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