Internal and External factors hampering SME growth : a qualitative case study of SMEs in Thailand

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand are very important to economic growth and considerably essential to generate employment as in many other developing countries. SMEs account for 99.5% of the overall enterprises in Thailand while their contribution to the overall employment account for around 76% of all jobs. However, SMEs growth rate is still at a low level. Hence, this is qualitative study of the external and internal factors hampering the growth of SMEs in Thailand. Regarding external factors, there are a number of obstacles constraining their growth such as access to finance, competition, corruption, barriers to trade and macroeconomic factors as amongst some of the most significant issues. In terms of internal factors, there are also important constrains hindering their growth, for instance, poor management competences, lack of skilled labour, deficiencies in marketing strategies, little efforts on R&D, lack of new technology and low awareness concerning CSR are identified as some of the most important obstacles