Product Innovation and the Primary Activities of the Value Chain that Affect to Performance of Community Enterprises Operating Herbal Products in Thailand

Abstract

This research involves the following objectives 1) to study the level of product innovation, the primary activities of the value chain and their performance and 2) to study the level of effects of the product innovation and the primary activities of the value chain over the performance of the community enterprises operating herbal products in Thailand. The population includes the herbal products community enterprises entrepreneurs in Thailand. Stratified random sampling is performed over 346 units from the total of 3,413 population units. The data collecting tools used is the questionnaire with the reliability ranging between 0.957 – 0.962. The statistics used are the following; frequency, percentage, average and standard deviation including multiple linear regression. The research outcomes find that 1) the level of the overall product innovation is high. The business’s product innovations highlight the aspect of product unique identity the most. The overall primary activities are in a satisfactorily high level. The business is involved in the primary activities in terms of product dispatch, marketing and sales the most. The overall performance is appeared in the highest level. The business displays the most performance on learning and growth. 2) Product innovation and the primary activities of the value chain affect the business overall performance with the statistical significance of .05 totaling over 4 aspects namely the continuous product quality improvement, new product development and new product launch to the market, the product unique identity and customer service. This equation presents accuracy in terms of forecasting or displaying the influence at the rate of 54.4 percent.