Champrasit, Sumit (2008) State Bank Enterprise Awards: An Impact Evaluation Case Study. Other Degree thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This study is concerned with the development of entrepreneurship in young Thais, studying at high school level through an entrepreneurship encouragement program undertaken during the recent period of Thailand's economic recovery. This program is considered new to the country since it focuses on high school participants, a target-group untapped by most existing business incubation programs. In addition, it also takes significant account of the experiential learning method for entrepreneurship development. The research shows that the program had substantial, yet limited impact in encouraging its participants to become future entrepreneurs. This was due to the individual background, parental influence, and differences in their own beliefs that played an essential role in supporting or hindering young Thais towards entrepreneurship. Quantitative and qualitative research methods, used in conjunction, were used to portray the overall effectiveness of this program; such a mixed method is not commonly practiced in most entrepreneurship program evaluations. Quantitative research was used primarily to give representative results on how well the specific program objectives had been achieved by the participants as well as to select representatives of the program for the qualitative data gathering. Qualitative research was utilised to capture testimonials of program impacts and to obtain a comprehensive interpretation of participants’ perceptions, evaluation of program effectiveness, and the factors that support or hinder their development towards entrepreneurship. The study suggests that this short-term entrepreneurship encouragement program had limited success; success was dependent on both personal and external factors relating to each participant. It showed that one’s prior condition was a significant determinant of the varying level of success. The program was able to encourage the participants with relatively limited business experience towards entrepreneurship, specifically in stimulating more awareness and knowledge in developing entrepreneurial competencies. For those participants with an established background in business, the program provided a period of incubation that encouraged them to become entrepreneurs; it provided them with an opportunity of real business implementation that increased their prospects of success in future entrepreneurship. The concrete success levels revealed by the study suggests that this short-term entrepreneurship encouragement program might best position itself by providing an initial selection process to separate the ‘entrepreneurto- be’ from the ‘will not be’. The selected ‘entrepreneur-to-be’ could then be further groomed to be one of the successful entrepreneurs to play an important role in driving the long-term economic growth of Thailand.

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