Independent Samples Test
-3.253 48 .002 -.60 .18
-2.050 48 .046 -.77 .37
2.06 48 .045 -.68 .33
2.228 48 .031 .25 .11
-4.669 48 .000 -1.77 .38
2.202 48 .032 .90 .41
-3.483 48 .001 -1.77 .51
2.333 48 .024 1.13 .49
-3.524 48 .001 -.38 .11
-3.176 48 .003 -.42 .13
Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Equal v ariances assumed Registered capital
Export motiv e of the company is domestic competition
Internet cost
Does the f irm hav e a generator?
Source of export promot ion inf ormat ion f rom I nt ernet Source of export promot ion inf ormat ion f rom gov ernment, orgnazat ion
Support f rom supplier is capital/ credit
Support f rom supplier is market inf ormat ion
Support f rom Viettrade
Support f rom VCCI
t df Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean Dif f erence
Std. Error Dif f erence t-test f or Equality of Means
Overall, there are not many significantly differences between SOEs and PSMEs in the internationalization process except some factors which are discussed below related directly to the ownership of SMEs. However, regarding support from export promotion network and government incentives, it is clear that SOEs always receive more significantly compared with PSMEs.
It is obviously that SOEs always have a larger capital size than PSMEs and in most of the cases are medium enterprises rather than small ones.
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All the companies regardless of sectors say that increased profit is the most important factor encouraging their involvement in internationalization.
However, regarding domestic competition, there is a significant difference between SOEs and PSMEs. SOEs faced more competition right in the home market compared with PSMEs (with mean of 4.2 and 3.4 relatively), thus they have to seek for other markets for their products. This shows the dynamic and flexible operation as well as market response of PSMEs in the home market and also a warning for SOEs of “losing even in the home playfield” status.
Moreover, the international competition SOEs might face with when expanding the market also have to be considered more as long as they do not have firm foothold in the home market. The flexible market response of SMEs is also easy to understand that all PSMEs have to stay on their own and are responsible for all loss and profit which their business bring about.
There is also a significant relation between sectors and payment for E- Commerce using. SOEs normally pay nearly VND100 million for E- Commerce while PSMEs who pay only less than VND50 million. This partly shows that most of SMEs belongs to state sectors operate more professionally and invest more for their business activities. However, this also can be explained considering companies‟ capital size because SOEs are normally bigger than PSME, thus their expenses should be larger and their investment is usually higher. This also can be seen on how they spend money on preparing stand-by electricity source by purchasing generators. There are more SOEs owing generators than PSMEs, that was explained by some PSMEs that a generator price is around 200 million VND which cost such small companies lots of money.
But surprisingly, even though SOEs spend more on E-Commerce compared with PSMEs, they get less information for export promotion from E-Commerce than PSMEs. 25.4% SOEs most frequently get export
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information from E-Commerce whereas this figure for PSMEs is up to 74.3%.
This raises a question for SOEs on how to use E-Commerce efficiently considering the price of using E-Commerce is rather high. It is also apparent that SOEs get more support from government incentives and export promotion network and also consider this as one of main information sources compared with PSMEs. Almost no PSMEs highly evaluate that export support information source as most of them explained that the information is too general and it either does not help them much or they already know through other sources.
Looking at other support rather than only export information which SMEs get from export promotion network, it is clear that such government organization like VIETRADE or even non-governmental organization like VCCI provides more support to SOEs and are considered important by SOEs than PSMEs. This raises the question of how to create a level playing ground for all SMEs and a consolidation among SMEs to be better off and achieve more international competitiveness. This will be discussed more on the next chapter regarding government business relationship in consideration of other information from direct interviews with both SMEs and export promotion organizations.
Regarding support from supplier, there is also a clear difference between SOEs and PSMEs. SOEs get little more capital support from suppliers rather than PSMEs (48.7% of PSMEs and 51.3% of SOEs with mean relatively is 3.03 and 3.74). This is explained through some interviews that in many cases, suppliers do not trust private companies that much compared with SOEs. Therefore, most of the cases, PSMEs can only get from suppliers market information only. However, it is also apparent that other support rather than capital such as technology and training have not been provided to SMEs and more closed vertical relation with suppliers is needed.
42 Table 4.22
Su ppo rt fro m supp lier s by sector s
3.03 2.63
48.7% 72.5%
4.80 1.50
51.3% 27.5%
3.74 2.18
100.0% 100.0%
Mean
% of Total Sum Mean
% of Total Sum Mean
% of Total Sum Economic sectors
Priv ate SOE Total
Support f rom supplier is capital/ credit
Support f rom supplier is
market inf ormat ion