Navigating Monetisation Fragility: Management Strategies for Design Micro-Enterprises in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

This study conceptualizes monetisation fragility within the situated creative ecosystem of Bangkok, Thailand. Drawing on qualitative interviews with ten established design micro-enterprises (operating 10–25 years), the study analyze three revenue pathways: design service fees, proprietary products, and intellectual property royalties. The findings show that service models suffer from persistent undervaluation, which design managers hypothesize is driven by a perceived client-designer cognitive disconnect regarding invisible cognitive labor. Product and licensing models struggle with scaling bottlenecks, contract evasion, and geopolitical asymmetries. Critically, the study positions these perceived client deficits not as objective market baselines, but as emic hypotheses held by design managers. Acknowledging the exclusive supply-side sample as a central empirical and conceptual limitation, this study proposes a relational theory of monetization fragility, which future research should validate using paired data.