Competitive priorities for service providers: perspectives from Thailand

Purpose - This paper aims to examine and describe competitive priorities for service providers in Thailand. This research responds to the need expressed by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) for understanding these priorities. This study is part of a planning session on future enhancement of its members' competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach - The survey, developed by Takala, was modified to gather feedback and opinions from top executives of ten service providers. These companies mainly provided technical services to customers. This survey consisted of six criteria or competitive priorities with a total of 31 dimensions. The analysis and computations were on both relative and global weights of the responses, derived from the analytical hierarchy process. Findings - Quality represented the most important competitive priority. Quality was given the highest weight of 36.4 percent, while service provision, customer-focus, and know-how were at 20.4, 12.9 and 12.5 percent, respectively. The remaining weights were 9.8 percent for costs, and 8.0 percent for flexibility. Practical implications - The awareness on competitive priorities was beneficial to the future organizational development of service providers in Thailand. These findings also helped reassure the FTI's current efforts on promoting quality among its members. Originality/value - The knowledge on competitive priorities potentially helps companies formulate future strategies and action plans. It serves as feedback and a milestone for the FTI's effectiveness on promoting quality among the members in its service-related clusters.