This study explored the attitudes of hotel managers in Phuket, Thailand, in an attempt to identify whether their attitudes influence their utilization of environmental sustainability practices. Due to the increasing number of visitors to Phuket, Thailand, the consumption of natural resources has increased in the region, causing serious environmental problems. A sustainable way forward is needed for the tourism industry in the region in order to maintain quality of service while reducing environmental damage. The data analyzed in this study came from self-administered questionnaires that surveyed hotel managers in Phuket, Thailand, with a sample of 243 respondents. Research results revealed three dimensions of hotel manager attitude toward environmental sustainability practices, including operational management, social obligation, and sustainability strategy and policy. Furthermore, three constraints on the implementation of environmental management practices were identified: lack of support, perceived difficulty, and lack of demand. The attitudes of hotel managers regarding specific factors and barriers are also presented in this study. The results of this study show that hotel managers overall possess positive attitudes toward environmental sustainability practices. Finally, the findings reveal that hotel managers’ attitudes toward sustainability practices depend on their social demographics, the type of hotel they operate, their degree of ownership of the hotel, whether or not their hotel was affected by the 2004 tsunami, and the year their hotel was built. The results of this study suggest that it is necessary for hotel managers to understand the importance of environmental sustainability practices because this understanding can help motivate them in implementing sustainability practices in their hotels. Furthermore, it can guide hotel managers when deciding which environmental policies are suitable for their iv hotels. Lastly, the study demonstrated that in order for hotels to become more sustainable, support is needed from government or hotel associations to provide education and training for the hotel managers.

Vad försöker man göra inom ungdomsinriktad drogprevention och vad uppfattas som viktigt? Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vad som händer inom preventionsarbete i Thailand. Analys med grounded theory av intervjuer med 27 personer, främst thailändare, med praktisk erfarenhet av drogpreventiv verksamhet. Motkrafter till missbruk i Thailand genomsyras av en moraliskt betingad grundhållning med en i grunden autonom människosyn. Genom sociala och pedagogiska nätverk, positiva alternativ, utveckling, relevanta budskap och kritiskt tänkande arbetar man med målgruppen för de preventiva insatserna som en autonom och aktiv part. Arbetet kräver en problemanalys och stödinsatser ges baserade på tillit. Likaså vill preventionsarbetarna bli betraktade med tillit av exempelvis överordnade instanser. Skillnader finns mellan hållningen på basnivå och centralt deklarerade "krig mot narkotikan". Målgruppen för drogpreventiva insatser bör betraktas som en aktiv part att samverka med för att uppnå hållbara resultat.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to both local and global economic development. They are a crucial business sector for all nations’ economies. In developed countries, SMEs typically account for 60 per cent of employment, and the figure is even higher in developing countries. In 2011, Thai SMEs employed 83.9 per cent of the Thai workforce. Thai SMEs, like all other firms, face the challenge of satisfying customers by offering quality products at low prices. Furthermore, it is generally argued that, in this increasingly aggressive business world, competition arises between integrated supply chains rather than at the firm level. Therefore, effective supply chain management (SCM) is a key driver of sustainable competitive advantage. However, Thai SMEs have issues in adopting supply chains in their organisations. They have doubts about whether SCM will improve firm performance. Therefore, this study aims to reveal whether SCM practices could help Thai SMEs to improve their performance, and if so which ones and how. To fill the gap in theoretical understanding, an initiation mixed method research design was specified using 20 semi-structured interviews and quantitative questionnaires distributed to 311 subjects. An SCM practices model with antecedents and consequences was identified using previous research. The measurements were evaluated, modified and analysed using several techniques, such as thematic analysis, regression and structural equation modelling. The study makes several notable findings. Firstly, the SMEs were found to implement SCM to reduce costs and improve productivity rather than to satisfy the customer. Secondly, the IT system and top management support were two key factors in helping SMEs to successfully apply SCM. Thirdly, the major barriers to SCM were employees’ lack of understanding and improper organisational design. Fourthly, firm size had no significant relationship to the level of firm performance. Finally, the firm’s performance and SCM practices were positively correlated. This work contributes to academia by expanding research into SCM practices in SMEs, of which there is a dearth in the literature (Quayle, 2003, Meehan and Muir, 2008), especially in the context of developing countries (Katunzi and Zheng, 2010). For practitioners, regarding SMEs in Thailand and other developing countries, this study confirms that SCM practice assists SMEs to gain higher performance. Furthermore, for policy makers, enhancing SCM practices in SMEs by developing SCM enablers such as IT systems and standard performance measurement and metrics, could help SMEs to achieve higher performance.

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

The Internet is often touted as a panacea for perceived deficiencies in economic development. Its space-transcending abilities, which can instantly connect producers with consumers, have the potential to cut out intermediaries and to redistribute economic surplus in a more equitable manner. This dissertation asks whether the promises of the Internet are being realized in the Thai silk industry. The project explores the following questions: (a) At which nodes in the commodity chain is the Internet being used?; (b) How has the introduction of the Internet altered production chains and the flows of capital in the Thai silk industry?; (c) How are these changes altering the socio-economic conditions of actors who are involved in reconfigured production chains?; (d) What are the relationships between contemporary discourses about the economic benefits of disintermediated commodity chains and the actual effects of disintermediated commodity chains?; and (e) Are older local silk making traditions being replaced as producers interact with distant consumers through the Internet? This project uses a textual analysis of websites selling Thai silk to examine discourses being put forth about the effects of the Internet. Surveys and interviews with producers and merchants provide data on changes that the Internet is having on the production chains of Thai silk. Results suggest that in very few cases is the Internet allowing a disintermediation of commodity chains to occur. Internet users are actually more likely to position themselves as cybermediaries: buying from, and selling to other intermediaries. Although disintermediation is rarely occurring in the commodity chains of silk, the Internet is allowing firms to sell to a geographically diverse range of customers. These findings indicate that instead of placing buyers and sellers into copresence in a virtual marketplace, the Internet is rather being used as a tool to open up virtual conduits between those already occupying privileged economic positions in the commodity chains of Thai silk.

International labor migration has become an increasingly common livelihood strategy in rural Cambodia, in some villages becoming a defining and normative part of community life. This dissertation is an ethnographic study of one such rural community, where migration to Thailand has become a primary livelihood strategy over the past decade. Drawing on three years of fieldwork in Chanleas Dai, a commune (khum) in Northwest Cambodia, my research explores the complexities of the migration decision-making process, and the meanings of migration for rural households. This work is motivated by debates within the dialogues of migration and development, most of which seek to understand the potential for migration to promote development by focusing on the impacts of migration. My work departs from previous studies by focusing explicitly on decision-making, seeking to understand how and why families make developmentally important migration decisions. This is a critical area of inquiry, as the potential that migration has to promote or sustain development rests on a series of individual choices, for example who migrates, or how households invest remittances. Yet research tends to focus on the outcomes of these choices, neglecting a sufficient understanding of why they were made. In Chanleas Dai individuals are deeply ambivalent about migration, understanding it as both a constituent cause of insecurity and also the best path to security, mobility, and status. Whereas migration is perceived as low-risk and high-reward, village-based livelihoods are widely perceived as insufficient, impossible, or too financially risky to be meaningful. These perceptions are strongly linked to the recent history of environmental distress in the area. As a result, households often prioritize investment in further migrations, rather than using wages earned abroad for local investment or production. This is particularly true among youth, who see few potential worthwhile strategies to "make it" at home. Credit and agriculture programs theorized to curb migration, and/or promote local investment have not substantively challenged these perceptions. My conclusions discuss these findings in terms of their implications for the migration and development dialogues, definitions and understandings of development, and rural development policies both within and outside of Cambodia. / text

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This creative project is a study of cultural awareness in architecture. The hypothesis states that architecture is one of many cultural manifestations in a society. One seeking contemporary architecture in a society should explore the idea of contemporary culture in that society. This study aims to point out the relationship of living patterns and living spaces (culture and architecture). Living patterns are influenced by their own cultures and, at the same time, the characteristics of living spaces reflect the aspects of living patterns. To explore contemporary living spaces, cultural issues must be considered.However, culture is dynamic. It is changed by reasons of time, place and people. Even though the tradional cultures in a society continuingly permeate to the next generations, some of them disappear as time, place or people change. Therefore, to study the issue of culture in contemporary society, traditional and new cultures are reckoned with as contemporary families adapt both cultures into their lifestyles.While Thai society has maintained its own unique culture, recently globalization has brought influences of Western ideas into Thailand. These influences are effecting Thai culture and bearing on how housing responds to a changing society.The work is divided into two parts, research and design. To explore the deeper meaning of contemporary living spaces, the research focuses on the importannce of culture to the characteristics of living spaces. It analyzes cultural and social changes that have influenced contemporary Thai families. This cultural analyses confirms that the meaning and design of contemporary living spaces are directly influenced by cultural adjustments.To support the hypothesis and research, a housing project for contemporary Thai families is proposed. It is a schematic design that incorporates the cultural analyses into the design process. The design is a model for organizing cultural information into the design of living spaces. / Department of Architecture

Preliminary desk researches suggested that strategic planing and management needs empirical evidence to broaden itsapplication to different industries, The purose of the study is to examine the practical framework for the plannng and development of strategy and strategic plans from the current practice of retail operations in Thailand. Theoretical reviews were carred out at early stage of the research on strategic decision making, planning systems, strategy and retailing to build a framework for research objectives and to form research questions. The main objective of the research is, therefore, to examine forms of strategy development process and the influence of marketing concepts to the planning processes of selected organisations. Fieldwork was planned to investigate at several modern retailers in Thailand, where retail competition has been intensive. Five retailers allowed their co-operation, and several methods of data collections, such as different types of interviews, observations and the analysis of achieval record, were employed to generate five case studies. The main conclusion drawn from the study would indicate that the term "strategic planning process", together with budgeting and long-range planning systems, are embedded in yearly periodical planning systems that react to external environment challenges only in the short term. The yearly periodical planing system together with an administrative system forms an on-going planning cycle. The strategic management process, on the other hand, is future-oriented planning process that has a time-span of more than a year. Strategic decisions generated by the strategic management process together with the outcome of other strategic decision-making are the inputs to both components of the on-going planning cycle. Therefore, short-term and long-term strategy development processes are distinct processes that require different approaches. However, the two processes are linked and both should be embedded within the overall strategic development process. The study also suggests that Thai retailers have to strengthen their strategy development process to be able to encourage learning and understanding of key business environments, business concepts and strategies before generating their own "winning formula". The outcome from the thesis is, therefore, a practical framework for the planning and development of strategy and strategic plans from the current practices of retail operations in Thailand that can be applied as a checklist for monitoring and evaluation in large-to-medium sized retailing organisations in similar trading environments.