International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume V, Issue XII, December 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

A conceptual framework for SMEs development

  Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Nguyen Doan Khoi, Department of Scientific Research Affairs, Can Tho University

Abstract
This paper aims to study a framework for small- medium enterprises (SMEs) development in Vietnam. Our findings show that SMEs in Vietnam has recognized as vital and significant contributors to economic development, job creation, and the general health and welfare of economies. In order for these SMEs to contribute to economic development in Vietnam, they need to grow that make their most tangible contribution to economic growth and job creation.

Keywords: SMEs, conceptual framework, business growth

1. INTRODUCTION

Small-medium enterprises are well recognized and acknowledged worldwide as vital and significant contributors to economic development, job creation, and the general health and welfare of economies, both nationally and internationally (Morrison, et al, 2003).

Although many scholars have studied this area, but yet firm growth is not based on a general theory or generally accepted conceptual definition. Reviewing different literature (both theoretical and empirical), it has been found that small firm growth can be influenced by several factors. Some of these factors are external to the firm (can be referred as environmental factors), while others are internal and within control of owner-managers. It has been found that, firm growth is relating to firm size and to the age of the firm (Evans, 1987; Jovanovic, 1982). Apart from that, the impact of human capital on entrepreneurial growth has been also recognized by economic theory (Casson, 1991), and found to be significant in some empirical research (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). In addition to that, Storey (1994) asserts that the growth of the small firms is influenced by the interaction between factors relating to entrepreneur, firm and management strategy. Although these studies give us insights on the important factors influencing small business growth, however our study would like to include some other factors, which may have major impact on business growth and on gender differences in relation business growth. This study would like to contribute knowledge by applying bourdieu concepts of cultural capital and habitus. These concepts have been mostly applied in education researches, studying differences in education performance (Dumais, 2002; DiMaggio, 1982; DiMaggio & Mohr, 1985). However, in relation to economic performance, we found that cultural variables have been applied in studying differences in economic performance across countries (Franke et al, 1991, Granato et al, 1996). To our knowledge, we have found only one study at firm level, by Basu and Goswami (1999), which included cultural factors in explaining the process of business growth in South Asian firms in UK. The explanatory power of socio-economic variables was considerably enhanced by including cultural variables in the model.