Essays in innovation, trade and determinants of growth
Date
2021
Authors
Hoang, Hang
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis is a collection of three standalone microeconomic papers on firm
innovation, corruption and growth in Vietnamese small and medium size enterprises
(SMEs).
This thesis first investigates the determinants of innovation in small and medium
size manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam using the SME's surveys from
2005 to 2015. The linear probability model (LPM FE) and logit fixed effects (Logit
FE) model are used to estimate the impacts of internal factors (firm characteristics)
and external factors (trade characteristics) on innovation in Vietnam manufacturing
SMEs. The empirical results reveal that larger sized SMEs have higher demand for
investment, spend research and development (R&D) and those have higher skilled
managers are more likely to innovate. However, the impact of firm size on innovation
varies, depending on the type of innovation and the interactions with other internal
and external factors. Unlike previous studies on innovation in Vietnam, this paper
captures firm characteristics and international trade impacts on firm innovation
from one period to the following period. Whilst there is not much difference in the
probability of innovation across industries, international trade characteristics have
considerable effects in determining innovation in manufacturing factors in Vietnam.
The findings are consistent with the Schumpeter (1934) theory of innovation. These
results also contribute to the existing endogenous growth and innovation literature
by providing new evidence for better understanding determinants of innovation in
manufacturing sectors in Vietnam.
The thesis then investigates how firms transform innovation into growth. Using the
same Vietnam SMEs data sets, two step quantile regressions (2SQR) are employed to
explore explanations behind success and failure in transforming innovation into firm
growth. First, the relationship between the three types of innovation and growth
varies by quantiles and depends upon growth measurements (sales growth, labour
productivity growth and employment growth). Secondly, over the period corruption
significantly affected firm growth and its effect is more evident in young and
networking firms. Thirdly, other firm characteristics such as total assets, investment,
managers' education and exports significantly affect innovation and firm growth.
Consequently, although young SMEs in Vietnam are more innovative, often pay
more bribes than their older counterparts, lack resources and face higher risk of
failure in turning innovation knowledge into successful growth.
Finally, using the same data sets for the period from 2007 to 2015 and fixed
effect estimations (FE), we explore the effects of gender on SME activities in
three dimensions: innovation, credit access and environmental outcome. The
results provide evidence that there are no gender differences in firm innovation
and environmental outcomes, but that gender gap plays a role in access to
credit. Decomposition analysis shows that firm characteristics rather than gender
have significant effects on firm innovation, access to credit, and environmental
outcomes of firms. We find that firm size, R&D, network, government support
program, ownership, export, owners/managers' education, and knowledge about
environmental law influence the entrepreneurs' gender-firm innovation, credit
access, and environmental outcome relationships. Corruption plays a particularly
significant role in credit access and environmental outcome.
In brief, this research attempts to provide empirical evidence about Vietnam
manufacturing SMEs relating to innovation and determinant factors of growth.
Focusing on corruption, gender entrepreneurs and other firm characteristics, we
intend this research to contribute to better understanding of the links between
research, industry and effective innovation system.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Collections
Source
Type
Thesis (PhD)
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description
Thesis Material