Affecting factors on perceived usefulness of area-business continuity management: A perspective from employees in industrial areas in Thailand

Abstract

The 2011 Thailand Floods heavily impacted 7 industrial complexes, in which 56.7% were Japanese companies. Many notable companies received severe damage until they had to cease their production. Area Business Continuity Management (Area-BCM) implemented in Thailand stems from this disaster which causes both private and public sectors to think about their business sustainability. The Area-BCM project is an on-going implementation in Thailand aiming to enhance collaboration among stakeholders in industrial areas for coping with upcoming threats. One of the most significant factors before launching a plan is to understand individual attitudes and perceptions pertaining to the Area-BCM project for the best practice, effective and continuous outcomes. This study aims to investigate various factors that affect the perceived usefulness (PU) about implementing Area-BCM. Our proposed research model is developed aligning with the behavioral model and factors influencing flood mitigation consisting of Subjective norms, Experience, Worry about flooding, and Flood hazard knowledge. Questionnaires were distributed to employees in the industrial areas which were flooded in 2011. The developed model was tested by Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results consequently show that subjective norms and flood hazard knowledge significantly influence perceived usefulness. This can be implied that, in an organization, major thoughts of related people could shape individual perceptions about using a disaster management plan. Moreover, the governmental and local authorities should be a significant force, that helps support plan implementation and educate people about disaster knowledge.