The Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises in Metropolitan and Surrounding Areas

Abstract

This research aims to explore the competitiveness of small and medium sized enterprises in Bangkok Metropolitan and surrounding areas.  The sampling group used in this research is 400 SMEs.  The research results were that most respondents were sole proprietors and most businesses were retailers, which possessed no more than 50 employees and had operated their businesses for 6-10 years. The return on investment (net profit rate) showed an average of 15.08%. Enterprises got strong impact from high labor costs, lower customer purchasing power, stringent government regulations and high debt interest rates. Entrepreneurs thought that their organization performance was affected by economic conditions in terms of goods and service revenue and operation at a high level. Additionally, political impact affected business income. Under current economic status, they operated their businesses by increasing marketing expenses to boost sales, reducing labor expenses, finding new market opportunities/new customer segments and cutting working hours. Most entrepreneurs plan no expansion to their operation or investment and adopt sufficient economy philosophy to their businesses at a moderate level.  Additionally, the hypothesis testing found that SME entrepreneurs’ diversity of general information had impacted on operation performance, ideas toward the economic impact with their businesses, ideas toward performance under current economic situation, ideas toward political issues effecting business income, business operation under current economy and adaptation of sufficient economy philosophy to their businesses differently with statistical significance.