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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