Enterprise Reform and Vietnam’s Transformation to a Market-Oriented Economy

Abstract

Restructuring of industrial enterprises has long been an objective of reform in Vietnam, originating years before the formal establishment of the doi moi reform process. This article examines enterprise reform in the current context of Vietnam's market-oriented transforma tion process. Specifically, it presents findings of ongoing research on Vietnamese state and private industrial enterprises, employing a structure-conduct-performance framework from traditional industrial organization theory. The article concludes that Vietnam's indus trial enterprises are experiencing a utransitional gap ? between plan and market ? and constructs two scenarios of diverging paths of enterprise reform: (1) enterprise transforma tion to market-oriented organization, incentives, and institutions; and (2) indeterminacy and medium-run enterprise adjustment under inherently unstable internal and external conditions.