One Tambon One Product (OTOP) project in Thailand adopted from One Village One Product (OVOP) project of Japan.
The main objectives of the projects are to create jobs and income communities, to promote the communities development using local wisdom and self-reliance.
OTOP product is based on local materials and creativities. Under this project, there were totally 37,840 OTOP producers and 13,970 products in the products championship contest in 2006 (Micro Enterprise Strategies Department, 2009).
The government have been a major supporter of the products from provincial product development to global product distribution. The product standard is classified as 1-5 level. The quality level is rated as 3-5 stars which have a strong potential in terms of marketing. However, a huge number of the same products are poured into the market. This drives the price and the margin of product lower. A number of the OTOP entrepreneurs struggled to compete and some eventually failed. The failure possible caused by the entrepreneurs themselves who couldn’t discover their own identity and produce as a distinct product. The objective of this study is to investigate the common characteristic of successful OTOP entrepreneurs and business related-community using four central provinces as an investigation object. The finding of the study would provide an inside knowledge and serve as a guideline to develop the same trait in other areas.