The objectives of this research are to study the direct influence on the competitive advantage
and pattern development of variables affecting the competitive advantage of the Thai oil
palm industry. This research employs a quantitative research method. The population for
the study consists of 150 oil palm industrial operators in Thailand. Questionnaires are used
in the data collection and the data are analyzed by using SEM. The research results reveal
that the Knowledge Management Process and Supply Chain Integration positively influence
the competitive advantage in the quality, delivery, and cost. The competitive advantage
receives a positive direct impact from the Knowledge Management Process and Supply
Chain Integration. The variation of competitive advantage can be explained as 84%. The
obtained results can be used for developing the industry to create economic growth and
sustainable competitive advantage.
The focus of this paper is to propose a method for prioritizing knowledge and technology
factor in companies’ business strategy. The data has been gathered and analyzed from
Malaysian-owned company of medium size type industry, employing around 250 employees
and listed in the Malaysian Bourse Stock of Exchange, since 2000. Sense and respond model
is used to determine competitive priorities of the firms. Then knowledge and technology
part of sense and respond questionnaire is used to calculate the variability coefficient i.e. the
uncertainty caused by technology and knowledge factor. The results show that the company
is not leading in term of technology (spear head technology share is around 33%). Therefore,
the enhancement of technology and knowledge to SCA values is not significantly seen in
this study. The usage of the core technologies is around 41% and it might seem relatively
enough. In terms of basic technology, while its share is the lowest (around 25%), it has the
highest source of uncertainties among technology types. In this case, the proposed model
helped to have a clear and precise improvement plan towards prioritizing technology and
knowledge focus.
The sustainable development of human activities is directly related to the protection of the environment by lowering the anthropogenic stress. Pharmaceuticals – due to their growing consumption (use in medicine, veterinary, animal production, cosmetics) and their incomplete removal in wastewater treatment plants – are classified as a group of new and rapidly emerging pollutants which have been proven to have a negative impact onto water organisms. In order to ensure the proper protection of human health and the environment there is an urgent necessity of determining pharmaceuticals in clinical, cosmetic, food and environmental samples. Gas (GC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are valuable techniques for such determination, especially when they are coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS; LC-MS) or tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS; LC-MS/MS). The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of sustainability features of analytical techniques in the light of necessity to determine trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in the aforementioned different matrices. Using the Delphi method we performed an analysis of the key sources of the competitive advantages of the application of GC and GC-MS techniques for determining the pharmaceutical residue in clinical, cosmetic, food and environmental samples – compared to techniques based on HPLC or LC-MS. The analysis covered the following areas: (i) the features of the technique, (ii) the price, and (iii) the applicability in various sectors of economy.