DEVELOPING COMPETITIVENESS IN THE HERBAL FOOD SUPPLEMENT BUSINESS TO SUPPORT THE GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF THE THAI POPULATION

Abstract

This research article aimed to: 1) Examine the importance of knowledge, market orientation, lean management, and business performance in the herbal dietary supplement business; and 2) Propose guidelines for enhancing the competitiveness of herbal dietary supplement businesses to support the health and well-being of the Thai population. This study employed a quantitative research approach. The population consisted of 1,298 herbal production and processing entrepreneurs in Thailand, and the sample size comprised 500 respondents. The research instrument was a questionnaire used for data collection, consisting of business profile information, questions related to knowledge, market orientation, lean management, business performance, and additional suggestions (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.89). The statistics used for data analysis included descriptive statistics, namely mean and standard deviation, as well as Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings according to Objective 1 revealed that the levels of importance of the four components were ranked as follows: market orientation (mean = 4.52), knowledge (mean = 4.46), business performance (mean = 4.37), and lean management (mean = 4.34), respectively. Regarding Objective 2, the Structural Equation Model analysis indicated that the structural model was consistent with the empirical data. The analysis of influence values showed that knowledge had a direct effect on market orientation with a path coefficient of 0.89, knowledge had a direct effect on lean management with a coefficient of 0.61, knowledge had a direct effect on business performance with a coefficient of 0.45, market orientation had a direct effect on business performance with a coefficient of -0.21, and lean management had a direct effect on business performance with a coefficient of 0.57. The new body of knowledge discovered in this study is the K-M-L-B Model.