BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT AFFECTING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF THAI COMMUNITY-BASED STORES IN PRACHARAT-BLUE-FLAG PROJECT

Abstract

            The research objectives were (1) to explore the key factors in business knowledge, government support, and business performance, and (2) to examine the effect of the key factors on the business performance of Thai community-based stores. The population of the study was the community stores who registered the Pracharat-Blue-Flag project in Roi et province. 350 respondents who joined the training program has collected the data and used in this study. Quantitative data were analyzed by the descriptive analysis, the exploratory factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that (1) the key extracted independent variables were business knowledge and government support, (2) it had 3 key extracted dependent variables included the financial, customer, and internal performance perspectives, (3) the 2 key factors, business knowledge and government support,  were significantly influenced on the financial perspective, customer perspective, and internal performance. The research suggested that the community entrepreneurs need to have the business knowledge for business achievement. In addition, the Thai government has to support the necessary mechanism in the market, public promotion, and training program.