Success Factors and Principles of Creative Economy Influencing Business Success of Thai Food Business Entrepreneurs in Bangkok

Abstract

     The objectives of this research were to investigate: 1) personal factors, management, operations, principles of the creative economy and the business success of Thai food business entrepreneurs in Bangkok; and 2) the success factors of management and operations, and the principles of the creative economy influencing the business success of Thai food business entrepreneurs in Bangkok. A questionnaire was employed to gather data using multi-stage random sampling from 263 entrepreneurs who had at least 10 continuous years of experience running a business. Data were analyzed to acquire descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression. The findings revealed that more than half of the Thai food business entrepreneurs in Bangkok were female with an average age of 50.98 years, and their education level was lower than a bachelor’s degree. The majority of these entrepreneurs were not members of an association or club, and did not use the internet or e-commerce for promotion of their business. Almost all of them had their signature dishes, and expressed the wisdom of an entrepreneurs’s characteristics and services in their business. In addition, Thai food business entrepreneurs performed at a fairly high level of management, operations, using the principles of the creative economy, and business success. The stepwise multiple regression results indicated that the influencial factors for business success were planning management, personnel operations, using the technology of the creative economy, using specialized skills, integration of the creative economy and financial operations. Altogether, these factors accounted for 51.7 percent of the variance explained (R² = .517), with the statistical significance level of .001.