Purpose This study aims to fundamentally focus on the comparative advantage measurement and the trend of change in the international competitiveness of five Thai economic products exporting to the People’s Republic of China during the first half of the 2010s via the analysis of the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index and market share. Design/methodology/approach The RCA index has been computed to show the comparative advantages of the product to a certain extent: whether it is cost-effective to produce that product in a certain location compared to opportunity cost of the resources in producing that product. The data set of number and value of five important export products from Thailand to China during 2010-2013 has been obtained from the Thai Ministry of Commerce and Thai-Chinese Business Information Centre. Findings The study reveals that of these five important economic products, cassava has the highest comparative advantage and continues to have a rapid growth trend, whilst computer equipment and components have been shown to have comparative disadvantage and the lowest comparative advantage index scores. Research limitations/implications Measuring with various sophisticated indices may provide clearer results. Also, according to unavailability of data set, the four-year period may not be able to show the long-term trend of competitiveness. Future studies are encouraged to study in the longer-term period with numerous indices. Practical implications The research also provides policy implications and measures to develop each sector to enhance competitiveness. Originality/value This is the original attempt to use both indices to assess the competitiveness of important Thai exports to the Chinese market.

Purpose This paper aims to study the direct and indirect influence of three important intangible resources: export knowledge, negotiation skills and specialisation and trustworthiness on export intermediary performance via the competence to reduce clients’ transaction costs. Design/methodology/approach The study has been provided with the official database of export intermediary firms by the Department of Export Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. The samples of 400 export intermediary firms were identified from the 1,486 population firms. The postal questionnaires were sent to sample firms. Ordinary least square regression analysis has been adopted to test the hypotheses of the study. Findings The results indicate that valuable resources of export knowledge, negotiation skills and specialisation and trustworthiness significantly and positively affect both export intermediary performance and the competence to reduce clients’ transaction costs. The competence to reduce clients’ transaction costs partially mediates the relationship between resources and export intermediary performance. Research limitations/implications A “cost-based” perspective needs to be supplemented in future research with a more behavioural approach. Practical implications Export intermediaries must be able to deliver “true added value” to remain a viable organisational form, hence, the intermediaries need ceaselessly to acquire, utilise and develop resources and capabilities in reducing clients’ export-related transaction costs. Social implications From a public policy perspective, gaining more knowledge about the role of export intermediaries can greatly facilitate the export promotion efforts in which most nations’ governments are involved. Originality/value This study is a first attempt to study the mediating effect of the competence to reduce transaction costs, which mediates the relationship between resources and performance of export intermediary.

PurposeThis study focuses on variations of the importance of core values through motivational domains of individuals by their cultural background. The effect of motivational domains on operational performance has also been investigated.Design/methodology/approachThe study used survey as the main data collection method to elicit data from managerial workers in spa businesses in four regions of Thailand. An unpublished database of spa businesses was provided to the study by the Thai Chamber of Commerce.FindingsSignificant variations of the importance of motivational domains of managerial workers can be found according to the subculture of each of the four regions of Thailand. In addition, the motivational domains have found their significant impact on worker operational performance.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the limitations of this study may be the distribution of samples because the study focuses on spa businesses, most of which in each region are located in big tourism provinces that may not be wholly representative of the characteristics of each region.Practical implicationsThis study will be of practical value for practitioners or managers of any firms since it is important to consider value variations when assessing the operational performance; workers, especially managerial workers, in each subculture may have different priorities in the motivational domains of their lives. This could affect their operational performance.Originality/valueThis is an original attempt to ascertain variations of core values through motivational domains by subculture. It fills a knowledge gap in under-researched area in the literature since so far a few studies have examined this issue in the ASEAN countries.

The main objective of this study is to examine the moderating role of social capital on the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership and knowledge management capability (KMC). Also, to explore the moderating role of creative organizational climate on the relationship between KMC and public organizational innovativeness is aimed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyze the survey data from 784 tax administrative organizations in Thailand to test the proposed hypotheses. The results presented that knowledge-oriented leadership positively influences KMC. Meanwhile, KMC positively affects public organizational innovativeness. For the moderating effect, the findings indicated that social capital positively moderates the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership and KMC. Additionally, creative organizational climate positively moderates the relationship between the accumulation of knowledge stocks and organizational innovativeness. Surprisingly, creative organizational climate negatively moderates the relationship between the regulation of knowledge flows and organizational innovativeness. These empirical results provide some recommendations for executives of public organizations in recognizing how to appropriately play a leadership role for effective knowledge management. Simultaneously, they could support important internal factors such as social capital and creative organizational climate to enhance their knowledge management capability and organizational innovativeness.

Findings: A full mediation of the role performance of an importer on the impact of export incentives on the performance of an exporter has been found. Also, export incentives in the types of non-monetary incentives of creditable channel policies and monetary incentives as price and financial issues have significantly and positively affected on the role performance of an importer. Practical Implications: Present and future exporters can benefit from the results of this study by utilizing proper export incentives to motivate importers in promoting and supporting sales of exporters internationally since the role of an importer is so vital for the success of exporters. Firm executives and policy makers also benefit from the findings of the study since an awareness of the determinants of the role performance of an overseas importer, especially the export incentives, could facilitate firms' strategies. Originality/Value: The study provides the original insights in illustrating the mediation effect of the role performance of an importer on the impact of export incentives in the forms of monetary and price issues and non-monetary issues over the performance of an exporter.