Author(s): Noppadon Kuntamas, Porntip Shoommuangpak
Tapioca products are considered one of Thailand’s top-ranking agricultural exports by value and are of significant economic value by generating income into Thailand approximately amounting more than a hundred billion baht. More than 50% of this income comes from the export of starches alone. However, when comparing data between Thailand’s exports of tapioca starch relative to Vietnam’s exports, the statistics revealed that Vietnam’s tapioca starch exports during 2013-2015 substantially increased, while Thailand’s exports remained relatively constant even beginning to trend downward slightly. The objective of this thesis was to study guidelines to enhance the potential of tapioca starch export processing industry by analysing data both qualitatively and quantitatively. In carrying out this thesis, the researcher surveyed quantitative data from interviews with 520 business owners/entrepreneurs and high-level management of exporting tapioca starch processing companies using descriptive statistics, reference statistics and plural statistics. The thesis revealed that guidelines to enhance the potential of the tapioca starch processing export industry includes: Entrepreneurship which is having a broad vision and being able to project future trends and directions; Marketing Capability which is being able to analyse the competitive landscape among other competitors within the industry; Operation Manufacturing which is being able to define strategies for production processes in order to meet customers’ requirements and demands; and Financial Performance which is consistent monitoring and improvement of financial plans. It also revealed that both large industrial businesses and small and medium-sized businesses regardless of size give importance to guidelines to enhance the potential of the tapioca starch processing export industry, which was not different at the 0.05 statistical significance level. The analysis showed that the developed guidelines to enhance the potential of the tapioca starch processing export industry passed the evaluation criteria and were in accordance with the empirical data where the chi-square probability level, relative chi-square, goodness of fit index, and root mean square error of approximation values were 0.085, 1.164, 0.966, and 0.018 respectively.