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The research package comprises three research projects that examine the viability of convergent business strategies of private hospital and private hotels in Thailand and their relationships to the key performance indicators, the alignment of organizational information systems, and the influence of good corporate governance, internal control, and benchmarking which are the three typical confident support systems of an organization. The package also contains a project focusing on the development strategies of wellness tourism in hotel businesses. The research results can contribute to academic research in different fields and provide management, regulators, professional organizations and government agencies with a better understanding of the strategic implementation issues of hospitality businesses. Business strategies are important to the growth and survival of organizations. Yet, novel strategies are not necessary to bring success to a firm. This is because there are so many factors that can influence the implementation of new strategies. The sophistication of human elements and the uniqueness of Thai culture are likely to affect the values and perceptions of how a new strategy would do to the organization. From the pilot study, the researchers have narrowed down the convergent/divergent strategies into three types of convergent business strategies: Hospitel, Long Stay, and Homecare Services. The results show that the convergent strategies are relatively new to Thai hospitality businesses. Both surveys and in-depth interviews are used as the main data collection techniques. The study investigating the relationships between the viability of different convergent business strategies and organizational performances is the first project in the research package. The results show that the majority of the hospitals and hotels listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand don’t link strategy to performance. This is because the convergent business strategies have not been considered as viable to hospitals and hotels businesses in Thailand. Due to the rapid changes and turbulent external environment facing these businesses, many of these organizations had to go through debt restructuring and do whatever they can to manage their cash flows just to survive. Thus, the relationships between key performance indicators and business strategies are not clear at this time. However, with a more positive business environment, uplifting economic situations, and optimistic social and cultural changes are in place, hospital and hotel businesses might reassess the viability of these convergent strategies. In order to demonstrate the relationships between strategy and performance, in-depth data was collected from a central city hospital. Detailed information of different hypothetical strategies and their subsequent strategic maps and relating key performance indicators are provided in the case study. The case depicts two totally different strategy options: a hospital that provides full option services versus a boutique hospital. These two strategies will lead to totally different sets of performance indicators, resource requirements, skills of their workforce, and operational procedures. The third research project examines the alignment of a firm’s information systems with the viability of the three convergent business strategies. Again, the data collection methods include a questionnaire survey for its pilot study and the in-depth interviews for the hospitals and hotels listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Also, additional telephone survey was conducted to obtain the information about the name of software package used in every listed hospital and hotels. Subsequently, an in-depth interview was carried out with every software vendor or software house revealed in the telephone survey. The data analyses show that smaller hospitals and hotels appear to more readily embrace the convergent business strategies than the publicly owned organizations. Furthermore, both businesses, regardless of their size differences, perceive their information systems to be in alignment with their respective convergent business strategies. Almost all hospitals and hotels listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand use the software packages common to their respective industries. Like many other Thai organizations, although they were willing to invest in the known software package initially, they did not want to spend more on updates and other maintenance costs. Although the relationships were not clear between the factors influencing the viability of convergent strategies and the extent of information system’s alignment, the cause and effect assessment found the lack of interest in the convergent strategies are resulted from the inadequate demands, addition investment for skill development, lack of total government support, and different turbulent business environments. Thai hospitals have very high demands of patient care and don’t have enough personnel to handle additional services. Hotels were unable to make additional investment to serve new convergent business strategies even though their information systems can easily accommodate the functional requirements of these strategies with minimum modifications. The fourth project in this research package is the study of the roles of internal control systems and benchmarking systems on convergent business strategies. Corporate governance, internal control, and benchmarking are the most typical systems that can build confidence to corporate stakeholders. The present study collected data from different sources. A pilot study using survey instruments was conducted with two groups, participants of the CIA training programs and the members of the Institute of Internal Audit of Thailand. After the pilot study, some adjustment was made to the questionnaire and it was used to collect data from the companies listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Also, in-depth interviews were conducted with the internal auditors of the listed hospitals and the listed hotels. The analyses of survey data from all groups show consistent results that there is a high level of clarity on the three confident support systems. Also the clearer these systems are, the better would the internal control environment be rated and the higher level is the firm’s benchmarking stairway to success. However, there was no difference found between the firm’s that chose or did not choose a given strategy regardless of the charity of any of the confident support systems. Results from in-depth interviews with the internal auditors of these listed firms indicate that the majority of these firms have strictly followed the guideline for good corporate governance. They use the COSO as their internal audit framework and expand to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. Despite using the ERM framework, the internal auditors still focus on financial and operational audits more so than strategy audits. Compliance audits to ensure that the rules, regulations, and legal issues are met diligently are still the primary tasks of an internal auditor, although every attempt is made to incorporate financial and operational risk issues in the auditing processes. With regard to most listed hospitals, they are in the process of obtaining Hospital Accreditation (HA). The internal auditors in those firms would make an effort to be involved with the HA processes so s to reduce the overlapping of audit works as well as to use some quality assurance findings as the starting points for their follow-up audits. Large hotels, especially those having management contracts with an international chain, will typically have two internal audit teams, one from the property owner side and one from the chain side. There are some overlaps, and most of the audit works are again concentrated on financial and operational related issues rather than strategic issues. Finally, the second project in the research package is the study of the development strategies relating to wellness tourism for hotels. Although the research does not directly employ the framework of the convergent business strategies of hospitals and hotels, wellness tourism is one of those strategies that require cooperation from health related experts, hospital including. Health related tourism can take many forms, including the raw use of nature such as hot springs, a basic run on natural resources, standard and mundane healthcare related services provided by Thai hotels, and finally customized services for selected groups of customers such as ‘Destination Spa’ for high power clients, or specialized program. Since the nature of data collected is qualitative, in-depth interviews would be more appropriate than surveys. Since the geographical locations of potential health tourism destinations are spread out across the country, the research will focus on only three provinces: Chiengmai, Phuket, and Hua Hin (in Prajuabkirikan). These tourism destinations cover beaches, national parks, mountains, hot springs and other mixtures of tourism-related service such as sport, culture, or medical and surgical procedures (sex change operations, cosmetic surgery, etc.). The study employs Porter’s Five Forces Model and his Diamond Model to analyze the competitiveness of the organization and the industry. The results show that Thai Spa resorts have excellent services. Nonetheless these spa and wellness services are modeled after eminent spa originals from aboard. They lack the exclusive Thai spa finesse. If being carefully developed and researched, Thai spa can create a difference and add values to the Thai wellness tourism at the international level. In conclusion, it appears that Thai hospitals and hotels are not enthusiastic with new business models, nor do they embrace the relatively new convergent business strategies as outlined in the research projects. Several factors may impede the willingness to take on new ways of doing businesses, including the size of the organization, management capability, flexibility of the organization, the chaotic environment in recent years, the lack of government support, the perceptual stubbornness of managers and owners. Many of these professionals have their ways set. They have their underlying business model of what a hospital or a hotel is supposed to do. The meanings they have conjured up are based on their value systems, the custom and culture, and especially the Thai ways of lives. Thai people are not comfortable with the thoughts of going to hospitals: the place where sickness and deceases entail; going to hospitals are expensive and the number of physicians and nurses or medical personnel is never enough for all patients’ demands. Hotels, on the other hand, are places for relaxation and fun. One would go to hotel to pay for premium services that he/she cannot get from being at home. The majority of Thai hotels management are very conservative in their definitions of a hotel and what services the hotel is supposed to provide. They tend to take the path of least resistant and employ a traditional business model-that is to focus on providing lifestyle, relaxation, fun, convenience in exchange for incoming revenues. They were hesitated to make investment in remodeling and restructuring the hotel’s buildings and equipment to suit such strategies as Hospitel. Besides, it is inconceivable to mix fun and relaxation with curing and hospitalization. Thus, Hospitel is ignored by Thai hotels, with an exception of some hospitals that found this opportunity incomprehensible. The only health related services that Thai hotels appear to take on is Spa. Most hotels are willing to make investment on the renovation of facility so as not to be left behind. Also, it becomes a must for the hotels due to customer’s expectations. |
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