Research Article: 2021 Vol: 24 Issue: 1S
Taksaya Sangayotin, Graduate School of Commerce, Burapha University
This research aimed to suggest guidelines of potential development of community enterprises in Thailand to the professionalism sustainability with Delphi technique to study Southern border provinces of Thailand. The qualitative data analysis showed the valued chain in Primary Activities consisting of Inbound Logistics with purchasing qualified sources from local area with the control system of material requirement; Operation (Manufacturing) with production from local intelligence knowledge and the standard of products to the global market on the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for making an immunity for risk prevention of selling products; Outbound Logistics with providing a market to support, for continuous income with reasonability and fast, high-qualified delivery system; Marketing and Sales with designing of various, qualified products and product development under the product life cycle on the principle of moderation of the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy; Service with customer satisfaction survey to develop the next service and did not get advantages from society and environment. For Analyzing the valued chain in Support Activities including Procurement with providing qualified products from local area on economic cost from transportation; Technology Development with online technology to sell and produce products under needs of customers and value creation of products; For Human Resource Management, members must be ready for learning and self-development with growth mindset for work and way of life, using the results of research for work to develop knowledge, build the fair, clear payment system, and persuade to work; Firm Infrastructure with clear organizational chart, equal work load and teamwork to achieve the goal.
Community Enterprises, Potential, Professionalism Development, Sustainability
On world economic issues appearing in the analysis of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2019 concluded that the driving of the world economy among the changing, the fluctuation, and the opportunity that can expand the development towards the world social order to announce the collaboration of every section, to develop sustainably the world, to help the business sector to cope with the uncertain and the fluctuation, the conflict of business and the readiness of adapting the business plan with the fast changing of technology, the business operations must consider every sector and the whole supply chain, and also the small business within the community that receive these effects from this changing of world and society. This brings to happen many changes in the form of production and the business competitiveness starting from a design with standardization for making mas production to the production with customization, and also the innovation-driven to make a competitive advantage which leads to the high business competition and drastic, endless competition, so this changing makes many organizations to adjust themselves to make competitive advantages, but this changing from the globalization affects the awareness of the greatest operations and the important surroundings and society limitedly which are the things we should consider the sustainable development in different operations.
The analysis of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2017 found the gap of difference in stability between the rich and the poor increasingly, this shows the economic system is getting failed, that is, many poor people are being taken advantages by giving benefits to a large business and capitalists, world leaders both government sector and private sector should co-operate to change concretely the economic system, to solve seriously the problems together along with the Twelfth National Economic and Social Development Plan, to build the fairness and to reduce the gap in Thai society in order to strengthen the potential of community and the grassroots economics to be the self-reliant community, to get more economic benefits, the guideline for potential development of community, the community economic development and the strengthening of microfinance according to the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, to make the community to be self-reliant, to have an authority to manage capital, land and another resources within the community by building the learning community with educational process and knowledge transfer in the community to solve the problems and build on knowledge on business, and also to promote the corporation between the private sector and the educational establishment to develop together theorical knowledge and then apply it in the practical way for building the potential in the community for running a business, to promote the social enterprise, to support the government policy under the strategies for solving the poverty problem, to reduce the inequality and to increase the internal growth (Office of the National Economic & Social Development Council, 2017). The sustainable operations must match and continue starting from the corporate governance, strategies plan and operations process of each part within the organization, and also the evaluation process which is relevant to the valued chain activities, that is, the activities from upstream to downstream - these activities look like the chain which each activity will add valued to products and service, and also the competitive advantages. This change could develop the potential of sustainable business. The development of grassroots economics is one of the most important policies that has an important role towards the economic growth of Thailand. From the whole background of world economic and the change of current situation, it could be the objectives to study the potential and professionalism development of community enterprises in Thailand for sustainability.
Concepts, Theories of Community Enterprises
Rohitrattana (2019) stated that the community enterprises refers to community operations including production, service, or another services managed by the committee with the same relationship and way of life to run this business, both juristic and non-juristic person to make income and to rely on themselves of each family, in and out of community, and the success factor of operations of community enterprises. Sangayotin (2017) studied the successful factors for operations of community enterprises, and found that the successful factors including 1) Leadership, that is, the person is that good leader must accept the opinion, be the visionary leader, and be farsighted; 2) Good management system, that is, having a goal, a structure, and a system; 3) Skills, that is, having enough productivity skills towards the sufficient demands; 4) Networking and supporting from external organization; 5) To have a market support, that is, the market can support certainly the products and the goods must be high-quality, and get help from networking. accordance with the results of Kotas (2015) entitled “Key success factors for social services organizations in Poland”, showed the success factors as follows: 1) Leadership of member must be devoted, responsible for good practice; 2) Working as a team; all members must work all together willfully, and focus on common benefits for a success; 3) Management must formulate the action plan, inform the report to members for flexible management style.
Concept of Valued Chain Theory
According to the concept of valued chain was introduced by Porter (1985) said that doing business transaction including many activities following the concept of Porter’s are classified as 2 main parts: Primary activities and Support activities. The classification of these activities within the organization is called “value activities” that are classified as 2 main types:
1. Primary activities are the activities that involve directly to customers. They comprise of 5 activities such as: 1) Inbound Logistics refers to the system for import, the receiving and the storage of goods, the transportation, the warehouse system, the system for controlling goods and returning goods; 2) Operations refers to the production, the production system, the packaging, the assembly process, the maintenance, the testing system, the quality control; 3) Outbound Logistics refers to the distribution of goods, the receiving of business order, the delivery planning, and the transportation; 4) Marketing and Sales refer to the marketing and the sales; and 5) Service refers to the services such as the connection, the guarantee, the maintenance and the training. As Villis, Strack, Bruysten & Yunus (2013) said that the administrative management on process activities for creating value-added products and service of organization effectively can transfer the success of organization for society in Bangladesh besides for survival in accordance with Allinson, Braidford, Houston, Robinson & Stone (2012) studied the essential elements and factors for doing business transactions for society in the United Kingdom, referred to the obstacles and failure came from the internal organization performance that lack of knowledge, understanding and effective organizational management, so the administrative management of the effective operating process is the most important thing for existence of business for society together with the production process. This shows the importance of planning and assigning the production process to be valued to the production cost and effective to the society and environment. Moreover, the research of Baumann & Kritikos (2016) also studied the connection between doing a research and developing innovation and labor productivity, found that the investment in doing a research and development for constructing an innovation can increase the labor productivity of the organization with less 10 workers in accordance with Palangkaraya, Spurling & Webster (2015) found that the innovation influences the companies in Australia to increase the labor productivity and encourage employees to create and develop the innovation.
2. Supporting activities are the activities that involve indirectly to customers and support the Primary activities smoothly. They comprise of 4 activities such as: 1) Procurement refers to purchasing raw materials, stuffs and properties; 2) Technology development refers to the product development and new technology in activities; 3) Human resource management refers to the human resource management, the recruitment and selection, the evaluation, the development of salary and wage, the professional development, and the employee relations; and 4) Administration and infrastructure refer to the fundamental structure and the organizational management, the work system, the law, the quality control management, the information system. Allinson, et al., (2012) studied the essential factors for business operations for society in the United Kingdom. Although the social activities are the effective Primary activities, but they lack of the process from the Supporting activities within the organization, the effects do not achieve the goal, so it should not ignore the operations of Supporting activities. The quality of employees in the organization are driven the vision to achieve, so the organization will be success that depends on the human resources development in the organization that is considered as the most important. Moreover, Liu & Ko (2012) the social and community knowledge, concepts of building sustainability get support from many government sectors, private sectors, educational establishments, business incubation centers, and public benefits, attending the training and mentoring.
Researcher conducted the study by using the qualitative method with Delphi technique from Southern border provinces in Thailand as a case study from 3 groups including a group of experts, a group of businessmen and leaders of community enterprises with the Purposive Sampling, that is, the participants must be knowledgeable and skillful to run a business and also understand the geosocial of Southern border provinces as well. There are comprised of 17 samples including 5 experts, 5 businessmen in the community, and 7 leaders of community enterprises according to (Macmillan, 1971) the principle that is said that more than 17 experts will meet an error at the lowest level and will be stable at 0.02 with the Delphi technique as follows:
Step 1: To interview all 17 experts on valued chain’ topics both Primary activities and Supporting activities
Step 2: To make a consensus from the interview of 17 experts as the first round and then to give back the questionnaires with a rating scale of 5 levels of agreement: Strongly agree, Agree, Moderate agree, Partly agree, and Less agree respectively to the 17 experts as the second round, and then calculate the Median, the Interquartile Range, and the difference between Mode and Median by considering with the answers of 17 experts at the Median from 3.50 - this shows the experts have agreed at the high level, the Interquartile Range was not more than 1.50 and the difference between Mode and Median was less than 1.00- this shows the experts have agreed highly, and the answers are proper for professionalism development of community enterprises of Thailand for sustainability.
From the Table 1 showed the analysis of valued chain in Primary activities as follows:
| Table 1 The Analysis of Valued Chain in Primary Activities |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results from Interview | Results from Delphi Technique | |||
| Md (More than 3.50) |
IQR (Less than 1.50) |
Difference between Mo and Md (Less than 1.00) |
Propriety | |
| Inbound Logistics | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises must find out raw materials from a local area for a convenient transportation | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises must prepare the systematic storing and the control system. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Operation (Manufacturing) | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises must focus on production from local intelligence knowledge, creativity, and then make a story. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises should build the standard of production to the global market. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 3. The packaging must match the needs of market. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 4. Community enterprises must make the difference towards the products together with the storytelling. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 5. Community enterprises should process agricultural products to the demands of markets. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Outbound Logistics | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises must find out the market to support the manufactured products for quick distribution, not be stored as the finished products. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises should build the transportation system for manufactured products effectively. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Marketing and Sales | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises should create varied, qualified, modern products and meet the needs of customers according to the life circle of products and the suitable environment. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises must have the fixed market to make the sustainability for sales. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 3. Community enterprises must improve the channels of sales both online and offline. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 4. Community enterprises should make the marketing network for increasing the channel of sales | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 5. Community enterprises should make the products costing system in order to set the appropriate price. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 6. Community enterprises should make the public relations and sales promoting made through many kinds of media and to join the trade show. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Service | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises should make the survey system to follow up the customer’s satisfaction and to develop, to improve without getting advantages from society and environment. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises should have the standard transportation system that can follow up. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
Inbound Logistics: Community enterprises must provide raw materials from a local area. For storage of raw materials must be controlled with the storing system, must have the raw materials preparation system that is suitable for the production system, and the inspecting system. Operation (Manufacturing): Community enterprises must focus on production with local intelligence knowledge, creativity and storytelling. The production standard must be acceptable to the global market. The packaging of goods must meet the needs of the market and must build the difference of goods, and should process the agricultural products that meet the needs of the market. Outbound Logistics: Community enterprises must find out the market for the manufactured products in order to distribute them quickly and not store as the finished products, and create the products delivery system quickly and effectively. Marketing and sales: Community enterprises should create varied, qualified, modern products, have the fixed market to make the sustainability for sales, improve the channels of sales both online and offline. Community enterprises should make the marketing network for increasing the channel of sales, make the products costing system to set the appropriate price, advertise and promote sales through many kinds of media and join the trade show. The production or product development must be considered the Product Life Cycle in order to produce them at the right time and the suitable environment, to develop the market to match the social environment condition and the changing technology. Service: Community enterprises should build the customer satisfaction survey to develop and improve the service, not get the advantages from society and environment, and also the standard delivery system that can follow up the transportation, the delivery to the customers. Service focuses on creating organizations’ images before and after the services for brand awareness.
From the Table 2 showed the analysis of valued chain in supporting activities as follows:
| Table 2 The Analysis of Valued Chain in Supporting Activities |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results from Interview | Results from Delphi Technique | |||
| Md (More than 3.50) |
IQR (Less than 1.50) |
Difference between Mo and Md (Less than 1.00) |
Propriety | |
| Procurement | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises must provide the raw materials from a local area in order to easily control and save cost for the transportation. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises should provide raw materials from other networking in order to make the product exchange. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 3. Community enterprises should search for raw materials from a community and add valued to products. | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Technology Development | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises should apply the online technology to sell products. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises should apply the technology or the local innovation to produce products for better productivity and value-added products. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Human Resource Management | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises should look for the members who are ready for learning and self-development, having the good growth mindset for working and conducting of life. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 2. Community enterprises should promote to apply the results of research in the operations for continuous learning. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| 3. Community enterprises should pay a fair compensation in order to convince them to work. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
| Firm Infrastructure | ||||
| 1. Community enterprises must have a clear organizational chart, a rule for sharing work, and a co-working to achieve the goal. | 5.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | Propriety |
Procurement: Community enterprises must provide the raw materials from a local area in order to control easily and save the cost for transportation. Moreover, community enterprises should provide raw materials from other networking to make the product exchange and add valued to products. Technology Development: Community enterprises should apply the online technology to sell products as well as adapt the online technology to sell products for resolving the problem of uncertainty on selling place and to lead the lack of opportunity to sell products to external community, and community enterprises should apply the technology or the local innovation to produce products for better productivity and value-added products. Human resource Management: Community enterprises should look for the members who are ready for learning and self-development, having the good growth mindset for working and conducting of life and also promoting to apply the results of research in the operations for continuous learning, and a fair, clear compensation to convince them to work. Firm Infrastructure: Community enterprises must have a clear organizational chart for production, finance, accountancy, marketing, a rule for sharing work, and a co-working to achieve the goal.
The Analysis of Valued Chain of Primary Activities
Inbound Logistics, Community enterprises must provide raw materials from a local area because the Southern provinces of Thailand have many qualified resources and also the use of raw materials in a local area for more convenient and safe cost for transportation; storage of raw materials are kept under the storage control system; raw materials preparation system are appropriate for the production system in accordance with the results of Chienwattanasook & Jermsittiparsert (2019); Aydiner, Tatoglu, Bayraktar, Zaim & Delan (2019), the organization that has effective management in the different enterprise resource planning systems will lead to growth opportunities and the opportunity to deliver a satisfactory performance that gain different competitive advantages as well. Thus, the success of the enterprise resource planning system implementation has created a technology providing useful information for executives in the logistics industry in a highly competitive era.
Operation (Manufacturing), Community enterprises must focus on production with local intelligence knowledge to create product identity through creativity and storytelling and building the production standard in the global market. Moreover, the packaging of goods must meet the needs of the market, meet the varied, different goods together with the storytelling focused on local intelligence knowledge in accordance with the results of Granot (2011) said that the creativity can bring the difference in business as the competitive potential of business and also as the starting point to apply the technology and the innovation, to support the capacity in the organization in accordance with the results of Haseeb, Hussain, Kot, Androniceanu & Jermsittiparsert (2019) showed the role of Social and Technological Challenges such as the responsibility towards the societies, the values, and the beliefs. IT managerial resources and IT implementation success had an important role on sustainable operations and also the essential factors that stimulated the competitive advantages of SMEs.
Outbound Logistics: Community enterprises must find out the market for the manufactured products in order to distribute them quickly and not store as the finished products in order to get more certain income and to create the manufactured products delivery system quickly and effectively in accordance with the results of Villis, et al., (2013) said the success of social enterprise that can get involved the distribution system to all target group in order to respond the need of customers who cannot get inside the products and service of the organization.
Marketing and Sales: Community enterprises should create varied, qualified, modern products and meet the needs of customers, have the fixed market to make the sustainability for sales, to expand the channels of sales both online and offline, to make the marketing network for increasing the channels of sales, to make the products costing system for setting the appropriate price. Community enterprises should do the public relations and sales promotion, and join the trade fair. Products production and development should consider the Product Life Cycle in order to produce them with the correct time and the suitable environment. The marketing development should match the social environment condition and the changing technology in accordance with the results of Powell and Osborne (2015) suggested that the planning and market targeting are the most important things towards the social enterprises, also the branding, and the appropriate costing with the capacity of purchasing power of customers. Moreover, Creech, Paas, Babriel, Voora, Hybsier & Marquard (2014) focused on the business alliances because they increase the more effective operations such as sharing marketing information, sharing experiences about the design and the production.
Service: Community enterprises should build the customer satisfaction survey to develop and improve the service, and also should have the standard delivery system that can follow up the transportation and the delivery to the customers in accordance with the results of Chaiso & Sukvichai (2015), the feedback makes the more effective operations and achieves the goal of the organization, can solve the organizational problem, and apply the communication system to follow up the satisfaction of customers that can make the better image of the organization as Wrongka (2013) studied “Analyzing the success of social enterprises-critical success factors perspective” found the successful factors came from willingness for services to customers, this shows the community enterprises must have the services system for inspecting the quality of goods and make a good image for the organization.
The Analysis of Valued Chain, Support Activities
Procurement: Community enterprises must provide the raw materials from a local area to control easily and save the cost for transportation, and it should search for raw materials from other networking of community enterprises to build the product exchange and community enterprises should survey the raw materials from another local community, and add valued to products in accordance with the results of Bradly (2015) revealed that the interdependence could get rid of the strategic risk for running a local business. This showed the networking can support the cooperation in a local community that is better than making a short benefit. The cooperation of community enterprise network can strengthen the varied competition in accordance with the results of Ditkaew, Pitchayatheeranart & Jermsittiparsert (2020) discovered in the logistics management which is considered to be one of the activities in the supply chain, it indicated that the efficiency of logistic management is caused by various factors, such as the quantity of products, the operating time, the quality, and costs.
Technology Development: Community enterprises should apply the online technology to sell products as well as adapt the online technology for online selling. Moreover, it should apply the technology or local innovation to produce products for better productivity and add value to products in accordance with Laroche, Habibi, Richard & Sankaranarayanan (2012); Wirtz, Den, Ambtman, Bloemer, Horvath, Ramaseshan, Van De Klundert, Canli & Kandampully (2013), the use of technology innovation platform can access the information easily and the innovation will be useful to local people and help the community enterprises to grow from the era of changing to the era of digital transformation.
Human resource Management: Community enterprises should look for members who were ready for learning and self-development, promote and develop members to have the growth mindset for operations and conducting of life, and promote members to apply the results of research in the operations for continuous learning in accordance with the results of Baumann & Kritikos (2016) studied the link between the research and the innovative development, and the productivity, found the investment in a research and a development to build the innovation can increase the productivity of employees with a less 10 employees-sized organization.
Firm Infrastructure: Community enterprises must have a clear organizational chart in accordance with the results of Sangayotin (2017) studied the success factors for operations of community enterprises, showed the good administrative system affected the achievement of action plan because of the clear organizational structure, sharing work with proficiency, flexibility and adjustability in accordance with the study of Thabhiranrak & Jermsittiparsert (2019), entitled “Towards Sustainable Functioning of Organization: Women Empowerment and Corporate Management Culture” showed the diversities of cultural organization of board committee influenced the decision making in finance and cultural organization. The good governance was under the rules and the strategies of an organization that affected the decision making in leverage decision and mixture of debt and equity in the business, and considered the financial factors relating to the organizational management, also the risks and the compensation that the organization had received.