Prioritizing and positioning of Thailandʼs program of OTOP product for elderly using AHP

Abstract

One Tambon One Product (OTOP) is one of the major enabler of Thailand to stimulus local entrepreneurship to support locally made products of Thailand's 7,255 Tambons (sub-district). This OTOP program has been initiated since 2001 and has substantially generate incomes for local entreprenuers. Currently, five groups of OTOP product have been promoted and used by Thai Government to gaurantee the quality of the OTOP product. However this research aims to utilize the nexus model of academia–policy maker and business to develop an approach to derive the product improvement policy to increase business market opportunities for the elderly cosumers in Thailand. This research studies and identified differences of needs among each group of product. This research conducted large systematic focus groups on 1,275 elderly consumer together with expert interview and quantitative analysis to identify the top three groups of OTOP product that need to be strategically emphasized. Four new criterions of Business, Opportunity, Self-Sustainability, and Environment were developed and used as criteria to identify and prioritize the needs of those five OTOP groups. The AHP technique was employed to identify the weights and compare the five major groups with respect to those developed criteria. This results were used for the government to position the OTOP product that meet the need of elderly consumer segment. The results of the analysis lead to strategic action plan for product and process development of northern Thailand OTOP developemt program. This proposed concept helps Thai govenrment to effectively exercise OTOP program policy mobility and evolution.