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This research aims to see whether replication occurs with the focus on the Japanese HR system, following the latest studies on expatriate management in Japan. Whereas the total number of self-initiated expatriates has hugely increased in Japan, the high turnover rate is a big issue. Can this also be evidenced with new data? How does the Japanese HR system, with its notorious reputation for unique people management methods, relate to the expats' reasons for staying in the long or short term?

Replication of research is adopted here with an interview-based qualitative method using the same research design as previous literature. The previous research focused on Chinese and Vietnamese self-initiated expatriates, who occupy the majority of expatriate positions in Japan. This study has a new target group of Thai expatriates, who have a relatively higher educational background than some other expatriates and are expected by the Japanese firms to stay over the long term.

Replication of the findings of the latest studies occurs in this research. The turnover rate is as high as other national expatiates, with similar reasons, related to the Japanese HR system. However, there are also different issues. The main reasons they give for not staying in the long-term are unhealthy work habits, followed by slower promotion and ambiguous work content/role. The Japanese HR system is a dehumanising mechanism leading to a stressful work environment, which is the most critical concern for them and the main reason they choose not to remain in the long term.

Past studies indicate an expectation gap between Japanese firms and expatriates, which is also found in this study. Additionally, an assumption gap between them about security under the HR system is also confirmed. Security means working healthily for expatriates while it means long-term employment for Japanese firms.

This study aims to explore how student recruitment practitioners at regional Australian universities strategise student recruitment efforts in Thailand. There is scarce research addressing regional universities, with prior studies focusing on metropolitan universities. Similarly, most prior studies have focused on high-volume markets, with little research exploring emerging markets such as Thailand.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with student recruitment practitioners from regional universities that were responsible for recruiting Thai students. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify key themes.

Regional universities lack strategic ambidexterity in their approach to recruiting international students. They viewed Thailand as requiring longer term investment and were unwilling to dedicate their limited resources towards developing this market at the expense of other markets that would yield enrolments to contribute towards short-term targets.

Implications are provided with relevance to the student recruitment practitioner, with strategic ambidexterity discussed.

The paper fills a gap in the research by exploring international student recruitment and contextualising both regional universities and Thailand as a recruitment market. This study provides useful considerations that may be relevant to other emerging markets.

This article reviews the practice of horenso (a mnemonic for hokoku/reporting, renraku/informing and sodan/consulting) – an under-documented Japanese communication methodology – at a Japanese-owned subsidiary in Thailand. It draws on a number of cultural theories to explore how horenso was influenced by the non-biculturality of individuals at a multinational corporation.

This article draws on first-hand interviews with staff of varying responsibilities at a multinational electronic components manufacturer, Spin-eTech (a pseudonym) to understand how horenso has been utilized and perceived at this Japanese-owned subsidiary in Thailand differently from its original form and traditional use at its headquarters in Japan. This was a targeted case that captured the real time communication difficulties at the workplace.

The themes of horenso's rationale, motivation, style of communication, use for problem solving, information reporting, relation to superiority and culture of communication emerged as prominent differences for how horenso was practiced at the Thai subsidiary.

Using the emic perspective of cultural understanding, insights are offered into the impact of non-biculturality within the Asia Pacific region on the practice of horenso to extant knowledge on the under-explored “eastern vs eastern” cultural differences.

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting tea-producing farmers' intention to use e-commerce exchanges (ECEs) to sell their products, combining the technology acceptance model (TAM) theory and barrier factors.

The authors use the generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) to analyze the intermediate model that is built on TAM.

Research results show that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) significantly influence farmers' intention to use ECEs to sell their products. However, knowledge and information barriers hinder farmers' intention to use such ECEs.

Encouraging farmers to use ECEs is the most helpful solution for agricultural economic development in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

From an academic perspective, this is the first study that combines the TAM theory of Davis (1989) and barrier factors to analyze farmers' intention to use ECEs. The findings are valuable references for policymakers to propose strategies for agricultural economic development during the current pandemic. At the same time, the empirical results obtained from this study provide good orientations for agricultural economic development 4.0 in the future.

This study uses a comprehensive theoretical framework that combines social cognitive theory and neighborhood effect to investigate the influence of neighborhood effects on farmers’ outcome expectations, observational learning and self-efficacy. This study aims is to analyze the mechanisms that underlie the adoption of social media by farmers for knowledge exchange in the agricultural context. Specifically, this research explores the role of neighborhood effects, outcome expectations, observational learning and self-efficacy in shaping farmers’ decision-making process regarding the use of social media platforms for exchanging agricultural knowledge.

The study data was collected through a sample survey conducted among 570 agricultural households residing in the provinces of Thai Nguyen, Cao Bang, Bac Kan and Phu Tho, located in the northern region of Vietnam. To analyze the data, structural equation modeling was used as the statistical technique of choice.

The findings of the study indicate a significant influence of neighborhood effects on outcome expectations, observational learning and self-efficacy. These factors, derived from social cognitive theory, also exhibit a positive association with farmers’ adoption of social media for knowledge exchange. Additionally, the study highlights that neighborhood contribute to a favorable adoption of social media among farmers via outcome expectations, observational learning, and self-efficacy.

The study is limited in examining farmers’ social media adoption for agriculture knowledge exchange in Northern mountainous area of Vietnam. This study could be replicated across various regions or nations, providing comparative insights into the adoption of social media among farmers for knowledge exchange.

The study findings suggest practical and innovative means to promote farmers’ social media adoption for agriculture knowledge exchange.

This study presents a pioneering approach by integrating social cognitive theory and neighborhood effect to elucidate the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of social media for the purpose of agriculture knowledge exchange.

This paper aims to propose a method to reduce the resistance of silicon-based V-shaped electrothermal microactuator (VEM) by applying a surface sputtering process.

Four VEM’s samples have been fabricated using traditional silicon on insulator (SOI)-Micro-electro-mechanical System (MEMS) technology, three of them are coated with a thin layer of platinum on the top surface by sputtering technique with different sputtered times and the other is original. The displacements of the VEM are calculated and simulated to evaluate the advantages of sputtering method.

The measured results show that the average resistance of the sputtered structures is approximately 1.16, 1.55 and 2.4 times lower than the non-sputtering sample corresponding to the sputtering time of 1.5, 3 and 6 min. Simulation results confirmed that the maximum displacement of the sputtered VEM is almost 1.45 times larger than non-sputtering one in the range of voltage from 8 to 20 V. The experimental displacements are also measured to validate the better performance of the sputtered samples.

The experimental results demonstrated the better displacement of the VEM structure after using the platinum sputtering process. The improvement can be considered and applied for enhancing displacement as well as decreasing the driving voltage of the other electrothermal microactuators like U- or Z-shaped structures while combining with the low-cost SOI-MEMS micromachining technology.

In Thailand, the number of higher education institutions (HEIs) offering international programmes has surged dramatically. Internationalisation is seen as key to competing in the higher education market, modernising educational programming, and generating new streams of revenue. Yet, such rapid change is disorientating for the internationalisation of higher education (IHE) in the Thai context. That said, there is little disagreement on what it is not; it is not Thai. This chapter investigates apparent efforts to ‘de-place’ Thailand from IHE and considers how these attempts may connect to (post-)colonial tensions between sovereignty and civilisation. Through a synthesis of scholarship in the areas of higher education, cultural geography and Thai studies, the authors construct a framework for exploring how IHE is both imagined and experienced in Thailand. In particular, they re-examine datasets from studies they conducted with stakeholders over recent years, including executive leadership, international faculty members, and university students. Through a series of narrative portraits, a dialogue of voices is constructed that reflect distinct orientations to ‘Thainess’ in the IHE. The authors argue that a wider and more inclusive orientation to internationalisation is not only respectful of local identity but is enhanced by it. Ultimately, the hope of this study is to offer a vision of what an ‘emplaced’ idea of IHE in Thailand might look like, one grounded in an orientation unique to a particular place with its own cultural and social coordinates.

The world is changing rapidly and unexpectedly. COVID-19 is a warning sign that future generations need to be prepared for the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world where more complex situations remain to be seen. Students from all walks of life should have equal access to quality education that can equip them with skills to cope with new challenges. Although the inclusion of students with special needs in Thailand has allowed them to have academic and social interaction with non-special needs students in higher education institutions, little is known regarding how COVID-19 has impacted them and how they have navigated online learning. What are the learning challenges that college students with special needs face? Digital learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic can be an even more significant challenge for students with special needs. However, some of them may feel online learning is a lifeline and a nice learning accommodation. Is it possible that they may want to continue to stay in remote accommodations, even if face-to-face classes resume? Would any of the practices return to normal and be fruitful for the VUCA world? Using data collected through in-depth interviews, this chapter identifies learning challenges confronting special-needs college students through the lens of a right-based approach and how inclusive digital learning can turn these challenges into opportunities and help these students flourish in a VUCA future. This chapter begins with a brief historical background of inclusive education policy in Thailand's higher education institutions. The chapter then, using a case study of KU, Thailand, identifies and discusses existing challenges and problems currently facing special needs learners and analyses how universities can help them to deal with and overcome such challenges. Finally, the chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges of how inclusive digital learning can play a pivotal role in elevating the learning experience and outcomes of Thai college students with special needs in the VUCA World.

This paper aims to develop indicators of happiness in learning of the Thai open university (TOU)'s undergraduate students.

Sampling for the study was comprised of two groups. Group I comprised eight lecturers who are experts in their disciplines and six students who were purposively sampled. The focus group was used to validate the appropriateness of the indicators. In Group II, 332 students were engaged in a multistage sampling process. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, coefficient correlation, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

The indicators of happiness in learning of undergraduate students of TOU were classified in six categories. These included satisfaction with learning environment (five indicators), learning anxiety (five indicators), satisfaction with learning (five indicators), enthusiasm to learn (six indicators), self-satisfaction (six indicators) and readiness to learn (seven indicators). The six categories explained happiness in learning of undergraduate students of TOU at the 65% and fit empirical data.

The TOU can use the indicators for the assessment of happiness in learning of its students as well as guidelines for the improvement of its student learning environments.

There have been very few studies on indicators of happiness in learning of TOU students. Most were done at the basic education level. This study disclosed the six factors affecting happiness in learning of TOU students; therefore, it should inspire and draw attention of many in the field of higher education distance learning.

The article aims to present a new aspect of “the emergent identities” in Thailand with a correlation between morality and religiosity. The research deals with the perception of 65 Thai male-to-female transgender sex workers who are currently working in sex tourism in Pattaya and Bangkok. This article explores the role religion plays, the linkages between sexualities, and the potential for Thai Theravada Buddhist individuals to understand the way that they cope with life and interpret its meaning among these sexual minorities. Finally, the article shows how Thai marginalized Theravada Buddhists are negotiating their gendered religious spaces in Thailand.

The study investigates perceptions of religion and its role in the lives of Thai Buddhist male-to-female transgender sex workers. Almost all the qualitative data was collected sequentially through (1) focus group discussions, (2) small group discussions, and (3) in-depth interviews. All interview sessions took place over six months in 2019. The researcher is a native Thai speaker and conducted the interviews in Thai with selected sex workers over 20 years old who have at least one year of experience engaging in sex work.

The research found three principal characteristics of “lived religion” in which emergent identities negotiate sexuality and morality: (1) Buddhist dequeering (the way Buddhism operates conservatively to reinforce heteronormativity), (2) queering Buddhism amidst multiple oppressions (how Buddhism operates to complement queer identity and empowerment), and (3) queering Buddhism as enlightenment (Buddhism with an emphasis on “practice” and “spiritual development”). The paper discusses how institutional Buddhism creates and recreates gendered identities in complex ways.

The article shows how Thai marginalized Theravada-Buddhism are negotiating their gendered religious spaces and “buy” the right to sexual and anatomy within their families and society by providing financial support, engaging in religion practices, donating in social charity projects base on their faith and capacity.

The paper is supporting human right movements and dignity for sexual minorities gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender questioning, intersex (LGBTQI+) in Thailand. The paper also promotes equality to all human beings and shows a struggle for the basic human rights of sexual minorities in religion. The paper is raising awareness to religion's rights for all to look beyond distinctions of gender and class which may help to shape future history.

This article examines how Thai transgender sex workers utilize the non-essentialist philosophy of Theravada Buddhism. The paper finds that respondents are negotiating their religious spaces through the linkages among their gender, body, embodiment, identities, and sexualities. Despite most respondents believe that being born “a kathoey” as a result of bad karma, they use the Buddhist teachings of karma to explain their identities and even to lead a meaningful life to gain more merits for a better rebirth.

Thailand still lacks research on queer spiritualities and Buddhism. The article has seen challenges to the human rights of sexual minorities in religion. The solution is to increase awareness of the concepts of sex, gender, and sexualities and broaden the understanding of “endless performativity” and “gender diversification” (Butler, 1990) for gender sensitivity and gender responsiveness in creating “social equality” for all member societies in public campaigns, and media launched by the state and NGOs.