Information Usage for External Environments Analysis for Formulating Strategic Planning of Thai Universities

Abstract

This analytical research aims to analyze and synthesize related theories and research papers for developing external information framework for

formulation of strategic management plans of Thai universities. The external information of the higher institutions consisted of threats and opportunities.The results of the analysis revealed the gaps between theories and practices in utilizing information, the external information, and the external information which was actually used in the strategic planning.

          The 1985 - 2009 published literature related to the framework and

theories was reviewed for developing the framework of external information of the universities. In addition, the researcher analyzed the existing strategic plans of 24 Thai universities using analytical forms to identify only threats and opportunities of the universities based on the framework developed from the literature review, including 2 types of information: 1) general external information comprising politics, laws, economy and society, culture, population, and information technology and communication. 2) operational information of the universities including competition, stakeholders, networks and collaboration, customers, and business and industry information.