THAI INVESTORS DECISION MAKING FOR SETTING UP A FACTORY WITH INDUSTRIAL ESTATE AUTHORITY OF THAILAND

Abstract

In general, foreign investors are the main target groups in Thai industrial estates (IE) but with recent circumstances that have had an impact on some foreign entrepreneurs moving their production bases to neighbouring countries which affect Thailand’s overall economy. Nevertheless, there are a number of factories located in IEs that are owned by Thai investors who are also accounted as potential customers of Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (I-EA-T). However, very few studies had explored the Thai investors preference on location selection in IEs that owned by I-EA-T. Therefore, the objective of this thematic paper is to identify the important factors that influence their decision making for setting up a factory with I-EA-T. This study implemented a qualitative method by using marketing mix strategy 4Ps; Product Price Place and Promotion which covers data collected from in-depth interviews with 10 Thai entrepreneurs from 3 specific industrial estates under I-EA-T’s development within the past 5 years. The result represents that most important factors that influence Thai investors on the area selection for setting up their factories with I-EA-T are the location and connectivity, the readiness of public infrastructure and utilities, the price of land lease and land purchase, tax and non-tax incentives, followed by land lease and land purchase promotion respectively. This study can support I-EA-T’s marketing plans to reach more Thai investors as their new target customer.