SMEs and E Commerce The Asia Foundation
2.0 Project
aim
This project has a twofold purpose. The first objective is to describe the functions
and the current and future use patterns of the Internet and e commerce among
SMEs in Thailand. The second objective is to identify barriers to greater use of
the Internet and e commerce.
The study mainly focuses on the Internet users. Since the number of the Internet
users among the SMEs is very low, the results should not be used as a basis to
extrapolate the total number of SMEs' using the Internet or e commerce.
3.0 Methodology
3.1 Company's
size
criteria
As defined by the Department of Industrial Promotion, Ministry of Industry, a
small company has 5 to 50 employees; a medium company has 51 to 200
employees.
3.2
Data collection
A survey method was used. Personal in depth interviews based on Thai version
questionnaires were conducted to collect information and data. The interviews
were conducted on the voluntary basis.
The targeted interviewees were either company's owners or primary decision
makers of the company. Only headquarters were interviewed. In the list of
companies in each sector and city, respondents were conveniently selected.
Internet users included:
E mail and WWW users
Companies with websites
Internet banking users
3.3 Sampling Frame
To select samples, resources used to shortlist companies were as follows:
Internet searches for companies with web sites
E commerce portals
Ministry of Industry
Ministry of Commerce
Yellow Pages
Classified ads in local newspapers
Classified ads in national newspapers.
Tourism Authority of Thailand
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