Enhance Market Entry Skills for Vietnamese Agricultural Small and Medium Sized Enterprises to Penetrate International Markets

Abstract

In the era of industrial revolution 4.0, despite of great potential in export of agricultural products, the engagement of Vietnamese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in this activity is rather small and is almost through indirect export. Particularly, the current US-China trade war may lead to more stringent technical barriers to the export of Vietnamese agricultural products when both sides doubt about the origin of Vietnamese agricultural products. In this context, supports provided for Vietnamese SMEs to enhance their export management capacity is necessary. This paper focuses on developing skills to assist SMEs in penetrating international markets such as market research skill and market identification skill. To investigate training needs of Vietnamese SME managers, qualitative methodology with the participation of 124 Vietnamese SME managers was used. The research results are expected to be useful for SMEs, training/consulting institutions as well as government agencies in developing training programs to support Vietnamese SMEs in exporting agricultural products. The paper also makes contribution in developing the body of knowledge related to human resource management in emerging markets such as Vietnam.