Introduction

Business is a source of job creation and innovation that is essential to the economic strength of a nation, especially in sustainable business development. Doing modern business requires understanding and development of one’s own business that shows responsibility for the environment and society along with the development of commercial turnover. This is known as “Green Business” which is a business that wants to deliver products and services to customers or consumers with value in 3 dimensions; namely, business, social, and environmental dimensions. The concept of “green organization” is a paradigm that is committed to reducing environmental problems in a sustainable way. In addition to the tasks and the activities, organizations must also have a policy and implementation of principles for the promotion and conservation of natural resources and environment. An organizational culture must also be implanted to raise awareness, to practice, to communicate, and to pass it on to personnel in the organization and those involved in social and environmental responsibility both inside and outside the organization. According to rapid changes in the harsh global climate, technological advances, consumer behavior, and the number of participations in the green office project of both public and private agencies, business owners have to prepare to adjust their business strategies by combining corporate governance, social and environmental responsibility into their business plans. In addition to meeting the needs of customers in terms of satisfaction and consumers’ expectations, their services must take into account the benefits and rewards that are worthwhile to society and the environment as well.

It can be seen that changes in various factors in doing business including showing environmental and social responsibility along with the development of commercial turnover in the form of a green organization are important variables for various businesses. Therefore, the researcher intended to investigate management strategies for entering green organizations in the business sector to lead the business to create a competitive advantage as well as being a green organization that helps solve environmental problems in a sustainable way.

Related Literature

In this research, relevant literature was investigated and could be presented as follows:

1. Strategic management refers to the organization's management process to achieve long-term goals set forth in accordance with the objectives. Relevant factors are analyzed and assessed taking into account the organization's context and the changing environment in order to get a proper operational plan before putting it into action (Boonbonkan & Khejornnun, 2006; Teepapal, 2008). It includes the following aspects:

Knowledge Management: This refers to the collection of knowledge that is scattered in persons and documents to develop a system so that everyone in the organization can access such knowledge and develop them to be knowledgeable and able to work efficiently.

Technology: This includes setting policies, concept of management and selection of environmentally friendly technology to increase the efficiency of the technology of the organization such as using renewable energy, developing energy-saving information systems, etc.

Resources: This covers the management of the use of resources in the organization in accordance with the green organization plan of the business in order to reduce costs, increase profits, and make good use of assets such as landscape modification, and the selection of environmentally friendly resources within the organization, etc. to increase the competitive ability of the organization.

Sustainability: This refers to the management of the organizations that operate their business in accordance with environmental management policies such as risk management, long-term development planning to solve environmental impact problems in order to deliver sustainable environmental management policies in the organization.

2. Green organization: It is one of the organization's paradigms which carry out various missions and activities with policies, and follow the principles of promotion with a commitment to reduce environmental problems in a sustainable way. Leading the organization to be a green one must be born from people as well as executives, and transferred to employees, society, and customers by building faith to believe that green marketing will lead to a good environment, encouraging everyone to participate in helping each other to conserve natural resources and the environment which will bring about profit part of which will return to the employees themselves as well as the society. This will eventually lead to the sustainability of business and society (Chanchaochai, 2015).

Research Method

The method of the study was as follows:

Selection of Population: A group of 400 personnel at the senior management level (or business owners); i.e., managers, heads of business, were selected from 4 types of businesses; namely, real estate, tourism and hotel, manufacturing, and service, in Bangkok and its vicinity. One hundred customers per business were drawn as the samples with quota random sampling technique.

Construction of Research Tools: Tools used in this research was a questionnaire which was divided into 3 parts as follows:

Part 1 consisted of 6 items asking for demographical information of the respondents including gender, age, education level, work experience, type of business, and affiliated departments.

Part 2 consisted of 60 questions asking about management strategies for becoming a green enterprise. The questionnaire was of a 5-point rating scale type based on Likert method of assessment and means score interpretation to rank the importance level (Silpcharu, 2017).

Part 3 was of an open-ended type asking for the informants’ opinions and recommendations for management to become a green enterprise in the business sector.

The experts were requested to assess the correspondence of the items and the research objectives of the draft questionnaire. When the tool met the criteria after being revised as advised, it was tried out to find its discrimination value and reliability with a sample group of 30 people having similar qualification to the population of this study. The discrimination values obtained from the trial were between 0.333-0.823 and the reliability was 0.981. Then the questionnaire was revised again before the actual use. In addition, the variables were set as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Variables And Descriptions
Variables	Descriptions	Variables	Descriptions
ORKM	Organizational knowledge management	Technology	Technology
ORKM_1	Policies and visions on environmental and green enterprise management were determined.	Technology_1	A policy for applying technology to support environmental and green enterprise management was set.
ORKM_2	A knowledge management plan for environmental management and green organization management has been formulated.	Technology_2	Measures for choosing environmentally friendly technology were imposed.
ORKM_3	The environmental knowledge management plan has been brought to the staff for acknowledgment and practice together.	Technology_3	A digital system was introduced to reduce the use of paper.
ORKM_4	Environmental standards (ISO 14001) are used as a guideline for transferring knowledge to personnel within the organization.	Technology_4	Technology is used to help in public relations (PR) and corporate communications.
ORKM_5	Guidelines for environmental knowledge management have been established to become a green organization.	Technology_5	Technology is used to help in enterprise resource planning (ERP).
ORKM_6	New knowledge and innovations related to management strategies to enter a green organization are pursued.	Technology_6	Technology is used to help in control and manufacturing.
ORKM_7	Experienced and expert speakers on environmental management were invited to share and exchange knowledge.	Technology_7	Technology is used to help in customer relationship management (CRM).
ORKM_8	A network for exchanging knowledge on environmental management and green organization management has been created.	Technology_8	Renewable energy such as solar energy is jointly used with electric power to reduce the amount of electricity.
ORKM_9	An incentive to work towards success was initiated.	Technology_9	Traditional energy usage was replaced with Energy-saving technology.
ORKM_10	A learning innovation as well as atmosphere to encourage personnel to fully express their opinions and exchange knowledge was created.	Technology_10	Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been applied to analyze various data in the organization.
ORKM_11	A study tour in an organization that was a model of environmental management and green organization management was provided.	Technology_11	Technology was developed to apply to products and services on digital platforms for customers’ convenience.
ORKM_12	Activities to educate on environmental management and green organizations to create corporate social responsibility (CSR) for customers and society were organized.	Technology_12	Technology was developed to apply to products and services on digital platforms to help reduce the use of various resources.
ORKM_13	Plans for environmental management and green organization management were implemented and reviewed.	Technology_13	Technology was developed to apply to products and services on digital platforms to respond to the concept of a green organization.
ORKM_14	Experiences from exchanging knowledge have been applied in solving environmental problems and managing green enterprises.	Technology_14	Information systems have been developed within the organization to be able to connect and use quickly and thoroughly.
ORKM_15	An integration of green organizations is balanced.	Technology_15	Tools and machines are maintained and inspected to be in good working condition to reduce the wasted energy consumption.
Resource	Resource	Sustainability	Sustainability
Resource_1	Policy on the use of resources in the office to be a green organization was imposed.	Sustain_1	Top management give importance to and have clearly defined environmental policies and green organization management.
Resource_2	The implementation plan according to the policy was determined, providing opportunities for personnel to participate in presenting their opinions in planning and operating.	Sustain_2	Environmental and green organization management policies have been continuously applied.
Resource_3	Trainings are provided for executives and personnel to realize the importance of the resources and how to use them efficiently.	Sustain_3	Environmental and green organization management policies have been handed down from generations of executives.
Resource_4	Executives and personnel are encouraged to be alert in environmental and green organization management.	Sustain_4	A goal to be a leader in promoting a green organization was set to run an environmentally friendly business.
Resource_5	Executives and personnel are encouraged to  gain sufficient potential for environmental and green organization management.	Sustain_5	Operational goals were clearly imposed for every line of work to develop sustainable green organization.
Resource_6	Executives and personnel are encouraged to participate in activities to campaign for efficiently and sustainably using resources in the organization.	Sustain_6	A long-term development plan has been provided to manage the environmental impact problems of products and services.
Resource_7	An activity contest among  departments was held every year to continuously campaign to efficiently use energy and resources in the organization.	Sustain_7	Various projects are provided to encourage people and entrepreneurs to realize the necessity and innovation that is environmentally friendly.
Resource_8	Monetary rewards and certificate of honors were continuously sponsored to award the department winning the contest on efficient energy and resource usage in the organization on an annual basis.	Sustain_8	Participation in environmental promotion activities with various agencies, both public and private sectors is undertaken.
Resource_9	Budget to improve the location, landscape and office equipment to support environmental management are provided.	Sustain_9	Activities to transfer knowledge and create awareness among personnel and communities on energy and environmental conservation are organized.
Resource_10	Expenses in carrying out various activities to promote being a green organization are provided.	Sustain_10	Operation in accordance with international award scoring criteria is conducted.
Resource_11	Landscape of buildings and locations was modified in response to energy saving.	Sustain_11	Assessment by domestic and international institutions in the field of energy and environment al conservation is allowed for ranking.
Resource_12	Empty spaces both indoors and outdoors were changed to be more green.	Sustain_12	Partners’ and suppliers’ cooperation to comply with the requirements of the organization's environmental policy are requested.
Resource_13	Equipment and electrical appliances were modified or changed to meet energy-saving standards.	Sustain_13	Support is given to partners and suppliers who value renewable energy and care for the environment.
Resource_14	The 4R principle (reduce, reuse, recycle, repair) is adopted to working in order to make full use of resources.	Sustain_14	Risks affecting sustainability are managed.
Resource_15	Processes that did not add value to the organization were eliminated to reduce costs.	Sustain_15	Risks caused by environmental impact (energy, water, and waste) are reduced.

3. Questionnaire was used to collect the data.

4. Both descriptive and reference statistics were used to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics used included frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation. One way ANOVA was employed to analyze the relationship among the studied elements and the difference between the mean scores obtained from different types of businesses. The statistical significance level was set at 0.05

Results of the Study

According to the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire, the results of the research could be summarized as follows:

1. Management strategies for becoming an organization green in business as classified by business types.

a. As for the general status of the respondents, it was found that most were female with the age ranged from 25-35, holding bachelor's degree. Their work experience were less than 5 years. They worked under management department.

b. With regard to the importance level of management strategies for becoming a green enterprise, it was found, as a whole and by- aspects, that strategies in all 4 aspects were recognized at a high level of importance. The top three strategies most recognized in each aspect were presented below.

1. Organizational Knowledge Management (ORKM): Policies and visions on environmental and green enterprise management were determined (ORKM_1). Activities to educate on environmental management and green organizations to create corporate social responsibility (CSR) for customers and society were organized. (ORKM_12). The environmental knowledge management plan has been brought to the staff for acknowledgment and practice together. (ORKM_3)

2. Technology: A digital system was introduced to reduce the use of paper (Technology_3). Technology is used to help in public relations (PR) and corporate communications (Technology_4). Information systems have been developed within the organization to be able to connect and use quickly and thoroughly (Technology_14).

3. Resources: Trainings are provided for executives and personnel to realize the importance of the resources and how to use them efficiently (Resource_3). The implementation plan according to the policy was determined, providing opportunities for personnel to participate in presenting their opinions in planning and operating (Resource_2). Policy on the use of resources in the office to be a green organization was imposed (Resource_1).

4. Sustainability: Top management give importance to and have clearly defined environmental policies and green organization management (Sustain_1). Environmental and green organization management policies have been continuously applied (Sustain_2). A goal to be a leader in promoting a green organization was set to run an environmentally friendly business (Sustain_4).

c. To compare the importance level of strategies to become a green enterprise in the business sector recognized by different types of business, One Way ANOVA was used to test the variance of the mean scores obtained from the responses from 4 groups of independent population. No differences were found as a whole and in any aspect at the statistical significance level of 0.05. See Table 2.

Table 2 Comparison Of The Importance Level Of Strategies To Enter A Green Enterprise In The Business Sector Recognized By Different Types Of Business
Strategies to enter a green enterprise in the business sector	Real estate business			Tourism and hotel business			Manufacturing business			Service business			f Value	p Value
		S.D.	Importance level		S.D.	Importance level		S.D.	Importance level		S.D.	Importance level
As a whole	3.57	0.92	High	3.67	0.53	High	3.60	0.70	High	3.73	0.74	High	0.935	0.42
1. Organizational knowledge management	3.54	0.76	High	3.64	0.62	High	3.66	0.74	High	3.66	0.83	High	0.624	0.60
2. Technology	3.58	0.97	High	3.73	0.54	High	3.71	0.66	High	3.81	0.74	High	1.743	0.16
3. Resources	3.59	1.06	High	3.63	0.57	High	3.53	0.75	High	3.71	0.77	High	0.847	0.47
4. Sustainability	3.58	0.98	High	3.68	0.57	High	3.50	0.82	High	3.74	0.84	High	1.719	0.16

Conclusion and Discussion

As every organization has placed great importance to imposing management strategies to become the green enterprise in the business sector, this study was conducted to find out an appropriate model of management for organizations. According to the results of the study, 4 major issues should be summarized and discussed as follows:

a. The results of the study revealed that, to become green enterprises in the business sector, business organizations placed more importance to technology management strategies than any other aspects. This is consistent with Rakanrin’s study (Sanrach, 2021). She also found that factors affecting cashless financial transactions for goods and services are that it makes everyday life of consumers more convenient and easier; it helps to reduce the usage of paper for their operation in banks or counter services. Therefore, service providers need to design applications that are easy to use, fast and low-cost. This showed that the usage of technology can be reduced time and paper in organization. So we can conclude that the technology strategy management let organization became green.

b. The results showed that the management strategy for becoming a green organization in the business sector, as a whole, was at a very important level. When classified by aspects; namely, organizational knowledge management, technology, resources, and sustainability, it was found that all were at a very important level. This is consistent with Sirilak’s study (Sae-Un, 2014). She also found that the respondents placed much importance to efficiency of resource usage, eco-performance, responsibilities in the process and green habits all of which were similar to the aspects investigated in this study that could be used as a guideline to formulate strategic plan for becoming green enterprise. In addition, it was also consistent with Talisa’s study (2011) mentioning that green business concept running could be applied to all types of businesses each of which might, however, practice differently. For entrepreneurs who want to start a new business, it is more convenient to start a green business because it is a new start in each step of doing business.

c. The results of the study showed that the importance level of management strategies for entering green enterprises in the business sector as a whole and by-aspects were not different.

d. According to comments and suggestions from the open-ended part of the questionnaire, the main obstacles to the management to enter the green enterprise in the business sector were unclear policy, lack of budget, and personnel’s lack of proper knowledge and understanding. This is consistent with the finding in Piyatida’s study (Thungtrakoonsombat, 2011). She found that the external obstacles such as government support and financial barriers most affected entrepreneurs' adaptation to becoming a green industry, followed by the internal ones such as lack of knowledge and understanding of green organization. Such problems might cause some business operators not to realize the importance and seriousness of becoming a green organization. It is, therefore, necessary for the government, private sectors, and the organization itself to build confidence and give clear support to this matter in order to develop and adapt organizations to appropriately become a green organization.

Suggestions and Recommendatios for further Study

According to the study on management strategies to enter a green enterprise in the business sector, it is suggested that sustainable practices be supported. Activities and various projects should be organized in accordance with the set policy to support the sustainable business operation. Budget should be provided for such activities and projects. Environmental matter should be taken into consideration to bring about the preservation of nature and the reduction of the resource usage cost that eventually lead to the pride of running sustainable and efficient green business. As for further study, it is recommended that an analysis of the importance of each aspect affecting the success of management to enter a green enterprise be made for better results. Effective communication and knowledge transfer methods about entering a green organization should be investigated.

References

Boonbonkan, J., & Khejornnun, N. (2006). Strategic Management. Bangkok: E-EDUCATION Public Company Limited.

Teepapal, P. (2008). Strategic management. Bangkok: Amorn Printing.

Silpcharu, T. (2017). Research and statistic analysis with SPSS and AMOS. Nontaburi: Business R&D Ordinary Partnership.

Chanchaochai, D. (2015). I didn't have to compete with anyone because in any case, it was the number one. Bangkok: DMG Publishing House.

Thungtrakoonsombat, P. (2011). Green Adaptation of Thai Industries. Bangkok: Graduate College, Chulalongkorn University.

Tasripoo, D. (2011). The guideline of business operation within green business concept for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Journal of Faculty of Applied Arts.

Sae-Un, S. (2014). Green business strategy of the sugar industry in the Northeast Region of Thailand. The 2^nd National Conference Phetchabun Rajabhat University, Phetchabun: Phetchabun Rajabhat University.

Sanrach, R. (2021). Factors affecting cashless payment of goods and services. Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, 25(3).

Indexed at

Received: 15-Nov-2021, Manuscript No. asmj-21-9041; Editor assigned: 17-Nov-2021; PreQC No. asmj-21-9041(PQ); Reviewed: 02-Dec-2021, QC No. asmj-21-9041; Revised: 09-Dec-2021, Manuscript No. asmj-21-9041(R); Published: 15-Dec-2021