Title: Rural community enterprises in Thailand: a case study of participation

Authors: Worasit Wongadisai; Sumalee Chanchalor; Elizabeth Murphy

Addresses: Division of Learning Innovation and Technology, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 126 Pracha-Uthit Road, Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand ' Division of Learning Innovation and Technology, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 126 Pracha-Uthit Road, Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand ' Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

Abstract: Community enterprises (CE) are a tool to support sustainable community development. They rely on community members' participation using a bottom-up, polycentric approach to management. However, they typically operate in rural areas where the required knowledge, management and marketing skills are often lacking. This study investigated members' participation in CEs and the failures and successes they encountered in participation in organisational, production, marketing and financial management. Data collection involved structured interviews with 400 participants in 200 CEs in north-eastern Thailand. The researchers also conducted focus groups with a successful CE (n = 5) and an unsuccessful CE (n = 7). Results revealed that participation was lowest for organisational, marketing and financial management. Lower levels of participation were associated with lack of time and lack of skill/education. Implications point to the value of outsourcing marketing and financial management for CEs in rural areas.

Keywords: community enterprises; participation; management; Thailand; social enterprise; sustainable development; finance; production; organisation; marketing; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/WREMSD.2020.107255

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2020 Vol.16 No.3, pp.276 - 298

Received: 25 Apr 2019
Accepted: 07 Jun 2019
Published online: 11 May 2020 *

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