In today's competitive environment, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) must focus on strengthening their organizational capabilities, considered to be a vital ingredient for building firms' competitiveness. A number of factors may be deemed to be the drivers of organizational capabilities. Thus, this study was aimed at investigating and discussing those dimensions and their elements associated with organizational capabilities. The review of the literature indicates that the fundamental approach to build organizational capabilities rest heavily on organizational resources, organizational architecture, and organizational quality. The initial model was developed and proposed. Then, in-depth interviews with twenty Thai SMEs were carried out to verify the proposed model. Based on the in-depth interview results, key modifications were made to adjust the model and make it more practical. Financial resource, marketing resource, operational resource, and human resource are considered to be key elements of organizational resources whereas planning system, information system, compensation system, empowerment structure, learning culture, and teamwork culture are deemed to be key elements of organizational architecture. Finally, quality of the company and quality of products or services are believed to be key elements of organizational quality. Firms who can effectively and efficiently manage these elements of organizational capabilities will be able to compete and succeed in the market in the long run.

This study attempted to test the main and interaction effects of CSR involvement, brand naming, and pricing on consumers' purchase intentions by using a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design. CSR involvement was based on a cause-related marketing campaign. Brand naming was based on a local/Thai brand name and a foreign brand name signifying that the product is from a renowned country. High prices and low prices were adopted for the pricing factor. A computer notebook was used to represent a high involvement and technological product for the experiment. Siam Computer was used to represent a Thai brand name whereas Toshisu was used to represent a foreign brand name. Students from a local university were recruited as experimental subjects. Fifty subjects were randomly assigned to each of the eight experimental conditions. All three experimental factors were found to have significant effects on purchase intentions. The levels of purchase intentions were found to be higher for products with CSR involvement, foreign brand name, and lower prices. The two way interaction effects suggested that CSR involvement had a positive effect on products with foreign brand name and higher prices. The effect of pricing was found to be stronger for products using Thai brand name. The three way interaction effect suggested that for a high price condition, CSR involvement had a strong effect on purchase intentions for products using a foreign brand name whereas in a low price condition, CSR involvement had no significant effect regardless of the name of the brand.

This study was carried out to investigate competitive capabilities of firms operating in the logistics industry. The objective of the research was to study the effects of strategic elements associated with competitive capabilities on corporate image, profitability, and growth. Key strategic elements for building competitive capabilities were proposed to consist of service quality, marketing capabilities, and management capabilities. The results suggest that the firms' first priority level in building competitive capabilities must rest on rendering reliable and speedy services, providing varying services, and offering attractive prices. The second priority level is to provide rapid customer response, make service facilities available and attractive, make sure that service location is convenient for access, and utilize up-to-date IT to improve service operations.

This study was aimed to disaggregate the relationship commitment construct into organizational motives component and relationship continuity component and investigate the effects of the motives on relationship continuity. These motives were based on the three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment, which included affective, structural, and normative motives. Constructs associated with affective motives were relationship value and trustworthiness, whereas constructs related to structural motives were switching costs and comparison level of the alternatives. Corporate cultural similarity was proposed to be the key construct associated with normative motives. The results showed that all five constructs associated with the three groups of motives had significant effects on relationship continuity. Trustworthiness was found to have the strongest effect on relationship continuity, followed by relationship value, switching costs, comparison level of the alternatives, and corporate cultural similarity. In addition, corporate cultural similarity was found to moderate the effect of switching costs on relationship continuity