Title: The impact of government policies on the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises: the case of Vietnam

Authors: Nguyen Thanh Nguyen; Winai Wongsurawat

Addresses: People's Committee of Long An Province, 61 Nguyen Hue Street, Tan An City, Long An Province, Vietnam. ' School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of the Vietnamese Government's support policies on the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by surveying enterprise leaders. It investigates the effectiveness of the policies and measures the relationship between the policies and the performance of SMEs. Statisticians distributed and collected more than 500 questionnaires along with feedbacks from enterprise leaders. SPSS was used to test hypotheses about the impact and relationship between the policies and the performance of the surveyed enterprises. Among the 13 support policies, seven (roads, electricity, telecommunications, Internet, tax reduction/deduction, loans, and property rights) had a positive impact on the performance of SMEs. All proposed policies had moderate to weak relationship with the enterprises' performance. The research results provide objective insight for policy makers and the central and local government about their policies' effectiveness.

Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; government policies; Vietnam; support policies; enterprise leaders; business performance; policy relationships; roads; electricity; telecommunications; world wide web; internet; tax reductions; tax deductions; taxation; loans; property rights; positive impacts; policy makers; central government; local government; policy effectiveness; Mekong Delta; Long An; Tien Giang; Ben Tre; provinces; Dong Nai; Binh Duong; international business; entrepreneurship development; entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2012.048567

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2012 Vol.6 No.2, pp.188 - 200

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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