NAVIGATING STRUCTURAL DISRUPTION: STATE CAPACITY AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL STATE IN THAILAND'S MUSIC INDUSTRY

Jakkaphan Phatworaruthai

doi:10.14456/apsr.2026.14

Authors

Jakkaphan PHATWORARUTHAI College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University, Thailand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14456/apsr.2026.14

Keywords:

State Capacity, Entrepreneurial State, Creative Economy Policy, Polycentric Governance, Music Industry Disruption

Abstract

The Thai international music industry faces profound structural disruptions driven by rapid technological advances such as artificial intelligence and streaming platforms, creating wicked policy challenges that traditional public governance struggles to address. This qualitative study critically evaluates Thai state capacity in fostering the creative economy, utilizing comprehensive documentary research alongside twenty in-depth interviews with diverse industry stakeholders. The empirical findings reveal a severe context-problem mismatch; the state remains constrained by rigid bureaucratic bottlenecks, transient political agendas, and a distinct lack of embedded strategic autonomy, resulting in short-term symbolic policies that completely fail to protect vulnerable informal creative labor. To achieve sustainability and global competitiveness, this article argues that the Thai state must undergo an urgent paradigm shift from a passive regulator to an "Entrepreneurial State" capable of active market shaping and risk co-absorption. The study recommends deploying polycentric governance models, establishing advanced AI-driven copyright infrastructures for digital sovereignty, and creating higher education sandboxes to catalyze competency-based co-creation, thereby fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 9

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