The effects of critical success factors marketing strategy on business performance: the study of Thai restaurants in the lower northeastern region of Thailand
Abstract:
The objectives of the study were 1) to study the opinions of the Managers/owners of restaurants on the critical success factorsfor restaurants, 2) to study the opinions of the managers/owners of restaurants on the marketing strategies in doing restaurant business, 3) to study the relationship between the critical success factors, the marketing strategies effecting the business performance and 4) to propose recommendations for the critical success factors, the marketing strategies effecting the business performance. The study area was the lower northeastern region comprising Nakhonratchsima, Buriram, Surin, Srisaket, AmnatCharoen and Ubonratchathani.The population was 59,746 restaurants in the study area and a sample of 398 questionnaires were mailed, of which 372 were returned and completed.The reliability test of the questionnaires yielded the overall CronbachsAlpaha score 0.96 which was high and acceptable. The analysis consisted of descriptive approach, one-way analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The survey results revealed that most of the respondents were female, age between 40-49 years, received vocational education degrees. They currently opened theirrestaurant business for 5 to 10 years, having cooking knowledge 10 to 19 years as owner or chefs. Their previous professions were farmers and agriculture. The restaurant businesses have been running between 4-6 years with initial investment between 100,000 to 500,000 baht with personnel of 21 to 40. The critical success factors lie primarily on cleanliness, service system followed by interior decoration. The marketing strategies effecting business performance were distribution followed by sales promotion and food price, respectively.The owners were concerned with profit and loss more than anything else. The relationship between the critical success factors, service quality and performance constructs were positive and correlated. The MANOVA results showed that the critical success factors effecting performance were at high levels and the effects of marketing strategy on performance were at very high levels. The personal characteristics factors such as age, education, cooking experience, investment capital and staff have significantly impact the restaurant businesses.