This article assesses the economic, legal and environmental conditions that Thai rubber farmers face and evaluates actions they can take to increase incomes. Statistical analyses determine relationships between prices of oil, natural and synthetic rubber. Pearson correlation tests found a strong positive relationship (r = 0.887) between the price of Brent crude and Thai ribbed smoked sheets, and a moderate positive relationship between price changes in Brent and synthetic rubber (r = 0.648). Regression analysis showed Brent oil price is a good predictor of natural rubber price. Moderate to strong positive relationships were also found between natural rubber price and the gross domestic products of Japan, China and the United States. Criminal antitrust behavior in the rubber industries appeared to interfere with normal pricing in rubber markets. No significant bi-variate correlation was found between rainfall in Thailand and natural rubber price, production or export, although flooding and other environmental issues clearly affected rubber farms. A survey of options showed that Thai rubber farmers can best improve their livelihoods through the collective purchase and use of new technologies and by integrating into downstream supply chain industries. At the very least, farmers are urged to abandon mono-crop methods and supplement their incomes with fruit, fi sh, livestock or pigs.

Competitiveness of a country requires continuous upgrading and, sometimes, major transformation. Thailand is at the crossroad. It can no longer pursue a strategy based on low-cost advantages, but its capability achievements are still too low to become an advanced economy. This book points out weaknesses of Thailand's national innovation system or education and suggests how the country should develop new capabilities to survive and prosper in the globalized and fiercely competitive world. It will be useful to researchers and students who want to learn more about Thailand and emerging countries, and also to policy-makers and executives involved in economic and industrial development. Co-published with IRASEC (Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia), Bangkok

These proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 10th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ECIE 2015), hosted this year by The University of Genoa, Italy on the 17-18 September 2015. The Conference Chair is Prof Luca Beltrametti and the Programme Co-chairs are Prof Renata Paola Dameri, Prof. Roberto Garelli and Prof. Marina Resta, all from the University of Genoa. ECIE continues to develop and evolve. Now in its 10th year the key aim remains the opportunity for participants to share ideas and meet the people who hold them. The scope of papers will ensure an interesting two days. The subjects covered illustrate the wide range of topics that fall into this important and growing area of research. The opening keynote presentation is given by Marco Doria – Mayor of Genoa on the topic of Innovation and entrepreneurship in Genoa: past, present and future. A second keynote will be given by Flavia Marzano from the National board for innovation and Italian digital agenda on the topic of Innovation: New visions not just new technologies. The second day Keynote will be given by Roberto Santoro, President of the European Society of Concurrent Engineering Network (ESoCE Net) on the topic of People Olympics for healthy and active living: A people driven social innovation platform. In addition to the main themes of the conference there are a number of specialist mini tracks on topics including Innovation and strategy, Entrepreneurship education in action, The theory and practice of collaboration in entrepreneurship and Challenges for entrepreneurship and innovation n the 21st Century. With an initial submission of 275 abstracts, after the double blind, peer review process there are 88 Academic research papers, 6 PhD research papers, 1 Masters Research paper, 4 work-in-progress papers and 1 Non-academic paper published in these Conference Proceedings. These papers represent research from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, , France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, , Kuwait, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Romania, Russia, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Thailand, UK and USA

Land use is a central issue for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Plantations of all major tropical commodities are expanding quickly. This creates opportunities for development. It also raises concerns about the impacts of these plantations on the environment, landscapes and livelihoods. Natural rubber is a particularly interesting example to consider in the perspective of sustainable development of a commodity’s producing countries and value chains. This paper is a collaboration between the Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) research program of the CGIAR (FTA n.d.) and the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) (IRSG n.d.). FTA works across a range of plantations, value chains and tree crop commodities, from timber, palm oil, cacao, coffee and tea to bamboo, rattan and rubber, among others.