Analyzing the Survival Probability of Community Enterprise Under the Situation of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Northern Thailand

It is well known that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted Thailand’s economy and society. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns took a heavy toll on the community enterprises—the most vulnerable type of firm—in Northern Thailand. Therefore, this paper attempts to help the Northern Thailand community enterprises choose the right business strategies and plans to cope with COVID-19. Also, what are the key factors affecting the survivability of community enterprises is crucial to explore. To achieve these goals, we surveyed 400 community enterprises during March 28—April 4, 2021 for the needed information, and applied the Cox proportional hazards regression model to examine their survivability. The results reveal that the significant supportive factors for the survival of community enterprises are financial management, defining target customers, business model adjustment, delivery, and online platform. On the other hand, human resource management, ICTs technology management, and logistics management reduce the chances of survivability of community enterprises. Due to the knowledge and abilities of the members of the organization are still unable to solve problems to survive during the crisis. The results of this study lead to policy recommendations to the government and relevant agencies to promote appropriately and sustainably community enterprises.