IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v14y2021i6p255-d570645.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women’s Economic Empowerment in Vietnam: Performance and Constraints of Female-Led Manufacturing SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • MinhTam Bui

    (Faculty of Economics, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok 10110, Thailand)

  • Trinh Q. Long

    (Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo 100-6008, Japan)

Abstract

This paper identifies whether there was a performance difference among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) led by men and by women in Vietnam during the period 2005–2013 and aims to provide explanations for the differences, if any, in various performance indicators. The paper adopts a quantitative approach using a firm-level panel dataset in the manufacturing sector in 10 provinces/cities in Vietnam in five waves from 2005 to 2013. Fixed effect models are estimated to examine the influence of firm variables and demographic, human capital characteristics of owners/managers on firms’ value added, labor productivity and employment creation. We found that men led MSMEs did not outperform those led by women on average. Although the average value added was lower for female-led firms in the informal sector, the opposite was true in the formal sector where women tend to lead medium-size firms with higher value added and labor productivity. The performance disparity was more envisaged across levels of formality and less clear from a gender perspective. Moreover, while firms owned by businessmen seemed to create more jobs, firms owned by women had a higher share of female employees. No significant difference in business constraints faced by women and by men was found.

Suggested Citation

  • MinhTam Bui & Trinh Q. Long, 2021. "Women’s Economic Empowerment in Vietnam: Performance and Constraints of Female-Led Manufacturing SMEs," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:14:y:2021:i:6:p:255-:d:570645
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/14/6/255/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/14/6/255/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Minniti, 2010. "Female Entrepreneurship and Economic Activity," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 22(3), pages 294-312, July.
    2. Hien Thu Tran & Enrico Santarelli, 2014. "Capital constraints and the performance of entrepreneurial firms in Vietnam," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(3), pages 827-864.
    3. David B. Audretsch (ed.), 2006. "Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4130.
    4. Gries, Thomas & Naudé, Wim, 2011. "Entrepreneurship and human development: A capability approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 216-224.
    5. Acs, Zoltan & Virgill, Nicola, 2010. "Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 6(1), pages 1-68, February.
    6. Sabarwal, Shwetlena & Terrell, Katherine, 2008. "Does Gender Matter for Firm Performance? Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia," IZA Discussion Papers 3758, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr, 2018. "Discrimination, Social Capital, and Financial Constraints: The Case of Viet Nam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 228-242.
    8. John Rand & Finn Tarp, 2011. "Does Gender Influence the Provision of Fringe Benefits? Evidence From Vietnamese SMEs," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 59-87, January.
    9. Maksimov, Vladislav & Wang, Stephanie Lu & Luo, Yadong, 2017. "Institutional imprinting, entrepreneurial agency, and private firm innovation in transition economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 854-865.
    10. Alkire, Sabina, 2005. "Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283316.
    11. Audretsch, David B. & Keilbach, Max C. & Lehmann, Erik E., 2006. "Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183511.
    12. Wennekers, Sander & Thurik, Roy, 1999. "Linking Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 27-55, August.
    13. Zoltan Acs & David Audretsch, 1990. "Innovation and Small Firms," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011131, April.
    14. Bert F. Hoselitz, 1952. "Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 97-111, October.
    15. Minniti, Maria, 2009. "Gender Issues in Entrepreneurship," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 5(7–8), pages 497-621, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Osama H. M. Hassan & Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih & Ibrahim A. Elshaer, 2022. "The Impact of Women’s Empowerment on Their Entrepreneurship Intention in the Saudi Food Industry," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colombelli, Alessandra & Krafft, Jackie & Vivarelli, Marco, 2016. "New Firms and Post-Entry Performance: The Role of Innovation," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201602, University of Turin.
    2. Ana Venâncio & Inês Pinto, 2020. "Type of Entrepreneurial Activity and Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-25, November.
    3. Alessandra Colombelli & Jackie Krafft & Marco Vivarelli, 2016. "To be born is not enough: the key role of innovative start-ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 277-291, August.
    4. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    5. Panagiotis Tsolakidis & Naoum Mylonas & Eugenia Petridou, 2020. "The Impact of Imitation Strategies, Managerial and Entrepreneurial Skills on Startups’ Entrepreneurial Innovation," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Víctor M. González-Sánchez & Antonio Martínez Raya & Susana de los Ríos-Sastre, 2020. "An Empirical Study for European Countries: Factors Affecting Economic Growth and Self-Employment by Gender," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-15, November.
    7. Calza, Elisa & Goedhuys, Micheline, 2016. "Entrepreneurial heterogeneity and the design of entrepreneurship policies for economic growth and inclusive development," MERIT Working Papers 2016-043, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Jorge, Velilla, 2017. "Feminization of entrepreneurship in developing countries? Evidence from GEM data," MPRA Paper 79997, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. David B. Audretsch, 2021. "Have we oversold the Silicon Valley model of entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 849-856, February.
    10. Nicholas Kacher & Luke Petach, 2021. "Boon or Burden? Evaluating the Competing Effects of House-Price Shocks on Regional Entrepreneurship," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(4), pages 287-304, November.
    11. Francesco Quatraro & Marco Vivarelli, 2015. "Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Post-entry Performance of Newborn Firms in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 277-305.
    12. Niklas Elert & Magnus Henrekson, 2019. "The collaborative innovation bloc: A new mission for Austrian economics," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 295-320, December.
    13. Naudé, Wim, 2011. "Entrepreneurship is Not a Binding Constraint on Growth and Development in the Poorest Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 33-44, January.
    14. Paz Rico & Bernardí Cabrer-Borrás & María Mar Benavides-Espinosa, 2020. "Intangible capital and business productivity in the hotel industry," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 691-707, June.
    15. Alvina Sabah Idrees & Saima Sarwar, 2021. "State effectiveness, property rights and entrepreneurial behaviour as determinants of National Innovation," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 392-423, September.
    16. Nelu-Eugen POPESCU, 2017. "Measures of the Impact of Entrepreneurship on Economic Development in Romania," Expert Journal of Economics, Sprint Investify, vol. 5(3), pages 81-87.
    17. Xu, Tao & Zhu, Weiwei, 2022. "Entrepreneurs or Employees: What Chinese Citizens Encouraged to Become by Social Attitudes?," MPRA Paper 113212, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Naudé, Wim, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and economic development: Theory, evidence and policy," MERIT Working Papers 2012-027, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    19. Farzana Chowdhury & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "A dynamic relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial activity," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 339-356, September.
    20. Fritsch, Michael, 2008. "Die Arbeitsplatzeffekte von Gründungen : ein Überblick über den Stand der Forschung (The employment effects of new businesses : a survey of the current state of research)," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(1), pages 55-69.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:14:y:2021:i:6:p:255-:d:570645. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.