An Analysis Of Factors Affecting Cross-border E-commerce Development Of Thai SMEs

Thai SMEs play a crucial role in Thailand's economic development,accounting for 99.7% of the total number of Thai companies and comprising of 78.48% of the total employment.It is said that all business operations of Thai SMEs are of great significance to the economic development of Thailand.To promote the economic development of Thailand,the policies for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises are implemented,including e-commerce adoption.Along with the fast development of global e-commerce,the SMEs in Thailand are promoted to use e-commerce platforms for enhancing their development capabilities.In recent years,several Thai SMEs have been operating on various e-commerce platforms,which has stimulated the growth of e-commerce market in Thailand larger and the entire e-commerce market in Thailand reached 2.88 trillion baht in 2017(about 3,757 million U.S.dollars).In any case,most of the ecommerce transactions are made in the domestic market.According to the Thai Government Electronic Transactions Development Authority(ETDA)report,only 7% of Thai SMEs have capability of running cross-border e-commerce business.This is a serious challenge for Thai SMEs.This paper aims to study the current situation of cross-border e-commerce development of Thai SMEs,identify the factors affecting cross-border e-commerce development of Thai SMEs,facing problems and challenges,and find the effective solutions to promote Thailand cross-border e-commerce business development.Case study analysis is main methodology adopted in this research.Two well-known small companies that have successfully entered overseas market on the e-commerce platform are selected as research object.The in-depth analysis is conducted based on existing research perspectives and deep interviews to arrive at the results of the study.Moreover,countermeasures are proposed by using SWOT analysis and TOWS strategy analysis.The study found that the beginning of doing cross-border e-commerce business is based on the entrepreneur's awareness of technology and e-commerce.Then,survival of the business will depend on factors such as the company's internal management and the characteristics of the product and branding.In addition,political turmoil,changes in economic conditions,technological development,social dynamics,and laws and regulations also have some bearing on the company's business performance to a certain extent.Besides,the results obtained by using SWOT analysis and TOWS strategy analysis show that the factors that can affect the cross-border e-commerce of SME are the product uniqueness creation and the existing of legal loopholes.Therefore,it is recommended that a defensive strategy(advantage-threat strategy)is adopted to turn challenge into an opportunity.