The Roles of Thai Cooperatives in New Economic Age

Abstract

This research aims to 1) study the development of Thai cooperatives from the aspect of    economic changes during the period 1914–2015. The secondary data was collected from documents and the study was based on documentary research. The data was analyzed via content analysis. Another purpose was to 2) study the roles of Thai cooperatives in a new economic age in which the data was used for setting the future direction of   Thai cooperative development. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews in an in-depth interview with cooperative professionals, who were selected through purposive sampling based on the selection criteria of 18 people. The data was analyzed via content analysis. Furthermore, the data was evaluated using method-ological triangulation.

The findings showed that 1) the development of Thai cooperatives under the economic changes during 1914-2015 was divided into 4 eras following the announcement of   cooperative laws. The first era from 1914 to 1927, was the beginning of cooperatives. The second era from 1928 to 1967, was the period of cooperative extension. In the third era from 1968 to 1998, a merging of cooperatives occurred. The fourth era, from 1999 to 2015, was the period of   the cooperative development plan. 2) The roles of Thai cooperatives in the new economic age were as follows: from the social aspect, the cooperatives needed to build up a network for knowledge sharing, extracting knowledge from innovations, operating businesses for the commu-nity by taking care of member welfare, society, and environment near the cooperative bases; from the economic aspect, the cooperatives needed to have business connections and achieve logistic cost reduction by distribution management; from the political aspect, the cooperatives needed to   have adaptability, plan their operations concurrently with the country’s political dynamic, and have connection with the policy of the nation, and the operation of cooperatives based on    a correct understanding of the cooperative system; and from the technological aspect, the cooperatives needed to focus on using technology in business management, for example online storage systems, online payment systems, electronic meeting systems, and geographic information systems.