Management and Leadership Solved Assignment

Why small businesses struggle:
Factors that make small businesses
successful

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC:.............................................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
Research Background..................................................................................................................1
Aims and Objectives...................................................................................................................2
Rationale.....................................................................................................................................2
Problem Statement......................................................................................................................3
Dissertation Outline....................................................................................................................3
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................3
Findings & Analysis ......................................................................................................................4
Interpretation & Discussion.............................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................................................4
Theme 1: Factors associated with success of small business (Elecon International)..................4
Theme 2: The importance of human resource's management and leadership with small
business.......................................................................................................................................7
Theme 3: Challenges faced by Elecon International firm in there operations and functions of
management and leadership........................................................................................................9
Theme 4: Recommendations for further growth and development of small businesses in the
market place. ............................................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................11
Introduction...............................................................................................................................11
Research Methods/Type............................................................................................................12
Research Approach...................................................................................................................12
Research Design........................................................................................................................12
Research Philosophies...............................................................................................................13
Sampling...................................................................................................................................13
Data Collection..........................................................................................................................14
Data Analysis............................................................................................................................14
Ethical Consideration................................................................................................................15

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & ANALYSIS ....................................................................................15
Primary Research......................................................................................................................15
Focus Group Discussion...........................................................................................................27
CHAPTER 5: INTERPRETATION & DISCUSSION.................................................................28
Discussion of Focus Group Discussion.....................................................................................31
CHAPTER 6: RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION.........................................................33
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................33
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................34
CHAPTER 7: REFLECTION........................................................................................................35
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................37

TOPIC:
“To explore factors of management and leadership in success and struggle of small
business in Thailand. A study on Elecon International”.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Research Background
A health economy requires small business growth and sustainability. When small
businesses are healthy and prosperous, the community at large benefits and prospers too. Small
businesses are the backbone of the community along with entire economy. Small businesses are
privately owned corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship that have fever employees and less
annual revenue that a regular sized business or corporation. The types of business on small scale
are cafe, grocery shops, bakeries, translation services, care décor, medical shops, clothes and
shoes and many others which have small capital investment in the business. SME's plays a key
role in the socio-economic development of the nation (Ogunyomi and Bruning, 2016).
In terms of job creation in Thailand, Small businesses plays a great deal. The contribution
of small businesses to the economy is incredible as the Thai economy has increases SME by over
3 million in 2018 and government is also planning to increase more by 2020. There were 2.7
million small businesses that contribute over 37 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of
Thailand is contributed by SME's as well as it also provide employment to more than 10 million
people. Thailand economy is mainly based on the export of goods and services, so government
has decided to expand the business at both level, domestic and overseas (Contribution of SME to
Thai Economy, 2018).
Leadership and Management plays a crucial role in the success of the small bushinesses
because SME's struggles a lot in achieving the success. Active leadership and management is
required for executing success because if they are not perfect than it is not possible to achieve the
heights as well as grab advantages of opportunities lead by government for business expansion.
On the other hand, Small scale businesses faces various issues and challenges in operating the
business such as scarcity of resources, lack of finance, lack of technology, bad economic
environment and lack of marketing assistance (Debroux, 2017). By these issues, they have to
struggle to survive in the market place.
Thus, Researcher will use various techniques and methods to explore the factors of
management and leadership in the success and struggles of small businesses in Thailand. The
1

chosen business is Elecon International. It is small business of manufacturing switches which is
located in Silom Bangkok, Thailand. Company was founded in 1995 with the aim of becoming
leading provides of electronic devices and components.
Aims and Objectives
Aim:
“To explore factors of management and leadership in success and struggle of small
business in Thailand. A study on Elecon International”.
Objectives:
 To determine the factors associated with success of Elecon International.
 To identify the importance of human resource's management and leadership with small
business.
 To determine the challenges faced by Elecon International firm in there operations and
functions of management and leadership.
 To provide recommendations for further growth and development of small businesses in
the market place.
Research Questions
1. What the factors associated with the success of Elecon International?
2. What are the importance of human resource's management and leadership with small
business?
3. What challenges faced by Elecon International in there operations and functions of
management and leadership?
4. What are the recommendations for further growth and development of small businesses
in the market place?
Rationale
Small businesses and start-ups are the key trends in recent times because of incredible
growth and development as well as great contribution to the economy of nations. By conducting
this research, researcher will gain the understanding of importance of SME's for the success of
the economy as not only Thailand but there are many countries in which more than half of the
contribution is made by small businesses. Further, researcher will also understand how
leadership and management contribute to success of the SME's by overcoming struggle. So, the
personal interest of researcher is a reason. On the other hand, academic interest of researcher is
2

another reason why researcher has chosen this topic to study, as scholar will understand the
entire research structure, research methodologies and the most important how to conduct real
survey by using survey monkey site.
Problem Statement
This present research is based on the small businesses and the factors that leads to
success of the firm. SME's face many issues and problems in operating the business. SME's
struggles for the capital requirements, government regulation, requirements of working capital,
infrastructure, cash flows, tax compliance, lack of technologies and many others. Further, due to
scarcity of money and other resources, they could not able to hire experts for effective leadership
and management styles (Morley, Heraty and Michailova, 2016). In addition to this, SME's have
calibre to gain achieve the success but because of lack of marketing assistance, they are not able
to use marketing techniques, strategies, tools because of lack of money and budget. On the other
hand, researcher also face issues in conducting the research as researcher like in evaluation of
research methodologies, selecting the structure and one of the most problematic task is filling
questionnaire from focus groups.
Dissertation Outline
Chapter 1. Introduction This chapter outlines the summary of the topic on
which research study is based on. In this present
study, scholar will focus on brief understanding of
topic of the investigation along with aims and
objectives and research questions.
Chapter 2. Literature Review In dissertation this is the second chapter where the
discussion of secondary facts along with finding from
various authentic sources will be studied. All the
sources are valid and reliable. Literature reviews will
be written on the basis of themes that is prepared by
research objectives.
Chapter 3. Research Methodology In this chapter of dissertation, researcher will provide
a critical review of and justification of the research
methods that are used in collection of data as well as
3

data analysis. Researcher will also provide the
justification for selecting the research methodologies.
Chapter 4 Findings & Analysis This is most important chapter of the dissertation
because the entire study is based on this chapter. This
present chapter will present the tools for the
implication of the research.
Chapter 5 Interpretation &
Discussion
In this chapter the discussion of how the findings and
analysis link to the literature reviews that influenced
the thinking of researcher will be discussed.
Chapter 6 Recommendations and
Conclusion
This chapter provided the recommendations on the
basis of the outcomes of the result of data collection
as well as gist the entire study briefly.
Chapter 7: Reflection This present chapter is based on the personal
reflective view point of the research that included all
the own experience, learning and challenges faced
during the research.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Literature review is the very important chapter of the research as it helps in gaining the
insight and deep information regarding the topic by using authentic sources. It is the narrative
view of scholarly paper that includes current knowledge including substantive findings as well as
theoretical contribution. In this present section, researcher will provide the detail information on
small businesses as well as make a critical evaluation of and demonstrate application of theories,
principles and framework drawn from a range of relevant and appropriate referenced academic
and particular literature. Researcher has farmed the heading on the basis of research objectives.
Theme 1: Factors associated with success of small business (Elecon International).
As per the Saleem, (2017) small scale businesses plays a crucial role in the economy as
well as it contribute a great deal in terms of creation of job. Small businesses are said to be hero
4

of modern capitalism. Owners of SME's are the virtuous strivers, job creators and the plucky
entrepreneur who drive the economy to the development and growth. It is very important for that
government should focus on providing opportunities to the businesses because they are the
drivers of the economy. Small scale businesses are achieving great heights of success because of
government support and there are many other factors which are associated with the success of
businesses. However, Storey, (2016) stated that, there is no doubt that a person who starts
businesses have a main objective to grow and develop the enterprises more and more. The
success of SME's is depends on both financial, non-financial factors and external and internal
factors. Adequate amount of working capital along with working capital is very important
element to leads the business towards success. It is because if capital requirement is not adequate
than it is not possible to conduct the activities like purchasing of raw material, paying bills,
salary to staff and all other operating activities. For example, Elecon International firm is now
leading from last few years and grown drastically because of adequate capital and cash flows as
well as optimum utilisation of the resources.
According to the Bouazza, Ardjouman and Abada, (2015) human capital is another
factors that s associated with the success of the business because if the human capital is not their
than it is not possible to achieve success. Business need skilled and knowledgeable employees
and should have suitable roles and responsibilities that they can do there best. To be a successful
it is important to have managers, admin assistance, leaders, receptionist and all other types of
business roles. However, Dunne and et.al., (2016) said that, it is not possible for the all small
firms to gave all these job roles because of scarcity of financial resources and space. There are
many small firms which are operating less than 10 staff members. As per the finding of Perry,
Rahim and Davis, (2018) human resources are the backbone of the company irrespective to its
size and scale. It is because alone an owner or any other person cannot run the firm. So, it is very
crucial to have the adequate requirement of human capital within firm.
Mohamad Radzi and et.al., (2017) stressed on another factor is creativity in management
as every small businesses needs the creative influence of an entrepreneur. Creativity involves
bringing something innovative and as a process involves a management. In today's business era,
companies either small or big are operating in a highly competitive, international environment
making creativity important. Creative management also reduces the wastage of resources and
time as well as make the operation productive. For example, Deliotte is a small start-up and with
5

the creative management, it is leading in the world by having $43.2 billions revenue and 286,200
employees. As per the views of Bansal and Agarwal, (2015) economic factors is another factors
that is associated with the success of small businesses as if the economic conditions of nation is
stable than organisation have steady growth towards in the market but if the economic conditions
are not stable than it is will affect the survival of the company. In the period of high inflation, it
becomes challenging because it negatively affects the cost of input such as electricity, raw
material and fuel.
According to the Parnell, Long and Lester, (2015) customer service is another factor that
plays a key role in the success and growth of the business. Customers are key to achieve success
so, it is very important to keep customers motivated and loyal to the firm. They are the drivers of
the business. The product or services offered by SME's should able to satisfy the needs and
expectations of customers. Segmentation Targeting and Positioning is one of the best model that
is used by small scale firms to target the right audience in a right manner and achieve strategic
positioning in the market. By using this model, businesses can satisfy the customers by
identifying their needs and expectations. However, Kirchberger and Pohl, (2016) said that,
location of the business is another important factor that is associated with success of the
business. It is very important that the goods and services which offered by the firm should able
to reach the customers. In addition to this, presence on internet is also a way to reach large
number of customers. The products of Elecon International firm also have presence on internet
platform so that large amount of customers could acquire the products (switches) of the
company. But Lee and et.al., (2015) argued that, it is not possible for all small scale businesses to
operate the business on social media also, because it requires proper attention and updates to
make the customers attached to the company. Presence on internet platform also requires human
resource to manage the pages and websites which is not at all possible for all small scale
organisation.
According to the Yusubova and Clarysse, (2016) government subsidies is another most
important factor affecting the growth and development of the business. Government of all
countries are supporting the expansion of small scale businesses as the contribution made by
SME's are incredible to the economy. For example, the government has set lofty goal to raise the
contribution of SME's to 50 percent of Thai GDP under the nations;s 13th national social and
economic development plan (2012-25). In addition to this, The ministry of Commerce of
6

Thailand has also planned to develop a national e-commerce platform in order to support small
and medium scale businesses.
Theme 2: The importance of human resource's management and leadership with small business.
According to the Dunne and et.al., (2016) leadership and human resource management
plays a key role in the development and growth of small scale businesses. These are the key to
achieve success because it is fact that only a single person cannot run the business. Leaders are
the one who initiate actions, provide guidance, motivate employees, build moral and drives the
entire firm towards the goals and objectives of the company. Effective leadership and
management is very crucial to run the business by gaining profitability in the business. Strong
leaders helps the SME's to ruin the business smoothly as well as achieving profitability to
achieve business goals. However, Nolan and Garavan, (2016) said that, many small business
have less than 5 to 10 employees and thus they believe that human resource management plays a
minor role. But, the fact is that even there is only single employee, business have to understand
the human resource as well as how effectively it manages the workforce within the firm. If
leadership and management is not perfect, business struggles in achieving success in the market.
Human resource and leadership management helps small business by hiring and retaining the
best possible talent within the business The truth is that Human resource is actually very
important for the SME due to significant impact on the business. Further, human resource
management also helps in strategic management as it allows improving the bottom-line of the
firm with its knowledge of how human resource capital influenced the success of the firm. They
also help in managing the entire decisions related to business expansion, working capital staffing
and all other important decisions of the firms.
As per the view of Taneja, Pryor and Hayek, (2016) leadership is the key to achieve
success as it helps to maximise efficiency and to achieve organisational goals. Leaders are those
that initiate actions when managers plan and formulate policies and strategies for completing
task or achieve desire goals. Motivation at workplace is also comes from the leaders within
organisation as they prove to be playing the role of incentive at workplace. But not only leaders
even human resource managers also keep the employees motivated within organisation by
listening their concerns. However, Goffee and Scase, (2015) said that leaders are the guide in the
organisation as they used to guide employees of the firm as they do not play the role of
supervisors. They make the employees to work in a way to they perform to raise the efficiency
7

and affectivity at workplace. In addition to this, the growth of small businesses tends to slow at
the initial stage so, it is very important to keep the employees motivated as well as confident.
Leader keeps the employees motivated and confident by explaining the clear role and providing
guidance to them. They also listen the complaints and issues of employees in small businesses. It
is fact that no any businesses can achieve height of success without leadership. Leaders are the
one who build a motivated and happy work environment at workplace.
However, as per the findings of Koryak and et.al., (2015) In small businesses, directive
leadership style plays a key in small businesses because leaders knows exactly how task is
performed and what is the deadlines. This leadership ship style avoid the wastage by clearing the
goals and providing proper guidelines that results in optimum utilisation of resources. So, this
type of leaders are very important for the small businesses. But Haynes, Hitt and Campbell,
(2015) argued that this leadership style is only suited for those employees who needs close
guidance as senior employees do not waste the resources they make fully utilisation of resources.
So, this style of leadership is only appropriate with new joiners and trainers. Renko and et.al.,
(2015) stressed on the participative leadership style is one of the best style for the success of
small business as it plays a key role. It is because leaders in this leadership style involve the
opinion and ideas of all the employees that boost the innovation and innovation is the key to get
success in the market place. This leadership style is valuable for the small firms.
As per the findings of Baum, (2015) Human resource management is also one another
most essential factor in running the successful business either small or big. It has been identified
from the report that, more than 85 percent of employed Americans are leaving their jobs for the
better benefits, flexible working environment and recruitment and retaining the right talent
(Importance of Human Resource Management in SME, 2018). Even so, human resource
departments operate with the well-being of their employee as their priority and the strategies they
use might be vary as per the size of the company. In simple words. Small firms might have to
look at the human resource and it role from entirely a different perspective as compare to big
firms. However, Owen and Bakari, (2018) said that, it is very important to have the best human
resource department because in small businesses owners and managers have to wear more hats.
This means there are huge chances of overlapping the roles and responsibilities like recruitment,
formulating HR budgets, preparing financial statements, policies and managing payroll.
8

Theme 3: Challenges faced by Elecon International firm in there operations and functions of
management and leadership.
According to the Krishnan and Scullion, (2017) Today the world is globally market
oriented and with that small businesses faced ample of challenges in the fast paced. When it
comes to the successful leadership, attributes like vision, integrity, communication and curiosity
never go out of style. Not only big businesses, but small businesses also needs effective
leadership and management because it is not possible got only single owner to manage the
recruitment and retention challenges, keep updated with the latest technology and exhibit
powerful business acumen. Lack of resources is one of the biggest challenges faced by small
businesses in maintaining the functions and operations of small businesses as said by Sayles,
(2017). At initial stage, they are not able to set up the whole businesses like assets and staff
members. Lack of fund is the biggest challenge that organisations have small firms faced in
managing the leadership and management within organisation. It is true that for conducting
business working capital is required along with the capital requirement. As per the views of
Masa'deh, Obeidat and Tarhini, (2016) hiring talented staff is another challenge that is faced in
managing leadership and management. For effective functions and operations, management
requires talented candidates because they take all the decisions for the company. Many small
business owners think that they will manage all the things but it is very tangled to hire right
people at right job.
As per the views of Haddock-Millar, Sanyal and Müller-Camen, (2016) technology
adaption is another issue that is faced by the small firms because it raises the cost of operations
as it is somewhat expensive for them. There are many advantages of using advance technologies
but rapid changing in technologies creates so much clashes in the firm such as installation cost,
employee resistance etc. However, Mullins and Schoar, (2016) argued that, the capacity to adopt
advance technology can awkward and expensive for all size of firms but especially for small
businesses. For example, adopting cloud technologies by switching the old storage of data as it
saves ample of resources of the firm such as cost, time and workforce. As per the views of
Hillary, (2017) change management and leadership management are two one of the
interconnected challenges that organisation faced. There are various changes that businesses
have to go through with and it is very important to adopt the changes as soon as possible to gain
competitive advantages in the market. The standardized procedure for shifting from one platform
9

of working to another platform is called as change management and at that time trandformation
leadership theory is best. At the time of implementing any change within organisation, leadership
and management plays an efficient role. So, if leadership and management of firm is not perfect
that organisation face challenges in implementation of changes.
Theme 4: Recommendations for further growth and development of small businesses in the
market place.
As per the views of Barber, Metcalfe and Porteous, (2016) growth is very important for
the business either small or big. Small businesses have to focus on future growth and action it is
because of high competition in the market. As in UK, the total number of start-ups is
continuously increasing so the competition is becoming threat for small businesses. So, the best
way to grow small firms is to conduct market research. Firm can analyse the opportunities and
threat in the market so that they can grab opportunities as well as all overcome the threat in the
market. By conducting market research, they can also analyse the demands and expectations of
customers. However, Martin and Javalgi, (2016) argued that, market research is an expensive
task for the small businesses as market research incudes so man y expenses such as operating
expenses, initial investment etc. and market research is continuous process because customer
demand and environmental trends changes continuously. It becomes highly expensive for small
businesses to conduct market research on regular basis.
According to the views of Camilleri, (2018) segment the growth for market as by
selecting the particular segment it becomes quite easy and effective to target the audience and
grab large number of customers. For example, Elecon Electronic company can target contractors
to sell the switches to them. By narrow downing the competitors, small firms can acquire
competitive advantage. However, Porter and Kramer, (2019) said that, use technology to stay
competitive as it is very important because of highly technological environment. Small
businesses should adopt modern software's to provide better and effective services to the
customers. Kasim and Altinay, (2016) argued that, adoption of new and advance technologies is
not an easy task it is because it increases the cost of operations when technology changes on
regular basis.
According to the Odoom, Narteh and Boateng, (2017) conducting market research is also
one of the best way to cover the customer base as well as to achieve desired goals and objectives.
10

Market research is the best way to achieve the competitive position in the market place as well as
to strengthen the position of the small scale business in the market place. Market research also
minimises the investment risk as well as allows businesses to identify the trends of the market
which becomes quite easy for small scale organisation to achieve the desired position in the
market. But, these statements were argued by Ueasangkomsate, (2015) as he said that,
conducting market research is highly costly affair for the organisation specially for small scale
organisation. The cost of hiring people for conducing market research to go up and down the
country to host focus groups and then additionally pay each individual for participating in the
session all adds up. This is not possible for small scale to acquire fund for the financial and
human resources. However, Daveri and Parisi, (2015) said that innovation is another way to
expand the scale of small businesses and well defined strategy for further growth and
development of small businesses in the market place. Innovation can deliver a significant benefit.
It is one of the most important and critical skills for achieving success and it has been said that
innovation is core of the small businesses. By focusing on innovation strategies small scale
businesses can be solve many issues, generate profit, raise the market, increase the customer base
and edge out the rivals. For example, Elecon Electronic company is can provide innovative
switches and other electric gazettes to attract customers. Friesenbichler and Peneder, (2016) said
that, the world is now of innovation and organisations who is non innovative have high risk of
losing the share of market, losing key staff and many other types of disadvantages too.
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Research Methodology is the third chapter of the research methods. It is the way to find
out the result of the research problem or issues. It is a tool to collect the data, analyse it and
interpret the data regarding the subject area (Liamputtong, 2018). Scholar used various criteria
for solving the given problem by collecting the data for the research in this chapter. The
technique or process that is used to collect the data for the intention of making decisions for the
business.
Here are the research methodologies chosen for the assessment are as follows-
11

Research Methods/Type
To select the type of research is the fundamental part of the research study as the base is
clear at the first time. Research methods are the strategies, processes or techniques that is used in
the collection of data or evidence for analysis in order to uncover the new information as well as
to create better understanding of the topic. Research methods are essentially divided into two
methods which are two methods which are Qualitative and Quantitative (Bryman, 2017).
Qualitative research is concern with the collection of data about the emotions, feelings, views,
perception of the person without inculcating the statistical and mathematical tools. While,
Quantitative research is concern with the collection of data by using statistical tools and
instruments and it also establishes cause and effect relationship among the variables. This
research is context to qualitative research methods are it is useful in the exploration of how or
why things have arises, interpreting as well as describing the actions. By using this qualitative
method, researcher has explored factors of management and leadership in success and struggle of
small business in Thailand.
Research Approach
Research Approach are the plans and the procedures for the research that span the steps
from wide assumptions to detailed methods of data collection, data analysis and interpretation.
After the selection of research approach, scholar have to look over the research approaches.
Inductive and Deductive are two types of research approach. The techniques for research
approach that do not include the preparation of hypotheses and which begins with the research
aims, question and objectives which are required during the procedure of investigation is called
as inductive research approach (Faulkner and Faulkner, 2018). On the other hand, deductive
research approaches are those which includes the development of hypotheses which is based on
existing theory and after that designing the strategies of research to test the hypotheses. In this
present research researcher has chosen inductive research approach in achieving the desire aims
and objectives as well as it is most suitable to qualitative study. By the application of inductive
research methods, investigator has successfully explored factors of management and leadership
in success and struggle of small business in Thailand.
Research Design
Research design is a type of methodology which is required to conduct the research in a
systematic and strategic way. It is said to be structure of detailed methods and techniques which
12

is selected by the researcher to join various elements of the study in a justified way so that the
problem of scholar is handle effectively. Research design are essentially divided into two
methods which are Descriptive and Causal research design. Descriptive research design is one
which solely interested in describing the case or situation during the research study ad it is helps
in describing the actual situation of the case (Abdulkadiroğlu and et.al., 2017). On the other
hand, causal research design is the one that is mainly related to mathematical and statistical
computation. With the application of this research design, researcher can establish cause ad
effect relationship among the depended and independent variable. This current research is
context to descriptive research design as it provided depth information about the how and why
the research problem can be solve. With the application and utilisation of descriptive research
design, scholar has successfully explored factors of management and leadership in success and
struggle of small business in Thailand.
Research Philosophies
Research philosophies are said to be one of the vast topic of the research. It is a faith
about the way in which the data about the phenomenon must be collected, analysed and
interpreted. There are mainly two classifications of research philosophies which are positivism
and Interpretivism. The type of research philosophies that are highly structured having large
sample based and mainly based on quantitative research is said to be positivism research
philosophies (Ryan, 2018). Whereas, Interpretivism philosophy is one which is small in sample
but carry in-depth investigation as well as the main base of the research is qualitative study. In
this current research, researcher has applied Interpretivism research philosophies with the main
reason to be qualitative research study. The application of this Interpretivism research
philosophy, scholar has successfully explored factors of management and leadership in success
and struggle of small business in Thailand.
Sampling
Sampling is the technique that is used in the research for the purpose of making the
research aim successful. It is the process of segregating the population into small sample, groups
or individuals. Just because of lack of resources and time, it is not possible to collect the data
from huge population. Probabilistic and Non-Probabilistic sampling are two types which are
used in qualitative study for collecting the research study and to reach the research aims and
objectives. Probabilistic sampling are the technique that posses equal chances of being selected
13

in the sample and it is also known as random sampling. On the other side, Non-probabilistic
sampling technique is one which do no stand equal chances of being selected. In this technique,
the knowledge and honestly of researcher is shown and it might be happen that the outcome of
this type of sampling may be biased (Robertson and Sibley, 2018). Researcher has applied
probabilistic sampling through random sampling techniques. Scholar has prepared questionnaire
for 40 respondents (Survey Monkey). Further, 2 focus group with 5 participants in each has been
selected. Such 2 focus group mainly includes owners of small scale firms and employee's.
Data Collection
Data Collection is the core part of the research study. It is defined as the process of
collecting, measuring and analysing the accurate insight for the research using standardized valid
techniques. Research is incomplete without the data collection. Data Collection is significantly
divided into two methods which primary and secondary. Primary research methods are those
which are collected for the first time and are actual fresh data which is not been used in the past.
It is time consuming methods but the information collected is free from personal interest bias.
On the other hand, secondary research methods are those which are gathered from any other
sources and are usable information (Sutton and Austin, 2015). Example of primary methods are
interview, survey, force group, observation etc. Whereas, book, government publications,
journals, internet articles are the example of secondary methods. It is not fresh data and very time
and cost effective. Researcher has collected data from both the sources as scholar has conducted
survey and focus group investigation for collecting primary information through survey as well
as secondary information are collected via books, journals and internet articles.
Data Analysis
After the completion of data collection process, investigator have to look for the data
analysis techniques to make the research study effective and useful for the research. Data
collected by the researcher is not useful for the research because it is raw and unstructured. So,
data analysis is the techniques to transform, amend, modify, synchronize the data to make it
useful for the research. Qualitative and Quantitative are two types for data analysis (Mihas,
2019). Quantitative analysis is one which is associated with the mathematical and numerical
methods where data is classified and computed by using statistical tools such as SPSS, spread
sheet etc. On the flip side, Qualitative research methods are those which are highly objectives in
nature and it is analysed by human effort that measure the property's ans attributes not by any
14

statistical tools. This present research is context to Qualitative data analysis as researcher has
evaluated the data by using thematic analysis techniques ad present the data by using charts,
tables and graphs. The application of this qualitative data analysis techniques, scholar has
successfully explored factors of management and leadership in success and struggle of small
business in Thailand.
Ethical Consideration
Ethics are the most essential part of the research study as it clearly makes difference in
what is the right to be done and what is wrong. Ethics protects the dignity, rights and welfare of
the researcher along with respondents. Researcher has followed all research ethics that makes the
research study valid and authentic. All the participant of the study are adults and all are allowed
to participate by their own will, no forceful participation was considered during the research. In
addition to this, all the secondary information collected during the research are gathered from
valid and authentic sources (Roberts, 2015). Moreover, all the sensitive topic were ignored and
eliminated by the researcher like caste, region, race etc. In this present research, researcher has
abided all the laws and legislations of the research.
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & ANALYSIS
Primary Research
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name of Organisation: Elecon International
Name of Participant:
Age:
Gender:
1. Did you feel small businesses are said to be the backbone of the community?
Yes
No
May be
2. Do you feel Elecon Internation can become one of the leading company in Thailand?
 Yes
 No
15

 May be
3. According to you, what are the most important thing for the success of small businesses?
Availability of Capital Fund
Availability of Working Capital
Business Structure and Management
Leadership
Human Capital
4. Do you agree small businesses has contributed great regarding the employment generation in
the economy?
Highly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Highly Disagree
5. What are the creative factors that makes Elecon International has makes the company
successful in the market?
Innovative products
Effective leadership
Proper Fund Accumulation
Competitive Workforce
6. Do you agree Human Resource management is important for the leading organisation
towards growth and development?
Highly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Highly Disagree
Disagree
7. Do you think transformational leadership style is the best suitable style for bringing change
within organisation?
16

Highly Agree
Agree
Highly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
8. Are you agree with the democratic leadership style is the critical success factor for the growth
of your organisation?
 Yes
 No
 May be
9. What are the complications faced by organisation without leaders and managers?
Managing recruitment and hiring
Overlapping of Roles and Responsibilities
Keep updated with the latest technology
Exhibit powerful business acumen
Others
10. Do you agree with technology adoption is a challenge for the small scale organisation?
Agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
17

Theme 1: Yes Maximum Employees feel Small Businesses are said to be the backbone of
the community.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Yes
42.50%
17
–
No
7.50%
3
–
May be
50.00%
20
TOTAL 40
Theme 2: Yes Large number of employees feel Elecon International can become one of the
leading company in Thailand.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
– 40.00%
18

ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
Yes 16
–
No
27.50%
11
–
May be
32.50%
13
TOTAL 40
Theme 3: Leadership is the most important thing for the success of small businesses.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Availability of Capital Fund
15.00%
6
–
Availability of Working Capital
27.50%
11
19

ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Business Structure and Management
7.50%
3
–
Leadership
35.00%
14
–
Human Capital
15.00%
6
TOTAL 40
Theme 4: Maximum Respondents were agreed that small businesses has contributed great
regarding the employment generation in the economy.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Highly Agree
40.00%
16
20

ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Agree
45.00%
18
–
Neutral
5.00%
2
–
Highly Disagree
5.00%
2
–
Disagree
5.00%
2
TOTAL 40
21

Theme 5: The creative factors that makes Elecon International has makes the company
successful in the market is its effective leadership.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Innovative products
17.50%
7
–
Effective leadership
55.00%
22
–
Proper Fund Accumulation
20.00%
8
–
Competitive Workforce
7.50%
3
TOTAL 40
22

Theme 6:Human Resource management is important for the leading organization towards
growth and development.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Highly Agree
47.50%
19
–
Agree
35.00%
14
–
Neutral
7.50%
3
–
Highly Disagree
2.50%
1
–
Disagree
7.50%
3
TOTAL 40
23

Theme 7: Transformational leadership style is the best suitable style for bringing change
within organization.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Highly Agree
27.50%
11
–
Agree
50.00%
20
–
Highly Disagree
5.00%
2
–
Disagree
5.00%
2
–
Neutral
12.50%
5
TOTAL 40
24

Theme 8: The democratic leadership style is the critical success factor for the growth of
your organisation.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Yes
27.50%
11
–
No
32.50%
13
–
May be
40.00%
16
TOTAL 40
25

Theme 9: Overlapping of roles and responsibilities is the complications faced by
organisation without leaders and managers.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
Managing recruitment and hiring
25.00%
10
–
Overlapping of Roles and Responsibilities
35.00%
14
–
Keep updated with the latest technology
15.00%
6
–
Exhibit powerful business acumen
17.50%
7
–
Others
7.50%
3
TOTAL 40
26

Theme 10: Maximum Employees are agreed that technology adoption is a challenge for the
small scale organisation.
ANSWER CHOICES– RESPONSES–
–
agree
57.50%
23
–
Neither agree nor disagree
40.00%
16
–
Disagree
2.50%
1
TOTAL 40
27

Focus Group Discussion
Focus group discussion is another type of primary research that usually based on group
discussion on similar topic from similar characteristics of background of people. It is the form of
qualitative research where questions are asked about there attitudes, belief, perception, ideas or
opinions. The maximum time required for this focus group discussion is 1.5 to 2 hours but it is
not a fix time as it can be summing-up in brief and can be extended up to 4 hours. There is not
qualitative parameters applied for evaluating the result of focus group discussion, no need of any
representatives along with errors are also not estimated.
In this present research, researcher has carried out a focus group discussion with
Employees of Elecon International Firm and some Owners of Small Scale firms and discussion
was held on the behalf of questions prepared in questionnaire in survey. The success factors of
small scale businesses were discussed and the importance and struggles faced by SME in
managing leadership and human research management within organisation were also the main
topic for the discussion. Researcher has carried out this meeting in a conference hall where
CCTC cameras, observing equipments and recorders were installed. Scholar has started the focus
group discussion by having Probe questions where the introduction were made to introduce the
topic and makes them feel more easy to share there views with the group. Secondly, researcher
has preprepared follow up question that delver further into the discussion topic and the opinion
or views of participants. And last the exit question where scholar make sure that no any single
things go unaddressed.
28

CHAPTER 5: INTERPRETATION & DISCUSSION
Theme 1: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that may be small businesses are the backbone of the community as
20 were supporting. 50 percent of employees do not sure answer but they feel. While there were
17 respondents are agreed that small businesses are the backbone of the economy as they said
SME contribute large number of people. As the views in secondary supported that owners of
SME's are the moral strivers, job creators and the plucky entrepreneur who drive the economy to
the development and growth.
Theme 2: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that large number of respondents feel that Elecon can becomes one of
the leading firm in Thailand. About 16 were supporting as per the views in literature supports
that leadership and management of this enterprise is very strong by which company is meeting
the customers demands and now they are supplying switches to hotel organisation. On the other
hand, 11 were there who not agreed and said that the competition is very high in electronic
products because innovation is high and it is not so easy for small businesses to invest in it. At
the last about 13 were confused and said may be Elecon can becomes one of the leading firm as
company is focusing on growth strategies.
Theme 3: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that leadership is the most important things for the success of small
businesses as without leadership skills it is not possible to maximise the efficiency as well as to
achieve the organisational goals. As the findings from secondary sources supported that, leaders
are the one who initiate actions, provide guidance, motivate employees, build moral and drives
the entire firm towards the goals and objectives of the firm. Whereas, there were 11 employees
who were disagreed as they said that leadership is not only important for the success as working
capital is also very important. Whereas, there were 6 participants who said that availability of
29

capital fund is also very important because if capital is not their it is not possible to make
investment in innovation and development that contributes to the growth and opportunities.
Further, it has also been founded that 6 were supporting to human capital as they said owner
alone cannot do all the things, so it is important to have employees.
Theme 4: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that small businesses has contributed large to the contribution of
employment. 16 were highly agreed and 18 were supporting this as they said small businesses
have provided different types of job opportunities to work. As the finding from literature
supports that SME has provided jobs to 10 million people living in Thailand. On the other hand,
only 4 were disagreed to these statements as they feel SME provide employment but not job
security that ultimately raise the fear of losing the job.
Theme 5: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that innovative products is the creative factor that makes Elecon
International successful in the market is its effective leadership. 55 percnet percent of people
were supporting and said active leaders grasp opportunities from the market quickly like the
leaders of Elecon has tied up contract with many chains of hotel for supplying innovative
products. Whereas, About 17.50 % of respondents supporting and they provide there opinion that
this enterprise is manufacturing innovative and stylish socket, switches like touch screen bedside
panel, room signage etc. that is attracted by customers especially hotel organisation. 8
respondents said that proper accumulation of fund is the creative factor that makes company
successful in the market place and rest were supporting competitive workforce of this firm.
Theme 6: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that human resource management is important for leading the
organisation towards success. As per their views, either organisation have 4 or 5 employees but
human resource management is important to manage the workforce. It has been supported by the
30

views or findings in literature, HRM also helps in strategic management as it allows improving
the bottom-line of the firm with its knowledge of how human resource capital influenced the
success of the firm. Whereas, there were only 4 who were not supporting as they feel it is not an
easy task to bear the cost of managing separate department of HR within organisation.
Theme 7: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that transformational leadership style is the best suitable style for
bringing change within organisation as 20 were supporting. They said that changes are vital for
further growth and development and at that time transformational leadership style plays a critical
role. The findings in literature supported that businesses have to go through various kinds of
changes and it is very important to adopt the changes as soon as possible to gain competitive
advantages in the market where transformational leader encourage, inspire, motivate employees
to create, innovate and adopt changes. On the other hand, only few people were disagreed as they
feel this leadership style is not effective all the time.
Theme 8: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that may be the democratic leadership style is critical factor for the
growth of organisation. Maximum were confused and do not have specific answers as they feel
that effective direction can bring productivity in work by avoiding overlapping of work and
confusion. Whereas, 11 were agreed as per their opinion, democratic leadership bring innovative
and creative and keep employees motivated at workplace. The findings in literature supported
that, democratic leadership style increased the staff productivity as it bring improvement in
moral and performance. Whereas, 13 were not supporting as they said democratic leadership
does not work at all the time because it is time consuming as when there is urgency.
Theme 9: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that overlapping of roles and responsibilities is the biggest
complication faced by organisation without leaders and manages. 35% of responders were
31

supporting as the roles and responsibilities are allocated by the managers and leaders guides
them to reach the completion and if they are not their it will affect the entire operations. Further,
employees are also supporting some complications like difficulties in managing recruitment and
selection, keeping the technologies updated etc. The views in literature supports that recruitment,
formulating HR budgets, preparing financial statements, policies and managing payroll are not
done only by single owner of the SME.
Theme 10: Interpretation
From the above survey carried out from 40 employees of Elecon International firm to
explore the leadership and management in the success and struggle of small business in Thailand
and it has been determined that technology adoption is one of the challenge that SME faced
which is supported by more than half of population. As per their views, the frequent changes in
technologies leads to raise the cost of operations and functions that is sometimes fund issues in
SME. The findings from secondary information supported that, the capacity to adopt advance
technology can awkward and expensive for all size of firms but especially for small businesses.
Discussion of Focus Group Discussion
By conducting focus group discussion among employees and owners of Small business
enterprises, it has been identified that small scale businesses are said to be the backbone of the
economy as majority of both the groups were agreed. Owners of SME stated that small scale
firms are providing employment opportunities to large number of population of Thailand. Even
they are also providing employment to many people within their organisation. However, majority
of employees are also supporting as they said with the rise of small businesses job opportunities
are also increases (Heifetz and Linsky, 2017). The view point of both the focus group is
supported by view point of author in literatures as SME has influenced the GDP of Thai
economy by over 3 million in 2018 and were 2.7 million small businesses has contributed over
37 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of Thailand and about 10 million people are
working in SME. Few employees are not agreed as they said small bushinesses are not able to
grow because of scarcity of resources and fund.
Thus, it can be stated on the behalf of majority that SME plays a crucial role in raising
the GDP of Thai economy.
Another discussion was held on the most important thing for the success of small
businesses which are said to be availability of capital fund, availability of working capital,
32

leadership and human capital. The owners of SME were mostly agreed upon the availability of
working capital and leadership. They provided their view points that if leadership is missing than
it is not possible to achieve the heights of success and missing leadership can cause declining in
efficiency and legging behind in achieving the organisational goals. Working capital is also
essential to carry out the day to day activities of firm smoothly. However, employees said that,
leadership is important but it is not always important to hire someone for leaders, owner can also
lead the firm (Gao and Wu, 2017). However, maximum employees are supporting that leadership
is very important for the achieving the competitive position in the market place and leaders are
the one who makes the workplace motivated. Additionally, some owners of SME's are also said
that capital fund is also very important for buying asserts for the company technology up-
gradation and for hiring staff members. However, some employees argued that capital fund is
required only at the beginning and after starting there are various sources of getting fund.
Thus, it can be said on the behalf of majority that leadership is essential for the Small
scale organisation which can be supported by the views of author that as leadership style plays a
key in small businesses because leaders knows exactly how task is performed and what is the
deadline.
Human resource management is important for leading organisation towards growth and
development, discussion was held on this topic. Owners of SME's said that it is important to
have human resource management within organisation as it manages the staffing issues of the
company very effectively. But there are some owners who said that it is very costly and
expensive affairs for the SME to keep separate department of Human resource. There views are
supported by view point of authors as human resource management also aids in strategic
management as it allows improving the bottom-line of the firm with its cognition of how human
resource capital leads the growth of the firm (Hillson and Murray-Webster, 2017). On the other
hand, employee of the organisation are favour of this as they said human resource management is
one of the key to get success and they need someone to listen there queries because it is not
possible all the time to meet owner of the firm. Thus, it can be said that, small businesses should
have separate department of human resources to overcome the staffing issues.
In addition to this, creative factors that makes the small businesses successful are
innovative products, effective leadership, proper accumulation of fund and competitive
workforce. The discussion held, owners of SME's were preferring to proper accumulation of
33

fund as without fund it is not possible to carry out any activities smoothly. However, employees
said that leadership is very important factor that leads organisation towards the path of success as
they said if leadership is perfect than it will build innovative products, accumulate the fund
properly, manage recruitment and retention etc. It can be supported by the views in literature that
leadership is the key to achieve success as it helps to maximise efficiency and to achieve
organisational goals by creative management (Dubey, Gunasekaran and Ali, 2015).
Discussion was also continued and reach to the point of challenges that if leadership and
human resource management is missing than what complications faced by organisation. SME
owners said that, it will lead to burden on the head of owner of the firm and lead to overlapping
of roles and responsibilities. However, employees said that without leadership and human
resource management small business haves to faces various challenges like lack of technological
knowledge, mismanagement of resources, bad structuring of organisation etc. Thus, it can be
supported by the author view point that SMEfaces various issues and challenges in operating the
business such as scarcity of resources, lack of finance, lack of technology, bad economic
environment and lack of marketing assistance (Debroux, 2017). By these issues, they have to
struggle to survive in the market place.
CHAPTER 6: RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION
Conclusion
The above dissertation comes to the conclusion that leadership and human resource's
management leads to positive impact on the growth and development of small scale organisation.
Leadership and human resource management has a core advantages and importance in the
growth and development of the organisation either small or big. SME's are the backbone of the
community along with entire economy. SME's are achieving great heights of success due to
government support and there are many other factors which are connected with the success of the
businesses. These are privately owned corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship that have
fever employees and less annual revenue that a regular sized business or corporation. The critical
factors identified in the above research is said leadership and human resource management.
Further, there are various others factors was also identified by conducting primary research that
there are some another factor that leads to further development and growth are Availability of
Capital Fund, Availability of Working Capital, Business structure and management, leadership
and Human Capital. If these elements are not fulfilled than it block the path of growth.
34

Leadership is the cardinal to accomplish success as it aid to increase efficiency as well as to
accomplish organisational goals. Leaders are those that initiate actions when managers plan and
formulate policies and strategies for completing task or achieve desire goals. It was also
identified from the research that, directive leadership style is best for small businesses because
leaders knows exactly how task is performed and what is the deadline to complete the work.
The fact identified by conducting this research is that Human resource is really all-
important for the SME due to significant impact on the business. Further, human resource
management also aids in strategic management as it allows improving the bottom-line of the firm
with its cognition of how human resource capital leads the growth of the firm. Studied have
proved this wrong that less number of workers do not require human resource management
within organisation. As it has been identified that it creates troubles for owner of small scale
business face overlapping the roles and responsibilities such as recruitment, formulating HR
budgets, preparing financial statements, policies and managing payroll. It is very essential to
have human resource departments within organisation separately.
On the other hand, there are some challenged which were studied in the study are
deficiency of fund is the biggest challenge that small firms faced in managing the leadership and
management within organisation that gave birth to many other complications like recruitment of
staff for carrying the business actives and task. On the other side, several strategies was also
discussed in the research study which is that developing innovation strategies small scale
businesses can be solve many issues, generate profit, raise the market, increase the customer base
and edge out the rivals. Thus, at the end, it has been summarised from the findings that small
scale businesses needs effective leadership and human resource management to achieve success
in the market place as well as to over the challenges or complication arising in the path of
success.
Recommendation
The above research is mainly based on the factors of management and leadership in
success and struggles of small business in Thailand. By conducting the primary research
collecting secondary information, researcher have found some recommendation for further
growth and development of small businesses in the market place which are as follows-
Conducting market research is one of the best way to grow in the market place. Through
conducting market research, SME can analyse the demands and expectations of customers.
35

Further, the most important is that they can identify the opportunities and threats of the market
(Hair and et.al., 2015). Through market research, they can also analyse the strength and
weaknesses of the competitors prevailing in the market. Market research is the best way to grow
and develop in the market as Elecon International should also conduct market research for the
same. However, it is true that it is expensive for small scale companies but it is cost effective
technique.
It has been identified that, organisation management of Elecon International firm should
focus on innovation strategies as by focusing on innovation strategies small scale businesses can
be solve many issues, generate profit, raise the market, increase the customer base and edge out
the rivals (Tidd and Bessant, 2018).
Further, researcher has also identified that, small businesses should adopt advance
technologies so that they can invent new products (Gutierrez, Boukrami and Lumsden, 2015).
They should adopt modern software's to provide better and effective services to the customer.
CHAPTER 7: REFLECTION
The above research paper is based on the factors of management and leadership in
success and struggles of small business in Thailand. I was very excited in carrying the research
study on small scale business. I had a chance of meeting my project mentor three times as well as
obtained practical support regarding several aspects of the work during these meetings. My
mentor have given me guidelines from starting to the end of the research. I have prepared
proposal where I have learned how to make the structure of the research proposal. I have
prepared the aims and objectives along with research question where I took more time as my
tutor told me that entire study is based on aims and objectives. So, I have given more time on
that task.
After that I have selected research methodologies that help me to collect the data and
information for the whole investigation. I have evaluated all the methods of particular research
methodologies and have selected the most appropriate one. Further I have also prepared Gantt
chart according to the weeks where I have learned to distributed time as per the priority of the
task. Literature review section has given great significant in may career as I have learned how to
collect the data from various authentic sources and make critical analysis by collecting articles of
small scale businesses, management of human resource and leadership. Thus, it was my amazing
exp changes (Hume and Hume, 2015).
36

In addition to this, After completing the proposal I have completed my research report on
the basis of proposal made. In the research report, I have studied each and everything in detail. I
have research on the contribution made by small scale businesses where I have obtain the best
information that Thai economy is incredible as small businesses has raised by over 3 million in
2018 and Thai government is also planning to increase more by 2020. 10 million people are
employed by small scale firms where 37 percent of GDP have contributed by SME (Vukšić and
et.al., 2015). These informations have surprised me but I am very happy that I have acquired
knowledge and information about small scale enterprises and its contribution. Further, I was very
excited in conducting survey for data collection. I have collected data from 40 respondents and
filled them on survey monkey. It was my first experience but I have done that effectively and
successfully identified the outcomes. I have prepare the proposal for the research. I have carried
my research forward after the approval of my tutor and I was very happy that my tutor was
satisfied with my proposal after few changes.
37

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Abdulkadiroğlu, A and et.al., 2017. Research design meets market design: Using centralized
assignment for impact evaluation. Econometrica, 85(5), pp.1373-1432.
Bansal, V. and Agarwal, A., 2015. Enterprise resource planning: identifying relationships among
critical success factors. Business Process Management Journal, 21(6), pp.1337-1352.
Barber, J., Metcalfe, S. and Porteous, M., 2016. Barriers to growth in small firms. Routledge.
Baum, T., 2015. Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change?–A 2015 reprise. Tourism
Management, 50, pp.204-212.
Bouazza, A.B., Ardjouman, D. and Abada, O., 2015. Establishing the factors affecting the
growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in Algeria. American International journal
of Social science, 4(2), pp.101-115.
Bryman, A., 2017. Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their integration.
In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78). Routledge.
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Market segmentation, targeting and positioning. In Travel Marketing,
tourism economics and the airline product (pp. 69-83). Springer, Cham.
Daveri, F. and Parisi, M.L., 2015. Experience, innovation, and productivity: Empirical evidence
from Italy’s slowdown. ILR Review, 68(4), pp.889-915.
Debroux, P., 2017. Human Resource Management in Japan: Changes and Uncertainties-A New
Human Resource Management System Fitting to the Global Economy: Changes and
Uncertainties-A New Human Resource Management System Fitting to the Global
Economy. Routledge.
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A. and Ali, S.S., 2015. Exploring the relationship between leadership,
operational practices, institutional pressures and environmental performance: A framework
for green supply chain. International Journal of Production Economics, 160, pp.120-132.
Dunne, T.C and et.al., 2016. The impact of leadership on small business innovativeness. Journal
of Business Research, 69(11), pp.4876-4881.
Dunne, T.C and et.al.,2016. The impact of leadership on small business innovativeness. Journal
of Business Research, 69(11), pp.4876-4881.
38

Faulkner, S.S. and Faulkner, C.A., 2018. Research methods for social workers: A practice-based
approach. Oxford University Press.
Friesenbichler, K. and Peneder, M., 2016. Innovation, competition and productivity: Firm‐level
evidence for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Economics of Transition, 24(3), pp.535-
580.
Gao, J. and Wu, B., 2017. Revitalizing traditional villages through rural tourism: A case study of
Yuanjia Village, Shaanxi Province, China. Tourism Management, 63, pp.223-233.
Goffee, R. and Scase, R., 2015. Corporate Realities (Routledge Revivals): The Dynamics of
Large and Small Organisations. Routledge.
Gutierrez, A., Boukrami, E. and Lumsden, R., 2015. Technological, organisational and
environmental factors influencing managers’ decision to adopt cloud computing in the
UK. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 28(6), pp.788-807.
Haddock-Millar, J., Sanyal, C. and Müller-Camen, M., 2016. Green human resource
management: a comparative qualitative case study of a United States multinational
corporation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(2), pp.192-
211.
Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samouel, P. and Page, M.J., 2015. Essentials of
business research methods. Routledge.
Haynes, K.T., Hitt, M.A. and Campbell, J.T., 2015. The dark side of leadership: Towards a mid‐
range theory of hubris and greed in entrepreneurial contexts. Journal of Management
Studies, 52(4), pp.479-505.
Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M., 2017. Leadership on the line, with a new preface: Staying alive
through the dangers of change. Harvard Business Press.
Hillary, R., 2017. Small and medium-sized enterprises and the environment: business
imperatives. Routledge.
Hillson, D. and Murray-Webster, R., 2017. Understanding and managing risk attitude.
Routledge.
Hume, C. and Hume, M., 2015. The critical role of internal marketing in knowledge
management in not-for-profit organizations. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector
Marketing, 27(1), pp.23-47.
39

Kasim, A. and Altinay, L., 2016. How do technology orientation, organizational learning,
market conditions, and firm growth connect? A preliminary analysis on small and medium
size hotels in Peninsular Malaysia. International Review of Management and
Marketing, 6(7S), pp.121-126.
Kirchberger, M.A. and Pohl, L., 2016. Technology commercialization: a literature review of
success factors and antecedents across different contexts. The Journal of Technology
Transfer, 41(5), pp.1077-1112.
Koryak, O and et.al., 2015. Entrepreneurial leadership, capabilities and firm
growth. International Small Business Journal, 33(1), pp.89-105.
Lee, Y.G and et.al., 2015. Adjustment strategies and business success in minority-owned family
firms. New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, 18(1), pp.9-26.
Liamputtong, P., 2018. Sensitive Research Methodology and Approach: An
Introduction. Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences, pp.1-10.
Martin, S.L. and Javalgi, R.R.G., 2016. Entrepreneurial orientation, marketing capabilities and
performance: the moderating role of competitive intensity on Latin American International
new ventures. Journal of Business Research, 69(6), pp.2040-2051.
Masa'deh, R.E., Obeidat, B.Y. and Tarhini, A., 2016. A Jordanian empirical study of the
associations among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, knowledge
sharing, job performance, and firm performance: A structural equation modelling
approach. Journal of Management Development, 35(5), pp.681-705.
McCusker, K. and Gunaydin, S., 2015. Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed
methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), pp.537-542.
Mihas, P., 2019. Qualitative data analysis. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Mohamad Radzi and et.al., 2017. THE IMPACT OF INTERNAL FACTORS ON SMALL
BUSINESS SUCCESS: A CASE OF SMALL ENTERPRISES UNDER THE FELDA
SCHEME. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 22(1).
Morley, M.J., Heraty, N. and Michailova, S., 2016. Managing human resources in Central and
Eastern Europe. Routledge.
Mullins, W. and Schoar, A., 2016. How do CEOs see their roles? Management philosophies and
styles in family and non-family firms. Journal of Financial Economics, 119(1), pp.24-43.
40

Nolan, C.T. and Garavan, T.N., 2016. Human resource development in SMEs: a systematic
review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(1), pp.85-107.
Odoom, R., Narteh, B. and Boateng, R., 2017. Branding in small-and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) Current issues and research avenues. Qualitative Market Research: An
International Journal, 20(1), pp.68-89.
Ogunyomi, P. and Bruning, N.S., 2016. Human resource management and organizational
performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(6), pp.612-634.
Owen, M.E. and Bakari, M.T., 2018. Pursuing Leadership Roles in Chambers of Commerce: A
Racioethnic Perspective.
Parnell, J.A., Long, Z. and Lester, D., 2015. Competitive strategy, capabilities and uncertainty in
small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China and the United States. Management
Decision, 53(2), pp.402-431.
Perry, A., Rahim, E. and Davis, B., 2018. Startup Success Trends in Small Business Beyond
Five-Years: A Qualitative Research Study. International Journal of Sustainable
Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility (IJSECSR), 3(1), pp.1-16.
Porter, M.E. and Kramer, M.R., 2019. Creating shared value. In Managing sustainable
business (pp. 323-346). Springer, Dordrecht.
Pyo, S., 2015. Integrating tourist market segmentation, targeting, and positioning using
association rules. Information Technology & Tourism, 15(3), pp.253-281.
Rauter, R., Jonker, J. and Baumgartner, R.J., 2017. Going one's own way: drivers in developing
business models for sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.144-154.
Renko, M and et.al., 2015. Understanding and measuring entrepreneurial leadership
style. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), pp.54-74.
Roberts, L.D., 2015. Ethical issues in conducting qualitative research in online
communities. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(3), pp.314-325.
Robertson, A. and Sibley, C.G., 2018. Research sampling: a pragmatic approach. In Advanced
Research Methods for Applied Psychology (pp. 27-48). Routledge.
Ryan, G., 2018. Introduction to positivism, interpretivism and critical theory. Nurse
researcher, 25(4), pp.41-49.
41

Saleem, M.A., 2017. The impact of socio-economic factors on small business
success. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of society and space, 8(1).
Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Sayles, L.R., 2017. Managing large systems: organizations for the future. Routledge.
Sutton, J. and Austin, Z., 2015. Qualitative research: Data collection, analysis, and
management. The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 68(3), p.226.
Taneja, S., Pryor, M.G. and Hayek, M., 2016. Leaping innovation barriers to small business
longevity. Journal of Business Strategy, 37(3), pp.44-51.
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J.R., 2018. Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and
organizational change. John Wiley & Sons.
Ueasangkomsate, P., 2015. Adoption e-commerce for export market of small and medium
enterprises in Thailand. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, pp.111-120.
Vukšić, V.B., Bach, M.P., Garrido-Moreno, A., Lockett, N. and Garcia-Morales, V., 2015.
Exploring the role of knowledge management practices in fostering customer relationship
management as a catalyst of marketing innovation. Baltic Journal of Management.
Yusubova, A. and Clarysse, B., 2016. Success factors of business accelerators in three European
cities: Paris, London, Berlin. Technology entrepreneurship and business incubation.
Theory, practice, lessons learned, pp.35-56.
Online:
Contribution of SME to Thai Economy. 2018. [ONLINE]. AVAILABLE THROUGH:
<(https://www.rfigroup.com/rfi-group/news/asia-thailand-increase-smes-over-3-million-
2018)>.
Importance of Human Resource Management in SME. 2018. [ONLINE]. AVAILABLE
THROUGH: <https://keap.com/business-success-blog/business-management/human-
resources/how-hr-differs-from-small-to-big-biz>.
42