Guidelines to Drive Social Enterprises to Grow Sustainability in the Digital Economy Era

Abstract

As the slowdown of social enterprises caused an interruption of the economic structure of Thailand, this study was conducted to find ways to drive social enterprises to grow sustainably in the digital economy era. The data were collected from 33 experts and presented through descriptive dimensions of Percentage, Mean, Median, Mode, and interquartile ranges. One hundred indicators were found as guidelines for driving social enterprises. The sample group showed a unified opinion on all those 100 indicators. The indicators that gained the highest mean in each aspect were as follows: 1) Business Management: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and obstacles analyzed to review the vision, mission, and goals of operating social enterprises; 2) Organizational Transformation: vision and the spirit of social work, communicated for personnel in the organization; 3) Technology and innovation: innovations in products and services, developed to make them different from general products with an identity to create competitive advantages 4) Social Shared Values: balance between seeking business profits and solving social problems. The study makes recommendations at both policy and operation levels suggesting an increase in competitiveness by building added values and creating social enterprise innovation in the digital economy era or building incentives for private sectors in terms of employment, procurement, and investment to accommodate the growth of the social enterprise. Social enterprise should also plan strategies at the organization level, company level, and operation level to make them consistent with the new normal situation.