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This research examines the influences of organizational contexts (i.e. firm size, international level, tier level, export level, product brand and IATF 16949 - an international quality management certification in the automotive industry) on business continuity management (BCM) (i.e. leadership, strategy, planning, application and maintenance).

Data were collected from 216 automotive parts manufacturers in Thailand. Regression analysis was used to test hypotheses.

The study found that firm size, international level, tier level, export level and product brand had significant positive impacts on overall BCM and every component, except for the insignificant effect of tier level on strategy. IATF 16949 had insignificant impacts on overall BCM and all components, except for maintenance.

This is one of the first research studies to investigate the influences of organizational characteristics on business continuity management.

This research aims to examine the relationships among leadership and culture, human resources and process improvement in lean hospitals from the socio-technical perspective.

The survey instrument was developed from literature reviews, verified by experts and confirmatory factor analysis. Multiple responses were used to collect data from 473 care providers in 220 outpatient departments of Thai hospitals to improve reliability of the obtained data. Path analysis of structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the hypotheses.

It was found that human resources has a significant positive direct effect on process improvement. Leadership and culture not only has significant direct positive impacts on human resources and process improvement but also has a significant indirect positive impact on process improvement through human resources.

This is one of the first examples of research to present insights into the links between soft and hard factors of lean hospitals at strategic and operational levels.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the levels of lean manufacturing (LM) and supply chain relationships (SCR) in the manufacturing sector in Thailand, and analyze the differences across organizational characteristics (i.e. firm size, nationality of firms, manufacturing system, product brand, export level, nationality of customers, nationality of suppliers and existence of supply chain management (SCM) departments) on LM and SCR.

The measurement instruments of LM and SCR were developed and validated by experts, pilot test and various statistical techniques. Descriptive statistics were applied to investigate the levels of LM and SCR in the sample firms. Independent samples t-test and ANOVA were employed to examine the differences across organizational characteristics on overall LM and SCR, and their individual sub-construct.

It was found that the measurement instruments of LM and SCR were reliable and valid. Manufacturers in Thailand emphasized internal LM at the operational level much more extensively than external SCR. Overall, for LM, this study revealed significant differences across firm size, nationality of firms, manufacturing systems, export levels, nationality of customers and existence of SCM departments. For SCR, there were significant differences across export level, nationality of suppliers and existence of SCM departments. Differences across contexts of individual sub-construct of LM and SCR were analyzed and discussed.

This study is one of the first to present insights into the existence of LM and SCR and into the differences across organizational contexts on LM, SCR and their sub-constructs in the manufacturing sector in Thailand. The methodologies and findings are applicable to other developing countries.

This study investigates the relationships between service quality, relationship quality (i.e. satisfaction, trust and commitment) and loyalty in the business-to-business (B2B) context.

A questionnaire was developed from a comprehensive literature review. It was verified by experts and statistical techniques. The data were collected from senior purchasing officers in 232 electrical and electronics companies in Thailand. Path analysis of structural equation modeling was used to analyze the hypothesized model.

It was found that service quality has a significant positive direct effect on satisfaction, trust and commitment. Commitment significantly affects loyalty, while service quality, satisfaction and trust do not.

This is one of the first examples of empirical research to examine the links between service quality, components of relationship quality and loyalty in the B2B electrical and electronics context.

This study aims to explore the links among supplier relationship (SR), customer relationship (CR) and supply performance (SP): cost, flexibility, partnership and responsiveness for manufacturing sector in Thailand.

Having extensively reviewed literature, the survey instruments were proposed and validated by experts and statistical techniques. Path analysis of structural equation modeling was used to assess the hypotheses.

It revealed that CR has significant positive direct effects on every SP construct. SR has a significant positive direct effect on CR but has no significant positive effects on SP. However, SR has significant positive total effects and indirect effects on every SP through CR.

This study presents insights into the arguments about the links among SR, CR and SP. SR should not be introduced alone. It should be applied together with CR to improve SP.

This research examines the impacts of ISO 9001 certification on lean manufacturing (LM), supply chain relationship (SCR) and their sub-constructs

Data was collected from 516 manufacturers in Thailand. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the hypotheses

It was found that ISO 9001 certification significantly affects overall LM, its facility and quality sub-constructs, overall SCR, its supplier coordination, customer collaboration and customer coordination sub-constructs. ISO 9001 has insignificant impacts on production, purchasing and distribution of LM, and supplier collaboration of SCR.

This study is one of the first research to present insights into the impacts of ISO 9001 as a certificate rather than as a set of management practices on LM, SCR and their sub-constructs

This research aims to examine the influences of preceding implementation phases on succeeding phases of business continuity management (BCM) comprising leadership, strategy, planning, application and maintenance.

Data were gathered from 216 automotive parts manufacturers in Thailand. Descriptive statistics were employed to measure the maturity level of BCM implementation components. Path analysis of structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The study's findings found that the intensity of BCM elements decreased following the implementation phases. Leadership and strategy had the highest mean score, while maintenance had the lowest. Preceding phases had significant positive effects on succeeding phases. The direct impact of leadership on maintenance was much weaker than its indirect impact through strategy, planning and application.

This is one of the first examples of empirical research to investigate the sequential links between preceding and succeeding BCM implementation components. Strategic BCM elements and systematic implementation can improve and sustain BCM in the automotive parts industry in Thailand.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the Toyota Way (TW), TW pillars (i.e. continuous improvement, and respect for people), and TW elements (i.e. challenge, kaizen, genchi-genbutsu, respect, and teamwork) on agile manufacturing (AM) and AM elements (i.e. responsiveness, capability, speed and flexibility).

Data were collected from 216 automotive parts manufacturers. Multiple and linear regressions were used to test the hypotheses.

The study found that overall TW and both pillars have significant effects on overall AM and all AM elements, except for the influence of continuous improvement on speed and flexibility. No individual TW element can improve every AM element. TW and AM are not mutually exclusive. To improve AM, managers should apply TW as a set of integrated technical and personnel elements rather than as isolated elements.

This study is one of the first to hierarchically explore the effects of socio-technical TW, TW's individual pillars and elements on overall AM and each AM element in the automotive parts industry. Findings from this research can be used to develop a socio-technical lean system to be integrated with AM more effectively leading to successful leagile manufacturing.

The purpose of this research is to explore the differences across hospital characteristics (i.e. lean maturity, hospital size, hospital type and ISO 9001) on lean expectation, lean performance, service quality expectation and service quality performance.

The survey instruments were developed from an extensive literature review, validated by experts and tested by statistical techniques. Data was collected from the perspective of care providers in 220 outpatient departments of Thai hospitals with multiple respondents to improve reliability of data. Analysis of variance and independent sample t test were applied for analysis.

It was found that there are significant differences across lean maturity and hospital size on overall lean expectation and overall lean performance, and across ISO 9001 on overall service quality performance. Overall, service quality expectation and performance have higher mean scores than overall lean expectation and performance.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to present insights into the links between Thai hospital characteristics, expected lean and service quality and performance from the care provider viewpoint. Findings form this study can be used to improve individual hospitals or develop healthcare system at national level.

The purpose of this research is to identify a province in Thailand where total transportation cost for shipping grocery goods from this province to customers in all other provinces is the lowest.

Transportation distances among provinces, freight rate and the number of population in each province were gathered. Total transportation cost was computed by taking distance, tapering freight rate and population including that in original province into account.

Based on pre-set assumptions, it reveals that Saraburi province has the lowest total transportation cost.

This research emphasizes only transportation cost. For future research, other monetary and non-monetary factors such as land, labor, investment incentive, local government regulation should be considered together.

This is an industry-based research especially for retail and fast-moving consumer goods businesses.

This practitioner paper is one of the first to identify population, freight rate and distance-based warehouse location which can be determined as a location for Thailand’s logistics hub, particularly for retail or fast-moving consumer goods business in Thailand.