Affecting factors on perceived usefulness of area-business continuity management for flood case at industrial areas in Thailand

Abstract

The 2011 Thailand floods widely affected many parts in Thailand such as households, industry and agriculture. Especially, industrial areas were massively damaged by floods. Many factories had to stop their operations. Therefore, it severely impacted economic losses. Area-Business Continuity Management (Area-BCM) is a useful system supporting company mitigate flood effectively. Before the system is implemented, opinion survey of related people in an area is important. Therefore, this research aims to investigate factors affecting Perceived Usefulness (PU) of the Area-BCM. The model is proposed based on Technology Acceptance Model and flood mitigation behavior. The analysis results categorized the respondents into four groups following their experience with floods. It is found that subjective norm significantly affect to PU. In addition, flood hazards knowledge significantly positively affect to PU in experienced group. On the other hand, worry about flooding indirectly affect to PU through subjective norm. Moreover, government is found to be the most trusted source by respondents in receiving disaster information. They also mentioned warning information should be provided. Furthermore, the findings are expected to be used as a guideline for developing a prototype of the Area-BCM system.