain insight into how SMEs in general can be best supported to make them successful. Please be rest assured that individual survey responses will remain confidential and all responses will be aggregated to provide the overall survey results. Yours faithfully, Jimmy Johnson Appendix C: Text of the letter of invitation for interview Jimmy Johnson University of USA 20 May 2010 Dear manager, As part of my research on SMEs in Thailand, I am conducting a few interviews to gain insight into their underlying success factors. For this, I selected you at random from among those SMEs perceived to be successful. I would be most obliged if you could kindly spare a few moments to assist me with my research by answering a few questions about your own enterprise. I will be calling at your office number within the next few days, and if you agree to be interviewed, we can then arrange a mutually convenient time for that. The interview should take no more than about ten to fifteen minutes of your time, and the questions will be concerned with what makes your SME successful and the obstacles to further success. Your cooperation is much appreciated and will help to gain insight into how SMEs in general can be best supported to make them successful. Yours faithfully, Jimmy Johnson Appendix D: Questions to guide the interviews The following questions or points are prepared to guide the interview of SME managers in Thailand perceived to be successful. 1. What are the key factors that are making your enterprise successful? If prompting is needed, ask about enterprise culture, worker motivation, training programs, use of technology, customer focus, marketing, social links, finances, and support from government, NGOs, etc. but try to ascertain the most significant factors. 2. In what ways are they contributing to the success of the enterprise? If prompting is needed, ask about the impact on number of customers, magnitude of sales, profit levels, etc. but try to ascertain the most significant effects. 3. How important are these factors for SMEs in general? If prompting is needed, make them think beyond their own enterprise and ponder on things that are most important for Thai SMEs. 4. What are the key problems that make it difficult for your enterprise to be even more successful? If prompting is needed, ask about lack of finance, expertise, technology or support from government/NGOs, etc. but try to ascertain the most significant problems. 5. How are you overcoming these problems? If promoting is needed, ask about resorting to alternative sources of finance, applying for loans or grants, adopting more technology, providing greater training, etc. but try to ascertain the most significant measures being taken. 6. What more would you like the government, NGOs, banks and others to do for SMEs in Thailand? If prompting is needed, make them think beyond their own enterprise and ponder on things that are most desperately needed so that SMEs like them can be successful. Read More