Doing Business in Vietnam from the Perspectives of Polish Entrepreneurs – the Role of Local Partners

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges of expanding into an emerging marketfor multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the strategies they adopted to overcome these adversities. Whileinterest in the expansion of MNEs into the Vietnamese market is increasing, there is a lack of research onthis process from the Polish businesses' perspectives, which may differ from existing literature. Theanalysis of information obtained by a semi-structured interview method shows that the psychic/culturaldistance is the most critical challenge the Polish enterprises must face when entering the Vietnamesemarket. The study also shows that the key success factor for the expansion of the Polish enterprises intothis market is a local partner, i.e., acquiring an appropriate Vietnamese partner, good cooperation withhim/her, and building mutual trust. As a result, among the available forms of internationalization, thePolish enterprises most often choose export and various forms of cooperation with local partners as themain ways to enter this market.