The Strategy of Vietnamese Business Associations in Knowledge Sharing for the Sustainable Development of Vietnam Businesses Community45285

The Strategy of Vietnamese Business Associations in Knowledge Sharing for the Sustainable Development of Vietnam Businesses Community Dzung Tien Pham 1* , Binh Dinh Le 1 1 VNU Universi

The Strategy of Vietnamese Business Associations in Knowledge Sharing for the Sustainable Development

of Vietnam Businesses Community

Dzung Tien Pham (1)* , Binh Dinh Le (1)

(1) VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam

* Correspondence: pham.tien.dzung.2006@gmail.com

Abstract: This article is the result of the research on the knowledge sharing of Vietnam business associations which is one of the activities contributing to the sustainable development of Vietnamese businesses The research aims to (1) Review the current situation and the ways of knowledge sharing among member business of the associations; (2) Investigate the influencing factors; (3) Propose the adapting strategy for Vietnam business associations to improve knowledge sharing for the sustainable development of Vietnamese businesses Basing on the Model of Knowledge Sharing and Community of Practice of Kimiz Dalkiz in combination with the SECI Model of Nonaka and Takeuchi the research used qualitative analysis with secondary data collected by desk research and primary data collected by survey, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews among the representatives of Vietnam business associations and their member businesses In the results, the research was able to answer the research questions including the current situation and ways of knowledge sharing of Vietnam business associations; point out the factors influencing to this activity

of the associations; analyze the root of the shortcomings; and propose the strategy for the associations in knowledge sharing for the sustainable development of member businesses and the economy of the country

Keywords: strategy, business association, knowledge management, knowledge sharing, development

1 Introduction

If a firm’s valuable resources are absolutely unique among a set of competing and potentially competing firms, those resources will generate at least a competitive advantage and may have the potential of generating a sustainable competitive advantage (Barney, 1991) This judgment of Jay Barney is perfectly suited to the knowledge resources of the business and it also shows the importance of knowledge management (KM) in business organization In the context of globalization with the strong development of information technology, new generation technologies and the changes in the ways customers buying things, knowledge creation and knowledge management are becoming more and more important for businesses to maintain competitive power (Dang & Nguyen, 2016)

Sharing knowledge plays an indispensable role in the cycle of knowledge creation (Ikujiro, 1991) In practice, it has been proved that sharing knowledge help many businesses' difficult activities become succeed, for example in the case of the merger of Japan's Kawasaki Steel Corporate and NKK Steel Corporate in which thanks to the prior relationship of the engineers obtaining when joining the industry associations, it is easy to share, exchange and integrate technology knowledge between the engineers of the two companies and make the merger process of two units into JEF became successful (Nonaka et al., 2011)

Vietnam Business Annual Report (Pham and Vu, 2015) points out: “The smaller the enterprises, the more they need to outsource business development services Also, because they do not have enough human resources and do not hire external services, Vietnamese enterprises lack a lot of business skills and knowledge As a result, small and medium enterprises' activities become unprofessional and ineffective Perhaps many Vietnamese businesses have stopped working in the past years for this reason partly” (Pham and Vu, 2015) Vietnamese business associations (VBAs) plays an important role in the country's economy, a bridge between businesses and the State, between businesses and the community and providing business development services for businesses including sharing and exchanging knowledge for businesses The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) Report of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in 2014 shows that 43% of private enterprises believe that the role of business associations is important (VCCI, 2014) The results of the survey of (VCCI, 2013) and other surveys with the Soc Trang Provincial Business Association (SBA), An Giang Provincial Business Association (ABA) and Vietnam Poultry Association (VIPA) all show that enterprises have high demand for knowledge sharing but they do not evaluate associations very highly in this activity

The importance of knowledge sharing by VBAs and their shortcomings in this area show the needs of having a research on the current situation and ways of knowledge sharing

of Vietnam business associations, the factors influencing to this activity of the associations, analyze the root of the shortcomings, and propose the strategy for the associations in knowledge sharing for the sustainable development of member businesses Basing on the Model of Knowledge Sharing and Community of Practice (CoP) of Kimiz Dalkiz in combination with the SECI Model of Nonaka and Takeuchi the research used qualitative analysis with secondary data collected by desk research and primary data collected by surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews among the representatives of Vietnam business associations

In the results, the research was able to describe the research questions including the current situation and ways of knowledge sharing of Vietnam business associations; point out the factors influencing to this activity of the associations; analyze the root of the

shortcomings; and propose the strategy for the associations in knowledge sharing for the sustainable development of member businesses and the economy of the country

2 Literature review

Barney (1991) published the article "Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage" in Journal of Management, No 17 (Barney, 1991), giving "Resource-based management theory" explaining the phenomenal and sustainable business results of businesses This theory sets the standard for internal environmental factors within a business These standards are referred to as VRIN standards, including: Valuable; Rare; Imperfectly imitable and Non-substitutable When these criteria are met, a business's resources are expected to help create superior and sustainable business performance In other words, an enterprise/ organization can gain a competitive advantage if the business fulfills its value creation strategies that current and potential competitors cannot achieve This theory has been widely applied and proven in many different fields and industries including business associations, to explain and make recommendations for governance for the sustainable development of each organization This theory can shed light on the motive

of knowledge management when knowledge is considered as an important resource, meeting the criteria proposed by Barney in his theory

Nonaka et al (1991) in the article The Knowledge-Creating Company is one of the first scholars mentioning the concept of "Knowledge Management" which comes from observing and analyzing the ways in which Japanese businesses developing successfully including the process of promoting the creation and sharing of new knowledge in all activities of organizations Nonaka and his colleagues lean on the concept of knowledge as

a process and assume that knowledge is created and used in the relationship with knowledge of different people that exist in a certain context Also, from this, Nonaka introduced the SECI Model of Knowledge Creation Cycle or "Knowledge Spiral Model" This research also applies this model in analyzing the state of knowledge management of VBAs

In the book of Managing Flow, Toyama et al (2011) introduced more theories of knowledge management, deepening the knowledge creation cycle through the SECI Model, demonstrating the steps of the repeated cycle of knowledge creation - sharing - using This model is also the basis for this research to base on in analyzing the current status of knowledge management of VBAs as well as factors affecting it Chapter 7 of the book also tells the stories of knowledge sharing activities at YKK zipper manufacturing company and Japanese steel corporation (JEF) Especially in the case study of JEF, which describes the merger of two Japanese companies Kawasaki Steel and NKK Steel Thanks to the prior relation of the engineers who had joined in a same business association it became easy for them to share, exchange and integrate technology knowledge between the two companies and make the merger process of two companies into JEF became successful The case of the JEF gives the lessons on knowledge-sharing at the inter-organization level through business association linkages and can be applied more or less in this research

The book "Knowledge management in theory and practice", Dalkir et al (2005) provided a comprehensive amount of knowledge about knowledge management including: Context and the needs for KM; KM process; Model of KM; Knowledge Capture and Codification; Share knowledge and community of practice; Using knowledge; and The role

of organizational culture in the KM The book provides comprehensive knowledge about knowledge management, which is particularly important as the section on Knowledge Sharing and Community of Practice with many concepts and models referred in this research

In the book "Knowledge Management Foundations: Thinking about - How People and Organizations Create, Representing and Use Knowledge", Wiig (1993) created a model that helps to identify how knowledge is created and used Though Wiig's model is simple, but it helps explain the cycle of creative - using knowledge and helps this research to go in the right direction

In the book of Knowledge Management in Enterprises, Dang and Nguyen (2016) summed up the theories and lessons of success in knowledge management, helping readers

to acquire the knowledge system of knowledge management in corporate and organizational environments In particular, the chapter on knowledge sharing and the community of practice discusses a lot about knowledge sharing models, especially the discussions on the practice of using and sharing knowledge, including group level, organizational level and inter-organizational level The knowledge shared in this book is a useful reference for research on knowledge management and sharing of VBAs

The book "The Road to Future - Effective Business Associations for Dynamic and Inclusive Growth in Vietnam" published by VCCI and the Asian Foundation (VCCI, 2015) is

an exploring study of strategies of development and provision of services to businesses of VBAs across the country Below is a list of strategic activities of VBAs that summarized through field research results and listed in this document

Provide information (policies, laws, market information etc.)

Facilitate the linkages between member businesses to each other and to the market

Promote, introduce information and products of members

Provide trainings and transfer of scientific and technical advances

Organizing tours for studying and sharing experience inland and abroad

Support and advise member businesses to develop investment projects for expanding business Acting as a bridge between member businesses and governmental agencies at all levels, especially in protecting the rights of members

It is easy to recognize that six of the seven activities mentioned above are activities related to sharing and transferring knowledge associated VBA environment These are important suggestions for conducting this research

Other studies such as "Building the Capacity of Member business-ship Guiding Principles for Project Managers" (World Bank, 2005); "Business associations in Vietnam: status, roles and performance" (Trang

et al., 2002); "Assessing the capacity of association according to modern criteria: Improving strategic management and association management" (Economica Vietnam, VCCI, CIEM, 2011); "Creating Income for Membership Business Organization: A Manual for Trainers" (SEQUA, 2013); “Rethinking State- Society Relations in Vietnam: The Case of Business Associations in Ho Chi Minh City” (Tu, 2014) also provide similar perspectives on VBAs' strategic activities including knowledge management

Although there are quite a lot of research materials on knowledge management in general and business association management particularly, there are very few studies and documents mentioning knowledge sharing or knowledge management of business associations This could be a knowledge gap for this research to work on and clarify

2 Methodology

The research focused on the matter of the knowledge sharing and exchanging activities of Vietnamese Business Associations in some provinces of Vietnam The study is mainly conducted by qualitative research methods to analyze and evaluate research scope, in which:

Using the theories and perspectives collected through desk research to identify the information to be collected and evaluated (1) The status of knowledge sharing activities of VBAs and (2) The influencing factors to knowledge sharing activities of VBAs;

Secondary data collected from relevant studies; And primary data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with VBA representatives and from a number of relevant surveys that the authors have participated in was used for this study is used to evaluate (1) The current status of knowledge sharing activities of VBAs and (2) Factors affecting knowledge sharing activities of VBAs; and (3) Knowledge sharing needs of the member businesses of VBAs;

Comparative analysis between (1) Current status of knowledge sharing activities

of VBAs and (3) Knowledge sharing needs of member business will indicate (4) Shortcomings in knowledge sharing activities of VBAs;

Using problem solving and decision-making models to work out (5) The root of shortcomings and propose (6) The strategy of VBAs in knowledge sharing for the development of businesses

* Data collection

The research was conducted using mainly the following three methods to collect data for studying:

Secondary data: (1) Report on "Operational Capacity of Vietnamese Business

Associations" (VCCI, 2013); (2) "Provincial Competitiveness Index" (VCCI, 2014); (3) Report

"Proposal of Amendment the Development Strategy of Vietnam Poultry Association" (Pham and Tran, 2016); (4) "Vietnam Business Annual Report " (Pham and Vu, 2015);

Primary data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with VBA

representatives;

Primary data from survey: (1) The data of the survey on operational capacity of

Vietnamese Business Associations of VCCI in 2013; (2) The data of the survey among member businesses of VIPA on the Development Strategy of the association for the period

of 2012 - 2020; (3) Survey data from the needs assessment of businesses in An Giang province: For the strengthening agricultural and fishery linkages in An Giang province in the context of new generation free trade agreements; (4) Survey data on the needs

of member businesses toward Soc Trang provincial business association

3 Results

Needs of knowledge sharing and transferring of member businesses toward VBAs

In order to assess the members' needs for VBAs, survey data on members' difficulties and needs in some VBAs is considered Accordingly, at SBA, the difficulties related to knowledge of member businesses include Management capacity is limited; Weak access to information and technology market; Lack of market information; Having no websites; Short

of awareness of current legal policies

Table 1 The difficulties of member businesses of Soc Trang Business Association

Need additional capital but having no sources 12.87%

Difficult to access business development services 6.06%

Legal system and dispute resolution 2.27%

Difficulties due to transport infrastructure conditions 5.32%

(Source: Data from the needs assessment survey among the member businesses of SBA, 2017)

As for An Giang Provincial Business Association, its members need to be supported

in knowledge sharing to better integrate with the impacts of new generation trade agreements According to the survey data from the needs assessment of businesses in An Giang province: For the strengthening agricultural and fishery linkages in An Giang province in the context of new generation free trade agreements, member businesses need more supports, focusing on providing market information; participating in technology transfer; and mobilize funding for innovation

At Vietnam Poultry Association, according to the survey and assessment data on the implementation of the development strategy of the association in 2016, the members for VIPA requested to improve the knowledge sharing activities include Training and transfer

of scientific and technical advances; organizing tours for learning and sharing experiences; and providing policy, legal and market information etc

Knowledge management situation of VBAs

Business associations in Vietnam have good conditions for capturing and sharing knowledge Due to the history of which most of the associations were formed as professional associations therefore, there have been several individuals joined the associations of which there are several experts and specialists Among the challenges for knowledge management including: Managing content; Collaborating effectively; Finding experts; Learning and making decisions based on complex mountains of information (Dalkir, 2005) VBAs have no such challenge of finding experts because they have many experts joined as members Having many experts and specialists among the membership may be considered a strength or core value of VBAs

Table 2 – Knowledge as resource in the strategic analysis of Vietnam Poultry Association

The membership network is wide and

relatively close;

Financial regulations of the association

have been established;

Having large technological and

knowledge resources from members who are

experts of research and training institutions;

Having experience and capacity to represent

members in dealing with government for

policy issues

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development highly

appreciates and gives favorable treatment to

the association;

Members' needs for the association's services are very rich, able to generate sustainable

revenue;

Having a great opportunity to cooperate from partners such as international organizations, associations of other countries,

Strategic planning ability is weak;

Leadership and governance are weak;

Unstable financial source;

Capacity to provide services to

members is weak;

The capacity to develop the business

community has not reached the target of the

The capacity of member businesses is limited; The experience of other association is not much

to learn;

The competition of similar organizations; Scarcity of funding resources: As Vietnam is no longer considered a poor country, international

funding is reduced

Source: (Pham and Tran, 2016)

* Knowledge creation activities of VBAs: It can be said, except for a few associations, VBAs are not strong organizations of knowledge creation Some creative knowledge activities conducted by the associations include:

+ Research and survey to serve the operation objectives of the associations;

+ Research activities conducted by affiliated centers and units of the associations

* Knowledge capturing activities of VBAs include:

+ Studies and shared articles of scientists and experts who are members of the associations;

+ Market, scientific and technological information provided by affiliated units; + Conferences, technical events in the network organized and attended by the associations;

+ New technologies introduced by member businesses for the purpose of promotion and sales

* Knowledge storage activities of VBAs

Most of VBAs have knowledge storage in the form of documents; many associations create periodical materials, magazines and journals; a few of the associations have created databases to store information and knowledge Especially, most of the associations have well organized member index, websites for members to introduce information about themselves to ensure to provide the information of "who is who" for members and stakeholders

As for knowledge sharing, it is particularly described in the section 3.5 afterward

Knowledge sharing activities of VBAs

Sharing knowledge is the process of exchanging knowledge between individuals, groups and organizations Sharing knowledge can be concentrated or non-concentrated, sometimes without a clear goal from the beginning Sharing knowledge related to encrypted knowledge base and assistive technology Many businesses now consider sharing knowledge seriously because they think sharing benefits businesses or simply technology that allows sharing to be made easier Modern forms of knowledge sharing include: Database; Best practice workshops; Technology fair; Multi-functional collaboration groups; Groups on social networks; E-mail group and so on (Dalkir, 2005)

Regarding knowledge sharing activities of VBAs, the following are the opinions of representatives of VBAs collected by in-depth interviews during implementing the Operational Capacity Survey Data of Vietnam Business Associations of VCCI in 2013

An Giang Business Association (ABA): "Our association has linkages to support

trainings by cooperating with other organizations or State agencies; Linking to mobilize members to

go to training courses to accumulate knowledge in shortage including business administration and skills for problem solving”

Can Tho Business Association (CBA): "Before that they (the members) chose VCCI for

trainings because it was a big organization In 2005, CBA organized the first training course Gradually, CBA can arrange resource to cover expenses, establish prestige in the training market and have frequent customers”

Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC): "The Association’s

publishes the Journal of Contractors and Construction Market, giving out to members every 2 months; Preparing Contractor Index in every 2 years; composing illustrated Vietnamese and English construction contractor dictionary for all businesses in the industry”

Vietnam Banking Association (VNBA): "Our association has a website that gives

complete information about associations and banking policies”

Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association (VICOFA): “Our association recognizes the technical

proficiency of foreign trade and the level of foreign languages of businesses in coffee industry is poor so we have actively invited a member to the Executive Board who is the former Director of Legal Department under Ministry of Industry and Trade so that we will be able to consult and support our member businesses in choosing the right forms for contracts and export affairs, to consult

in negotiations and in dispute cases This activity of the association is quite strong and has directly helped the member businesses in negotiating with partners when facing difficulties”

“Our association proactively look for good coffee varieties and encourage coffee growers to plant for experiment A number of new varieties introduced by the association has demonstrated good quality!”

Vietnam Tea Association (Vitas): "The association takes part in consulting and surveying

tea strategies for provinces; together with agencies to survey, investigate and give advice on provincial tea industry development strategies in Ha Giang, Lao Cai and Yen Bai provinces”

“VietGap is a good standard for tea cultivation within a program of the Ministry of

Agriculture and Rural Development will be implemented massively in agriculture The association participated in propagating and mobilizing enterprises to apply this standard”

Nghe An Small and Medium Enterprise Association: "We have programs to support

businesses to expand their business and expand their vision by taking the business delegation to some countries in the world for study tours”

Comparing with the patterns of knowledge sharing (Dalkir, 2005), it can be seen that the knowledge sharing activities of VBAs are very rich and creative which has partly promoted the potential of knowledge of the associations The main knowledge-sharing

activities of VBAs include: Support consultancy; Organizing training and providing business knowledge; Publishing bulletins and magazines on new technologies and new policies of the Government; Providing knowledge through websites; Organizing study tours; Organizing of trial-practices; Developing and encouraging for applying of industry' standards

3.6 The influencing factors of knowledge sharing of VBAs

Focus group discussion by brainstorming exercise with representatives of Small and Medium Enterprises Association (VINASME), An Giang Business Association and Business Association in Soc Trang shows that sharing knowledge of VBAs is influenced by many factors including (1) VBAs' available knowledge resource; (2) Trust of members; (3) The enthusiasm and dynamics of association staff; (4) Technology and communication capacity

of association staff; (5) Cultural environment of associations; (6) Potentials of knowledge sharing of member businesses

To rank the degree of influence of these factors on knowledge sharing of VBAs, the focus group discussion with Ten Seed Exercise were done with the association representatives In this exercise, the influencing factors are listed on large paper, next to draw blank cells The FGD facilitator give a number of similar small particles such as plant seeds, nuts, buttons, gravel, candies so that the participants of the FGD can divide the particles to the blank cells more or less corresponding to the degree of influence of each factor to the knowledge sharing activities of VBAs Every time when a person wants to divide again, he/ she will be encouraged to present the reasons to convince other participants to agree with him/ her The division will be stopped when all participants agrees with the division model The number of particles in each cell will be calculated as a percentage and used as a coefficient in the influencing model This FGD exercise is a part of the PLA (participatory learning and action approach) which is a method of information/ knowledge collection and qualitative analysis introduced by World Vision and has been widely used in focus group discussions to get experts/ informants to express knowledge/ information and agreed upon open discussions The exercise is highly participatory, eliminating all hesitation when expressing personal opinions The exercise itself is a very good mean for knowledge sharing, especially exposing the tacit knowledge in each participant

Accordingly, (1) The enthusiasm and dynamics of association staff; (2) The technology and communication capacity of association staff; and (3) The trust of member businesses are factors evaluated as the highest influencing factors on VBAs' activities of sharing and transferring knowledge

Table 3 – The ten seeds exercise details

VBAs' available knowledge resource 17 15 14 15.33 15.18% Trust of member businesses 25 27 24 25.33 25.08% The enthusiasm and dynamics of association

staff