Thai Banking: A Note on Technological Change and Technological Capabilities

This paper reports on the technological capabilities and learning of Thai banking system. It identifies innovation development of the system as it evolved and how the learning process took place. This study is based on a leading technological regime change literature and the results are based on the study of five commercial banks: Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Thai Farmers Bank (Kasikorn Bank), Krung Thai Bank, and Bank of Ayudhya. Mass automation of work procedures occurred during the 1960s and 1970s while the smart automation regime began in the early 1970s. The ways in which the banks improved their technological capabilities via electronic banking services is explored. The results also show that the use of technology in the mass automation regime is carried through to the smart automation regime, showing that the technological change in the banking sector is not revolutionary, but ocurred slowly, i.e. evoled via slow learing process.