Opportunities and Challenges for Business Consulting in Entrepreneurial Ventures; Interviews Conducted in the E-commerce Startups in Thailand

Abstract

This study identifies the opportunities and challenges for business consulting in the e-commerce entrepreneurial ventures in Thailand. It uses a mono data collection method whereby only a qualitative data was used. The respondents were the founders and co-founders of e-commerce startups in Thailand. The study particularly looks into the different kinds of problems faced by e-commerce startups and then categorizes the problems into groups based on their origin. The problem-solving factors in the startups are then questioned. Factors like knowledge of the problem, the personality of the entrepreneur, competencies available in the startups and the available recourses are scrutinized.

The finding shows that problems both from within the startup and outside the startup lead to the hiring of consulting services. The problems were product offerings, growing the team and digital marketing. Most startups lacked full knowledge of the problem. Startup entrepreneurs stress a problem related to digital marketing. Although founders and co-founders admitted having a good personality to solve problems, the available resources like patents and locations played little role in the problems solving. Most startups hired consulting services in the technical side largely because they were operating in a tech industry. They also preferred to pay them project fees after the completion of the task. Differences in why the projects seemed satisfactory or unsatisfactory are discussed in the final section.