An organizational survey of 400 Thai social enterprises and socially oriented ventures found interconnected pathways linking management, organizational transformation, market orientation and innovation/technology with sustainable development.
Key findings
- Business management was positively associated with sustainable development and organizational transformation. Transformation was linked to market orientation and innovation/technology, while market orientation and innovation/technology each had direct positive associations with sustainability.
Why this matters globally
The study adds organization-level evidence from a middle-income setting and supports integrated capability-building rather than isolated training interventions.
Thai researcher contribution
Thai researchers examined a heterogeneous social-enterprise ecosystem spanning different legal forms, registration statuses and profit-distribution orientations.
Limitations to consider
The cross-sectional, single-informant design is vulnerable to common-method bias and reverse causality. Sustainability was perceptual rather than independently verified social or environmental performance.