Determinants of Successful ICT Risk Management in Thai Organisations

This paper reports a study of the key factors that affect ICT risk management using Thai businesses as the data sources. Three hundred and two respondents from listed organisations on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) were surveyed and the data analysed to establish the strength of relationships in a model derived from extant literature and the application of the two most commonly used governance standards for information and communication technology (ICT), COBIT and ISO/IEC 17799. The research shows that a small number of key factors have the most effect on successful ICT risk management, namely organisational policy, human resource management planning, organisational security and management of ICT. The focus of the research is to propose the successful ICT risk management model to organisations

Stimulating innovation in Russia: the role of institutions and policies

This paper examines the potential role of innovation policy in enhancing long-term productivity growth in Russia. It begins by exploring the role of framework conditions for business in encouraging innovative activities, particularly with respect to intellectual property rights and competition. Realising Russia’s innovation potential will also require reform of the large public science sector. This raises issues pertaining to the organisation and financing of public research bodies and, in particular, to the incentives and opportunities they face in commercialising the results of their research. Finally, the paper looks at the potential role of direct interventions, such as special economic zones and technoparks, as well as the scope for improving the tax regime for private-sector R&D

The Influence of Procurement Practices on Contract Management County Governments: A Case of Trans Nzoia County

The purpose of the study was to analyse the effectiveness of contract management practices in Trans Nzoia County Government Kenya. This study was guided by the following objectives: identify the influence of information technology on effective contract management; The study was theorized by the Relation Theory and Principal- Agency theory. Literature is reviewed on the specific objectives of the study either directly or indirectly related to the study. Descriptive survey research design was used as the population comprised of all the contractors engaged with the County Government of Tran Nzoia and all the line mangers in the procurement department totalling to 2810 respondents. An appropriate sample of 290 was selected to represent the population in the study. Data was collected using survey method through use of structured questionnaires. The administration of the questionnaires was done through drop and pick. The process of data analysis involved several stages namely; data clean up and explanation. Data clean up involved editing, coding, and tabulation to detect any anomalies in the responses and assign specific numerical values to the responses for further analysis. Responses in the questionnaires was tabulated, coded and processed by use of a computer Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0 programme to analyze the data. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. This included measures of central tendency such as the mean, median, mode and frequencies where applicable. Keywords: Information Technology, Contract Managemen

The political economy of FDI in Thailand and its implications for sustainable economic development

This thesis analyses the determinants and consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Thailand, with particular emphasis on reviewing the Thai government’s FDI policies, and these policies’ effectiveness for enabling the country’s sustainable development. Past research has indicated that, despite developing countries’ various attempts to improve their economic growth and increase their standard of living via internationalisation, many of these attempts have proven unsuccessful. In the case of Thailand, there is debate regarding how the government can influence and regulate FDI in a manner that is most beneficial to the country’s long-term growth and development. It has long been recognised that Thailand’s economic policies are determined in a political environment that is driven mainly by individuals’ and groups’ personal interest. Thus, research on the political process of policy formation is essential to predict future policy directions. This thesis takes a more concentrated approach by examining the effects of FDI on Thailand’s economic growth in the context of the political economy. The main areas examined are: (i) whether FDI has had a positive effect on the Thai economy; (ii) in which sector FDI has been most productive; (iii) whether the Thai government has been successful in achieving improved economic growth through implementing its FDI policies; and (4) if not, which areas have reported failure, what possible alternative policies exist, and what the expectations are for Thailand’s future. In assessing Thailand’s performance, this study found that the contribution of FDI to gross domestic product and employment growth varies across sectors. Generally, there is room for improvement in all sectors, which can be achieved by addressing the structural weaknesses in Thailand’s financial system and improving the country’s infrastructure, education and health. Appropriate measures will improve human capital, increase absorptive capacity, and thereby enhance the overall spillover effects of FDI

Barriers to industrial energy efficiency: a literature review

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Saang Kwaampratabjai: The Influence of Wattana-dharm Thai on Thai PR practice [Impression Building: The Influence of Thai culture on Thai PR practice]

This thesis describes how and what Wattana-dharm Thai [Thai culture] has influenced Thai PR practice through the eyes of Thai PR managers and practitioners. It also provides some background information about the evolution of Thai PR practice to link to the current Thai PR practice. The study employs a qualitative paradigm with in-depth interviews as the main method. Documentary sources are mostly used as a supplement. This thesis provides detailed qualitative data describing how Thai public relations (PR) practitioners operate in Thailand both offline and online. The findings highlighted that Wattana-dharm Thai has a strong influence on Thai PR practice. There are eight main Wattana-dharm Thai aspects that influence Thai PR practice: 1) Relationship orientation (relationships in a Thai style including Bunkhun, Pen-Mitr, and Alum aluay relationships); 2) Community-based orientation; 3) Sanook orientation; 4) Hierarchical structure; 5) Buddhist orientation, 6) Monarchy institution respect; 7) Face and eyes in society; and 8) Form over the content. Thai PR practice has an emphasis on Saang Kwaampratabjai [impression building] through Wattana-dharm Thai. For example, historically, Thais accepted westerners because they did Saang Kwaampratabjai by bringing technology and development to the country. Thais have a positive attitude toward westerners because of this history of impression. Thai PR practitioners also try to use Saang Kwaampratabjai influence the public, such as journalists and opinion leaders by offering incentives altruistically (e.g. Namjai, Bunkhun, etc). Thai PR practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based on Buddhism and their respect of the monarchy. Thai PR place an importance on details of public’s personal information to instigate Saang Kwaampratabjai. For online PR, Thai PR use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support Saang Kwaampratabjai. It would appear that ICTs, in part, are used to promote company’s image rather than having any practical use. Hence, the core of Thai PR is how to practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based solely on personal and social relationship. This thesis aims to fill in the gaps in knowledge relating to PR and culture. It will make a contribution to the academic literature on culture and public relations, not only in the West but globally. This will also provide a framework for Thai PR practitioners to improve and develop their work. This thesis examines culture and PR through the lens of Thai terminology and discourse facilitated by a native inside-out view moderated by the distance obtained by leaving my country for a substantial proportion of the period of the study. This distance allowed me to re-consider many taken-for-granted aspects of my own culture, as well as allowing me to take on board other cultural perspectives available in a Western but international university. Thus this thesis is in part autobiographical, product of my research journey that allowed me to engage with a range of fundamental issues central to cross-cultural living such as hierarchy, religion, political and regal institutional frameworks, and gender

An Examination of the determinants of entrepreneurship in Thai high technology start-ups

This study advances understanding of the complexity of sustaining growth in high technology-based businesses. The study builds on the conceptual and applied insights on business growth from the entrepreneurship literatures to develop a model. The model is developed to investigate the impact of determinants subsumed under the three key-based factors, entrepreneurship, innovation and firm growth dynamics on the firms’ innovative entrepreneurial activities that might lead to enhanced economic growth This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to describe the determinants and test the relationships. The quantitative survey collected data from 521 young Thai start-ups. The qualitative study involved interviews with the CEO/owners of seven high-tech firms in Thailand. The quantitative and qualitative evidence from these firms led to a much stronger explanation of the performance of the high-tech sample. This thesis has significant theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical viewpoint, this study provides detailed evaluation on the growth determinants from a developing country perspective. The results shown that the young high-technology firms in Thailand were similar to firms that had been examined in the literature with regard to their characteristics, innovation and firm growth dynamics but differed with regard to the utilisation of the key firm based factors subsumed under the three key-based factors, entrepreneurship, innovation and firm growth dynamics. From a practical viewpoint, these findings indicate that the competitiveness of young technology-based firms can be enhanced by developing critical capabilities to assist the right strategies for better performance. The thesis provides important new insights into this group of firms in a developing country. The analysis of the empirical and qualitative results showed the role and impacts of the determinants on the firms’ sustainable growth and highlighted the importance of the managerial ability to dynamically manipulate these key firm based determinants to sustain growth

A Conceptual Framework for the Adoption of E-Government in Indonesia

The rapid development of e-government across the world has opened the discussion on how governments can improve citizens’ adoption of their online public services. As a result, the adoption of e-government has become a fundamental issue that needs to be adequately addressed. This paper presents a conceptual framework for examining the adoption of e-government from the perspective of citizens. Through semi-structured interviews conducted in Indonesia, the conceptual framework was validated using thematic analysis, which indicates that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence are interrelated critical factors for the adoption of e-government. In terms of academic contribution, this research provides a better understanding of the critical factors for the adoption of e-government from the perspective of citizens. With regards to practical implications, this research provides the Indonesian government and public organisations with relevant suggestions on how the adoption of e-government can be improved