The research assesses two parts; the awareness of the potential of e-commerce to develop the current local business into an e-business, in terms of marketing, product, price, productivity and distribution channels, and the readiness of the overall organization to move to the e-business transform. This paper provides recommendations for the implementation of the e-commerce approach and policy to support e-business in the VGH, which can increase the
Handicraft Products and Their Importance to Disabled Veterans
జాన్ ఫిబ్రవరి మార్ కోతి మే జూన్ జూలై ఆగస్టు సేఫ్ చట్టం నవంబర్ డిసెంబర్ జాన్ ఫిబ్రవరి మార్ కోతి మే జూన్ జూలై ఆగస్టు సేఫ్ చట్టం నవంబర్ డిసెంబర్ జాన్ ఫిబ్రవరి మంకీ మే జూన్ జూలై.
Handicraft products sales (pieces)
Revenue gained per month (Baht)
Research Objective and Benefit
Further, assessing the process to determine which factors may be beneficial to the development of an e-commerce strategic plan, and identifying factors that may hinder the achievement of a successful e-business strategy. This research will be beneficial to Veterans General Hospital and all disabled veterans participating in this project, in addition to increasing awareness and readiness of the e-commerce strategy.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Marketing Development Strategies
What is the pricing strategy to use, and does it fit the existing business.
Product Development and E-Commerce Marketing Strategies
Finding the right place to distribute their products is also limited due to their residences in rural areas, and they are the main obstacle that limits their sales and customer recognition. Therefore, the need of e-business model is very essential because there is unlimited place to sell when it comes to an online market that allows everyone to enter anytime.
Awareness and Readiness for Business Development to Become an E-Business
As from previous studies, the growth of the internet users in Thailand is slightly slow compared to neighboring countries (Vanichvisuttikul and Jungthirapanich, 2004, Mansor and Abidin, 2010). In contrast, the total of Facebook users in Thailand clearly compares with the Internet users, which shows that Thai people pay a lot of attention to communication via social networks, e.g. Therefore, further studies should be to find relevant benefits and potential of the Internet and e-commerce to understand more clearly how the e-commerce gives us advantages or how it changes our way of life (Rao, 2001).
According to the study by Vanichvisuttikul and Jungthirapanich (2004) on e-commerce awareness in the group of highly valuable traditional products in Thailand, the study found that most of the traditional business owners' awareness of the potential of e-commerce is relatively high. Although factors hindering access and use of the Internet are lack of proper wisdom in new business models, such as B2B, B2C and B2G (Turban et al, 2000). Other factors include low penetration rate of government infrastructure and the cost of accessing the Internet, and also funding to implement the new e-business online.
In addition to encouraging process changes at every level of the business, and highlighting the benefits of e-business transformation, most studies found that awareness of the potential of e-commerce and willingness to change to become an e-business from within department and sufficient external support are essential parts to drive the transformation. Therefore, by using information synthesized from those previous studies, it becomes easier to determine which factors should be particularly focused on and which factors tend to be more interesting or more problematic towards business development. This will help in forming the scope of the research and conducting the data collection method appropriately, which will be mentioned in the next chapter.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Research Approach and Design
- Data Collection
- Study Samples
- Question Design
- Analyzing and Measuring Awareness and Readiness
Respondent Group 2 Professional training department staff, sales representatives and supervisors, to measure the department's awareness and readiness in terms of e-commerce as a new market opportunity to assist and initial understanding of the e-commerce function. Respondent group 4. People related to IT to measure the readiness of the existing system, the plan to be used to make more use of the benefits of e-business. This method aims to check the perception of e-commerce, the awareness of the potential of e-commerce and its impact on the current process (Vanichvisuttikul and Jungthirapanich, 2004).
Before, is there any policy to support the initialization of e-commerce business in terms of veteran craft products. Questions about the awareness and readiness of the business approach to e-commerce Topic: Awareness of the potential of e-commerce. What about the latest sources of e-commerce business knowledge in the people department, and every layer of operations.
What is the current problem against the development of e-commerce business approach in the organization. After the data collection process, the information obtained from each focus group is summarized in each perspective regarding the awareness and readiness of e-commerce development from the current situation to the e-commerce business approach. Awareness of e-commerce business potential and able to apply to properly develop existing processes.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
- Current Situation
- Products
- Productivity
- Target Market and Customer
- Pricing
- The awareness of the potential of the e-commerce business
- E-Commerce toward Product
- Roles of E-Commerce Toward Target Market and Price
- E-Commerce Drawbacks
- The Readiness of E-Commerce Approach in the VGH
- Policy and Organizational Readiness
- Human Resource Readiness
- System Readiness
- Factors that Support or Obstruct the E-Commerce Business Approach
- Internal Factors
- External Factors Government Support
- Other Concerning Issues
- Focus Group of Disabled Veterans
- Focus Group of Marketing and Training Staff
- Focus Group of the Executives
- Focus Group of IT Staff
Primarily, they are responsible for general hospital information systems, but are also responsible for public relations, including hospital advertising. In addition to making it more realistic, artwork is applied to the background of the picture after the pieces are joined in the picture. Because the pricing strategy is regulated by the Thai War Veterans Organization, from the official discussion, the disabled veterans and the vocational training department are not able to determine the price of the artwork themselves.
In late 2014, the vocational training department had requested the War Veterans Organization of Thailand to adjust the price of the artwork to reflect the current situation. To solve the problem, efforts are being made to develop the promotional web pages to promote veterans' handicraft products into the official website of the VGH (http://www.vgh.go.th/) and the official of the War Veterans Organization of Thailand (http://www.thaiveterans.mod.go.th/). In response from the executives, the strategy of transformation to the e-commerce activities in the VGH was actually discussed with the director of the War Veterans Organization of Thailand.
Management mentions that the reason for the lack of increased productivity stems from the declining discharge rate of soldiers from the Royal Thai Armed Forces (since veterans who can take VGH must first be officially discharged from the military). In addition to the lack of new veterans, another factor is the willingness of veterans. From a disability and marketing perspective, the Handicrafts training programs at VGH are set up to be part of addressing and enhancing the abilities of people with disabilities, so it is open and accepting veterans who want to learn on a voluntary basis.
Due to the patronage of the royal family and maintained exclusively, every fiscal year, the VGH earns the support budget from the government to purchase materials, training costs and other general costs. Since the result of essential knowledge of e-commerce in the group of directly responsible people of the business does not meet the satisfaction, it should be ensured that learning how to manage the e-commerce business effectively, to prepare them for the transformation in e - commercial business.
CONCLUSION
- The Awareness of the Potential of the E-Commerce Business
- The Readiness of E-Commerce Business and Factors to Success
- SWOT Analysis to the Veteran’s Handicraft Product Business
- Recommendations for E-Business Development
- Recommendations for Further Studies
- Scope and Limitation of the Research
Absence for necessary reasons, such as medical treatment, or low commitment of the work, can disturb the regular productivity of the artwork. Nevertheless, there are efforts to improve the readiness for e-commerce business, such as the request to increase the product price according to the current situation, cooperation with other craft enterprises to penetrate new market segments, and the supporting budget of the government and related support organizations. Any problematic processes for the e-commerce business, . such as order receipt, payment and shipping method must be defined and concisely addressed.
The vision and mission in the development of e-commerce businesses should be more punctual and practical. To address the lack of productivity, the vocational training department should change the policy and qualification of people who want to pursue the vocational training by allowing non-disabled veterans, or families and relatives of veterans, to learn how to make crafts . products, to increase productivity and address labor shortages. This will accelerate the transformation process to e-business as the marketing staff are the key people who take responsibility for the system.
Since this research is only limited to measure the current awareness and clarity of the veteran's products in VGH provided by the Department of Professional Education, there are many aspects yet to be uncovered about the details of e-business feasibility study, cost and benefit analysis and other related studies in the field of e-marketing strategy implementation, such as how to use different forms of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Enging Optimization (SEO) and the effect of social media as distribution channels for veteran craft products to specific target markets in the online world ( Strauss, 2009). This research studies groups of people and employees who participate in the development of the veteran's craft products in VGH, such as: veterans who make craft products and attend the professional training, operational staff related to the project in different roles and responsibilities, management leaders who define policies regarding the project, and IT staff who take care of the back-end support system. Since there are many types of veteran products from all military regions across the country, this research focuses only on the Department of Professional Education and its subsidiaries in VGH.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
