The globalization strategies of Thai corporations | |
| Author | Sasiprapa Chaiprasit |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.SM-10-02 |
| Subject(s) | Corporations--Thailand Globalization---Thailand |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. SM-10-02 |
| Abstract | Globalization has caused dramatic changes in the business e nvironment and the emergence of global market opportunities and threats. Firms have been forced to respond quickly and focus strategies in terms of improving their organizational and executive competencies, global perspective and become more technologicall y sophisticated. There are few empirical efforts in Asia and the Pacific that investigate how strategy components affect the globalization level of the firms and their technological development. Based on the gaps found in the literature, this study was d esigned to investigate factors that influence the level of globalization and technology development in Thai firms. The study also examined the relative importance of such factors. The specific objectives of this research were to identify and explore the relative importance of factors, and to develop a model to investigate the strategic factors influencing level of globalization and technology development in Thai firms. This research was designed in four stages covering both exploratory and explanatory res earch. The exploratory stage started by reviewing the existing literature relating to global strategy, globalization and technology development. These included important factors impact on firm‘s international business performance. The literature review ind icated three constructs, namely, strategic direction (SD), strategic management competencies (SMC), and going global (GG). These constructs were selected as a theoretical framework for this study. In - depth interviews with international business professors and experts were conducted to develop and review the conceptual model and improve questionnaire and the hypotheses in the research. A pre - test study of a preliminary survey was done by distributing a self - administered to target respondents was established . Finally, the modified conceptual model and six hypotheses were proposed to test the impact of strategy components on the level of globalization and technology development in Thai firms. A field survey was conducted with responses from 163 top executives in Thailand. Most of respondents were CEOs, Presidents or Managing Directors of firms. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to confirm the measurement items. The combination of multiple regression and logistic regression were chosen to analyze the da ta and assess the impact of the strategic direction, strategic management competencies and going global on the level of globalization and technology development by using SPSS. Strategic direction, strategic management competencies and going global construc t in the model exhibited high levels of reliability and validity, and produced the final measurement and conceptual models. Two out of six hypotheses which were H2: ―strategic direction will significantly affect level of globalization‖ and H3: ―strategic management competencies will significantly affect level of globalization‖ were accepted and other four were rejected. In addition, the impacts of specific variables related to strategic direction, strategic management competencies and going global on level of globalization and technology development were found in this study. Similar to prior research, the results in this study indicated that perceived global perspectives of firms was a powerful determinant and the strongest predictor of firm‘s global perfor mance. It was the only construct that showed a significant positive impact on level of globalization. Strategic management competencies construct (SMC) was the second most important factor in this study. Strategic management competencies have a statistical ly significant and negative influence on level of globalization. This finding contradicts the literature which support that competency based approaches have proved to be a critical for international business to be more competitive . Additionally, the specif ic variables related to strategic direction, strategic management competencies, going global actions and company factors are significantly related to increased globalization level. These included customer oriented, global standard, global performance, indu stry type of firms, and firm‘s market value. Innovative, competitiveness, customer oriented, organizational design, global projects, global knowledge management, and firms‘ financial attributes, were related to technology development as well. Global standa rd was the most effective factors influencing level of globalization, while innovative was found to be the most effective impact factors on technology development in Thai firms. The findings from this research are beneficial to firms and provide useful in formation for their executives in prioritizing and allocating their resources in terms of international business activities and investments, corporate strategy efforts to improve the strategy in globalization. Thus ultimately enhance the firms‘ level of gl obalization and technology development. In addition, these findings are also useful to the Thai government in designing and drafting a globalization policy to enhance the scope and development of international business in Thailand. |
| Year | 2010 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. SM-10-02 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management (SOM) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Publication code=SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Swierczek, Fredric W. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Winai Wongsurawat ;Dimmit, Nicholas J. ;Vatcharaporn Esichaikul |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Bangkok University, Thailand |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2010 |