Regarding aspects of factors related to the use of Big Data, the researcher found that there were several factors related to demographic characteristics. With the risk of SMEs going bankrupt, owners see the benefit of using Big Data in their business.
Research Objectives
The increasing demand for big data adoption in organizations is also very enthusiastic for workers' high skill and knowledge. The bridge of expectation between processes and analysis when the large volume of data arrives is important for accurate decision making as the proposal to use Big Data.
Scope of the Study
It is interesting to know the benefits of using Big Data for SMEs and the expectation of using Big Data in the aspects of SME entrepreneurs.
Definition of Big Data
Benefits of Big Data
From the application details of Big Data above, it shows that technology is important for the success of the SME business. Therefore, research on Big Data and its benefits in business is necessary in this digital age.
Concept of SMEs Definition of SMEs
The businesses have applied Big Data in their business operations to be more responsive to customer needs by using Big Data to analyze behavioral groups or respond to the changing behavior of customers. Retail-related business with fixed assets of no more than 60 million baht and employing no more than 30 employees.
Concepts of Business Development
Business owners must constantly change both their ideas and new business plans to ensure that the business will grow sustainably (Baharuden & Ameen To create business opportunities. Turning or developing the business to environmentally conscious business can create opportunities for business and new customers base (O'Connor & Kelly, 2017; Baharuden & Ameen To mitigate the risk.
Big Data Adoption for SMEs
Many Big Data challenges still exist especially in computer systems that contain large computing power (large CPU) but without much ability to input and output data (poor I/O). SMEs can take advantage of cloud computing techniques to harness the benefits of Big Data without significant investments in workers and technology. The results of this study will help SMEs to analyze feasible opportunities, research, and also to understand the challenges in using Big Data.
The results show that Big Data and cloud computing adoption increase the big achievements for SMEs. According to Frizzo-Barker (Frizzo-Barker, 2016), there are three reasons for SMEs to adopt cloud computing; Hardware cost reduction, processing cost reduction and analytics capability in the power of big data. Because SMEs have limited resources and no ability to invest the high cost if Big Data is adopted at home.
Accordingly, it has been found that the profitability through the use of this useful product of small and medium-sized enterprises is slowly adopting the new technology of Big Data analysis and is in the crisis of falling behind.
SMEs Technology Adoption based on Industry
In the medical business, Wang conducted a study with the aim of adopting the perspective of a medical data analyst in medical big data processing techniques. The results showed that benefits, community perceptions and attitudes were important for the intention to adopt large-scale pharmaceutical knowledge processing techniques and the direct impact of the observed benefits on the relationship and social perspective (Wang, 2017). Technology adoption for each of the business industries that were studied showed different perspectives in each business.
It showed that in each of the business industries they are thinking about using technology in their business.
Conceptual Framework
It is one of the traditional research methods used to speculate evidence for theory through the information collected from people and in-depth interviews to explore the expectations associated with the use of Big Data for SME entrepreneurs (Creswell JW, 2011).
Population and Sample
Measurement of Variables
The interview questions consisted of three parts, starting with interviewees' demographic information. The final section describes key questions that gather information about expectations regarding the use of big data for SMEs entrepreneurs.
Demographic Data of Interviewees
General Information of Business
Key Interview Questions
Data Collection
- Data Type
- Interview Analysis
Primary Data: Qualitative research was used through in-depth interviews with 25 key informants who were SME entrepreneurs. Secondary Data: For the knowledge of Big Data and SMEs, the researcher studied and collected various information from related magazines, articles, books, related researches and general information about business to determine the scope and content of the study and create research tools according to the research objectives. The process was captured in the step below (Ashraf, 2017): . a) The researcher recorded various data relevant to the study to obtain clear information and contact SME entrepreneurs for interviews to analyze their perception, feelings and attitudes regarding their experiences in different business areas.
The researcher collected data through telephone conversations between the interviewer and the interviewees to reveal important information. The first interview question starts with the demographics about the business owner, such as age and gender. Then the next question asks about general information about the company, such as the sector, number of employees and company history (years). Before the interview began, the researcher requested permission to make notes and audio recordings for the purpose of the interview.
During the interview, the main point of questions is to ask about their perspectives in terms of benefits of using Big Data in business, change management when you start using Big Data in your company and Expectation when . invest for Big Data and see their opinions.
Data Analysis
DATA ANALYSIS
Interviewees
The first business model was a physical or offline business such as a headphone shop, clothing shop, food shop, Royal Project Foundation shop (food and cafe), custom motorbike shop and repair shop, florist shop, cosmetic shop, construction company, jewelry store, paper shop, bakery, luxury car, infrastructure and consulting company, etc. Another business model was an online business such as skin care, clothing store (secondhand), gift shop, contact lenses and eyes.
Observation Findings
Advantages of using Big Data for SMEs business entrepreneurs
In terms of in-depth understanding of consumer behavior, the benefits of using Big Data for SMEs are to extract knowledge or to find out the hidden meaning to gain competitive advantage because consumers have more complex needs. Big Data helps manipulate the data structure as entrepreneurs request, helps online retailers communicate, create experiences, provide suggestions tailored to individual customers and create new business opportunities. They have known what/when motivates this person to buy their products”, interviewee no.
Big Data helps companies achieve high growth rates and become profitable in terms of increasing sales volume. As for companies, if they know the market trends quickly enough, they have the opportunity to prepare, create a marketing campaign or appropriate promotion to motivate the customer to stay in our store longer and pay more. Big data can support entrepreneurs to execute, including accurate decision-making, and support everyone in their business to effectively pursue business goals.
Big Data helps organizations maintain sufficient product inventory levels to meet customer needs.
Discussions of using Big Data for SMEs business entrepreneurs
In addition, their expectations from SMEs related to the use of big data are to convert visitors into customers and to set an effective price. The first expectations of SMEs when using big data for restaurants is to create a personalized experience for each customer. Therefore, the first priority of SME entrepreneurs who expect to use big data for the automotive business is to create a personalized experience for each customer.
Big data was expected to help create a personalized experience for each customer and better understand customer behavior. Big data was expected to help improve the exchange and sharing of information between pawnshops. The following expectations of small and medium-sized business entrepreneurs expected visitors to big data changes to become customers.
Moreover, the popular expectation when using Big Data for SMEs is to convert visitors into customers.
Factors that related to Big Data usage for SME entrepreneurs
- Budget
- Data Source (availability)
- People (To perform data analysts, role, knowledge, skills)
- Organization readiness (change management, time)
- Technology (tools)
The most important factor in the decision of entrepreneurs to use big data in their business was the budget. On the other hand, the use of big data is one big investment that they need to make to ensure a return on that investment. In terms of people, the researcher found that the type of industry is associated with determining the use of big data for SME entrepreneurs.
In terms of organizational readiness over time, the researcher found that the type of industry is decisive in the use of big data for SME entrepreneurs. If they will have more branches in the future, which means their businesses can survive, they are interested in using big data. They realized that companies willing to use big data can become competitive in the market.
In terms of technology, the researcher found that the business model was related to determining Big Data usage for SME entrepreneurs.
CONCLUSIONS
- Summary
- Implications of Research
- Limitations
- Recommendations of Further Studies
The first rank of most SME entrepreneurs' expectation, Big Data must create the personalized experience for each customer. The second ranks of SMEs entrepreneurs' expectation is that they expect Big Data to help determine the effective price. It can be said that the application of Big Data is not successful in all cases in SMEs, depending on the objective.
This illustrates the understanding of the expectation related to Big Data usage of SMEs' business entrepreneurs. For SME entrepreneurs' view of using Big Data analytics, they realized that data analytics can be important for entrepreneurial practice. Moreover, entrepreneurs recognize the benefit of using Big Data to find the best solution out of data collection complexity.
This can lead to strong evidence in the use of Big Data for business development as the SMEs entrepreneurs.
