Exploring entrepreneurs’ human capital components and effects on learning orientation in early internationalizing firms

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the role of entrepreneurs’ human capital components and the influences on learning orientation in early internationalizing firms. Drawing from the integration of human capital theory, resource-based view theory, learning theory, and on the literature of international entrepreneurship and strategic management, a research model is proposed and consists of five constructs, namely international business skill, international business knowledge, entrepreneurial competence, managerial competence and learning orientation. The empirical analysis was carried out on a sample of 158 early internationalizing firms in a food industry in Thailand. Partial least square technique was conducted to test the structural equation models and hypotheses. This followed by some illustrative case studies as supplementary to the empirical findings. The results confirm our hypotheses and support the proposed research model. This study yielded interesting findings in which an entrepreneur’s skill and knowledge in international business enhance entrepreneurial and managerial competencies. These competencies, in turn, play an important role in influencing a firm’s strategic learning orientation     

HRM in Thailand: Eroding Traditions

This study explores the changing HRM practices in Thailand, especially over the past decade, during which the country has undergone substantial economic growth. It begins by examining the employment practices of traditional family-owned enterprises, which differ substantially from what have become thought of as ‘best practice’ in Western firms. It then analyzes the professionalization of employment practices in large-scale, publicly held Thai corporations. The final sections of the consider the nature of employment practices in the subsidiaries of multinational firms, which play a major role in the Thai economy.     

Labour migration and policy formation in a newly industrialized country: a case study of illegal Thai workers in Singapore

"Towards the end of 1988, the Singapore Government began to express concern about over-reliance of the economy on foreign workers and later about the presence of large numbers of illegal workers. This article examines the policies and legislation introduced to change these situations, and examines in detail the repatriation of 10,000 unauthorized Thai immigrants. In addition to economic policy and practice, the social and political aspects of migration and labour utilization are considered, as are the implications for international relations."