Article Sidebar
Views PDF: 129
Metrics
Who participates in free business training? The case of Vietnamese SMEs
Main Article Content
Abstract
Effective government programmes should be taken up by their potential beneficiaries. This study investigates the factors associated with the decision of Vietnamese small business owners to participate in free business training programmes. Based on the original survey data, I find that most business owners were unaware of the importance of learning business, and thus, did not take up the training offer. The regression analysis, using bivariate probit model, shows that the risk-taking owners and owners with their relatives also invited to the same training were more likely to participate in the training. These findings suggest that providing ex-ante information about the usefulness of the training and allowing group participation can encourage training participation.
Article Details
Keywords
Business training, Randomised controlled trial, Willingness to pay, Risk aversion, Industrial cluster
References
Anh, N.T. and Ly, T.H. (2020), “The determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure:
evidence from Vietnam’s listed companies in chemical industry”, Journal of International Economics and Management, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 18 - 41.
Berge, L.I.O., Bjorvatn, K., Pires, A.J.G. and Tungodden, B. (2015), “Competitive in the lab, successful in the field?”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 118, pp. 303 - 331.
Bloom, N., Eifert, B., Mahajan, A., McKenzie, D. and Roberts, J. (2013), “Does management matter? Evidence from India”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 128 No. 1, pp. 1 - 51.
Bloom, N., Lemos, R., Sadun, R., Scur, D. and van Reenen, J. (2014), “The new empirical economics of management”, Journal of European Economic Association, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 835 - 876.
Bloom, N. and van Reenen, J. (2007), “Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 122 No. 4, pp. 1351 - 1408.
Blumenschein, K., Blomquist, G.C., Johannesson, M., Horn, N. and Freeman, P. (2008), “Eliciting willingness to pay without bias: evidence from a field experiment”, Economic Journal, Vol. 118 No. 525, pp. 114 - 137.
Bonan, J., LeMay-Boucher, M. and Tenikue, M. (2014), “Households’ willingness to pay for health microinsurance and its impact on actual take-up: results from a field experiment in Senegal”, Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 50 No. 10, pp. 1445 - 1462.
Bruhn, M. and Zia, B. (2013), “Stimulating managerial capital in emerging markets: the impact of business training for young entrepreneurs”, Journal of Development Effectiveness, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 232 - 266.
Dohmen, T., Falk, A., Huffman, D., Sunde, W., Schupp, J. and Wagner, G.G. (2011), “Individual risk attitudes: measurement, determinants, and behavioral consequences”, Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 522 - 550.
Field, E., Jayachandran, S., Pande, R. and Rigol, N. (2016), “Friendship at work: can peer effects catalyze female entrepreneurship?”, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 125 - 153.
Higuchi, Y., Vu, N.H. and Sonobe, T. (2015), “Sustained impacts of Kaizen training”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 120, pp. 189 - 206.
Karlan, D. and Valdivia, M. (2011), “Teaching entrepreneurship: impact of business training of microfinance clients and institutions”, Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 93 No. 2, pp. 510 - 527.
Lucas, R.E. (1978), “On the size distribution of business firms”, Bell Journal of Economics, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 508 - 523.
Mano, Y., Iddrisu, A., Yoshino, Y. and Sonobe, T. (2012), “How can micro and small enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa become more productive? The impacts of experimental basic management training”, World Development, Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 458 - 468.
McKenzie, D. and Woodruff, C. (2014), “What are we learning from business training and entrepreneurship evaluations around the developing world?”, World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 29 No.1, pp. 48 - 82.
Mullainathan, S. (2009), “Solving social problems with a nudge. TED India Talk”, available at http:// www.ted.com/talks/sendhil_mullainathan.html (accessed 04 May 2020).
Trang, K.H. and Nguyen, Q. (2019), “Managers’ risk and time preferences in economic behavior: review from the experiments”, External Economic Review, No. 118, pp. 33 - 49.
Vu, N.H., Sonobe, T. and Otsuka, K. (2009), “An inquiry into the transformation process of villagebased industrial clusters: the case of an iron and steel cluster in northern Vietnam”, Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 568 - 581.
Vu, N.H., Sonobe, T. and Otsuka, K. (2010), “An inquiry into the development process of village industries: the case of a knitwear cluster in northern Vietnam”, Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 312 - 330.
White, H. (2013), “An introduction to the use of randomised control trials to evaluate development interventions”, Journal of Development Effectiveness, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 30 - 49.