Thailand needs to change its economic engine by focusing on research, development and innovation (RDI). A tangible indicator is that the R&D/GDP expenditure of the country must increase to 2% by 2037. The government attempts to encourage national R&D through collaboration between universities and industries, particularly small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Statistically, SMEs account for 99.7% of all businesses in Thailand but still make a relatively small contribution to GDP; this is due to the fact that SMEs have limited technological capabilities. As a result, the government has deployed a number of measures to support SMEs in technology and innovation. Nevertheless, while collaborative projects between universities and SMEs with government support have been reported to be successful, many of these projects are competent at the project level but have no impact on the economy. This study investigated a completed collaboration project between universities and SMEs under the support of the Innovation and Technology Assistance Programme between 2013 and 2019, during which time of 5,650 projects were completed. This is surprising given the fact that only 8.6% were able to have an economic impact. It is, therefore, an interesting question as to what determines the capability of successful SMEs at the project level of crating continued success at the corporate level or bringing about a continuous increase in R&D spending. In the first phase of the study, a systematic review of the literature will be conducted to identify the possible determinants that contribute to SMEs having an impact. It was found that several interesting factors produce good potential in the study. However, many factors are still controversial and have different effects in different contexts. Consequently, an extensive study of these factors in the case of Thailand will be conducted in the next phase.