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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the elements that health care personnel in Thailand believe are necessary for successful adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems.

Initial qualitative in-depth interviews with physicians to adapt key elements from the literature to the Thai context. The 12 elements identified included things related to managing the implementation and to IT expertise. The nationwide survey was supported by the Ministry of Public Health and returned 1,069 usable questionnaires (response rate 42 percent) from a range of medical personnel.

The key elements clearly separated into a managerial dimension and an IT dimension. All were considered fairly important, but managerial expertise was more critical. In particular, there should be clear EMR project goals and scope, adequate budget allocation, clinical staff must be involved in implementation, and the IT should facilitate good electronic communication.

Thailand is representative of middle-income developing countries, but there is no guarantee findings can be generalized. National policies differ, as do economic structures of health care industries. The focus is on management at the organizational level, but future research must also examine macro-level issues, as well as gain more depth into thinking of individual health care personnel.

Technical issues of EMR implementation are certainly important. However, it is clear actual adoption and use of the system also depends very heavily on managerial issues.

Most research on EMR implementation has been in developed countries, and has often focussed more on technical issues rather than examining managerial issues closely. Health IT is also critical in developing economies, and management of health IT implementation must be well understood.

The purpose of this paper is to examine “(Buddhist economics)” in urban reform Buddhism in Thailand. In the West, Buddhist economics is often perceived as a specific economic system, but understanding the sustainable development debate in Buddhist countries requires recognition that there are many versions.

The authors organize the discussion about Buddhist economics into a framework used in the sustainability debate. Current literature, largely from Thai writers, is analyzed to understand their positions on economy and environment.

Four representative movements are discussed which show substantial differences. Status quo Wat Dhammakaya feels that Buddhist economics is mainly about improving individual moral behavior within the current capitalist system, and needs little systemic change. Santi Asoke is explicitly anti-capitalist, and its most serious adherents live simple lifestyles in collectivist agricultural communities. “(Reform-from-within)” seeks a mixed economy containing both capitalist and socialist elements. Kuan Im is also between the extremes, largely small business capitalist and wanting some restraints on perceived predatory big business.

Buddhist perspectives are just beginning to enter mainstream western discussion on sustainability. The most common understanding of Buddhist economics in the west is incomplete, assuming only one form of Buddhist economics. In fact, Buddhist societies, represented here by Thailand, cover the whole range of thinking on sustainability.

Business use of social media is increasing rapidly as marketers aim to increase customer brand engagement (CBE) in brand communities to enhance the brand experience. However, use of social media for marketing communications is not well understood. This study aims to examine manager and user views of CBE and effects of perceived social presence (PSP) on CBE in a corporate Facebook environment.

Qualitative in-depth interviews are conducted with 18 users of corporate Facebook – i.e. those who visit corporate Facebook regularly – and four marketing managers whose companies operate Facebook pages. The industry is smart-information technology devices, and the cultural context is Thailand.

Corporate Facebook sites with high SP functions foster customer engagement on cognitive, emotional and behavioral levels. PSP enhances product knowledge and encourages return page visits. Thus, CBE and PSP build brand trust and loyalty. However, managers may need to focus more on the nature of the brand community beyond the corporate Facebook page.

Companies that enrich their corporate Facebook with SP features can encourage CBE. Consumers feel more informed about the brand and therefore feel more positively about it, which enhances the brand experience and brand trust. This holds even for lurkers who do not behaviorally engage on the Facebook page much, but who are active in the broader brand community.

This paper studies the relationship between PSP and CBE in a corporate Facebook environment, providing insights into how PSP influences CBE, which can enhance the customer’s brand experience and contribute to brand perceptions.

Many companies are shifting their focus away from individual transactions toward developing long‐term, mutually supportive relationships with their customers. Salespeople are the main implementers of such relationships, as they act as the interface between companies and customers. Negotiation is an important part of relationship development, but salespeople’s negotiating styles are influenced by culture and the ability to adapt to cultures of specific markets and specific customers. This study proposes a simple conceptual model of how cultural issues at three different levels – national, organizational, individual – influence salespeople’s negotiating styles. Qualitative in‐depth interviews were employed to explore the impact of national culture, organizational culture, and individual sales rep competence in dealing with culture on salespeople’s negotiating styles.

This study aims to examine perceptions in Kuwait about women’s leadership in management.

This study includes a review of data on the gender gap across Middle East/North Africa (MENA) countries, comparison with selected Asian and Western countries and summaries of multiple small surveys in Kuwait on women in management. The surveys were all convenience samples ranging from 100-500, targeting middle-class respondents.

The MENA is behind most of the world in closing the gender gap, but progress among Gulf Cooperation Council countries has been fairly rapid. Many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) indicators are comparable to other non-Western cultural areas. Multiple surveys in Kuwait show fairly widespread acceptance of women in leadership positions. Respondents feel that characteristics of women vs men managers are different, but strengths and weaknesses by gender balance out, so that men and women perform about the same. Traditional Kuwaiti culture seems conducive to women in management, but some specific cultural barriers remain. In particular, the diwaniyya, social gatherings to network and discuss current affairs, and wasta, connections, are dominated by men in modern Kuwaiti society. These are essentially social capital issues.

Fostering continued progress for women in management requires recognition of the actual social and cultural situation; simply arguing that Kuwait should be more Western in how it does things does not seem very useful.

Research on women in management in MENA is not very extensive, but is important for understanding how to facilitate opportunities for women. In Kuwait, there seems to be general acceptance that women can be leaders in managerial positions, and little overt discrimination. However, lack of access to traditional social capital networks puts women at a disadvantage. Research needs to focus on this issue to help develop ways to overcome this subtle obstacle to further progress.

China's huge population and rapidly developing economy have attracted many foreign companies, but operating in China can be very difficult. Connections are a necessity for most firms, and this usually requires a partner. Finding partners in China is very easy, but finding good ones is very difficult. Most potential partners can be categorized into a few main types. Some overseas, Hong Kong, or Taiwan Chinese really do have connections and/or know how to operate successfully in China. More often, they do not. Some PRC companies, private or state, actually want an operating joint venture (JV). Many do not, they simply want the privileges that go with having a JV. Discusses connections, different types of partners, advantages and disadvantages of having them, and offers hints on how to tell the good from the bad.

The aim of this paper is to measure new product development (NPD) success factors in the Thai food industry.

The quantitative research was designed based upon previous qualitative analysis by Suwannaporn and Speece. A total of 114 questionnaires sent to medium and large food companies were returned (17.5 percent of companies).

Managers' perceptions of the important success factors differ by job function, so that data about what is important cannot distinguish higher vs lower success rates. Manager perceptions of what factors are important do not match actual practice very closely, but they do report what is actually done in the NPD process consistently. Reported practices can distinguish success rates. Discriminant analysis shows that the use of marketing research is most critical in this industry. Internal communication in the NPD process and supplier linkages are also predictors of success rate, and strategy and planning plays a weak role.

NPD is context‐specific. The food industry is strongly market‐driven, so rapid adaptation to customers is critical. Strategy and planning is less important than an ability to remain flexible and move quickly in response changing consumer tastes. Most local companies have strong business secrecy, which is likely to inhibit collaborative research and development (R&D). However, supplier linkages do contribute in distinguishing companies with higher vs lower success rates.

This paper demonstrates that what managers involved in the NPD process believe to be the important success factors cannot always predict NP success rates.

The importance of packaging design and the role of packaging as a vehicle for consumer communication and branding are necessarily growing. To achieve communication goals effectively, knowledge about consumer psychology is important so that manufacturers understand consumer response to their packages. this paper aims to investigate this issue.

The paper examines these issues using a conjoint study among consumers for packaged food products in Thailand, which is a very competitive packaged food products market.

The conjoint results indicate that perceptions about packaging technology (portraying convenience) play the most important role overall in consumer likelihood to buy.

There is strong segmentation in which packaging elements consumers consider most important. Some consumers are mostly oriented toward the visual aesthetics, while a small segment focuses on product detail on the label.

Segmentation variables based on packaging response can provide very useful information to help marketers maximize the package's impact.

The importance of packaging design as a vehicle for communication and branding is growing in competitive markets for packaged food products. This research utilized a focus group methodology to understand consumer behavior toward such products and how packaging elements can affect buying decisions. Visual package elements play a major role, representing the product for many consumers, especially in low involvement, and when they are rushed. Most focus group participants say they use label information, but they would like it if simplified. The challenge for researchers is to integrate packaging into an effective purchasing decision model, by understanding packaging elements as important marketing communications tools. Propositions for future research are proposed which will help in developing better understanding of consumer response to packaging elements.