A new logarithmic fuzzy full consistency method for prioritizing critical success factors of technology start-ups in Thailand

Abstract

Due to societal changes and modernization in the world, various technologies and businesses have changed. Technology start-up enterprises are currently increasingly gaining attention in Thailand. However, for a technology start-up to be successful is not an easy path. Critical success factors (CSFs) from experts are necessary at the start. In this research two sectors: general technology (GeneralTech) and deep technology (DeepTech) are investigated. Entrepreneurs who wish to shift their businesses from GeneralTech to DeepTech can also understand what they have to focus on in running a relevant and successful business. Fuzzy Logarithmic Full Consistency Method (FUCOM-LF) has been applied to rank the CSFs for technology start-ups. This newly developed method has been compared with the existing methods; Logarithmic Fuzzy Preference Programming method (LFPP) and Fuzzy Logarithmic Full Consistency Method (FUCOM-F). The results have shown that the FUCOM-LF has advantages over existing methods because it uses a smaller number of pairwise comparisons with full consistency and it can get reliable results based on evaluated data. It is also not necessary to defuzzify the final value like FUCOM-F. The findings reveal that the three main CSFs for GeneralTech start-ups in Thailand are market and customer, key persons, and value propositions, while CSFs for DeepTech start-ups are market and customer, value propositions, and key persons, respectively. To shift from GeneralTech start-ups to DeepTech start-ups entrepreneurs should enhance their value propositions.