Vietnam SME database covers six survey rounds during the period 2005–15 and represents the basis for the analytical work in all subsequent chapters. We start by outlining the overall purpose behind collecting the SME data and continue to describe the data, including sample design, firm and owner characteristics and attrition. 

Sample Design

In Vietnam, non-state manufacturing enterprises register as private, collective, partnerships, limited liability or joint stock companies with foreign capital. Accordingly, the sampling frame we aimed for does not include state-owned or FDI enterprises. The population frame of non-state manufacturing enterprises originated from two datasets from GSO and additional on-site screening of firms by the enumerators. First, the 2002 Establishment Census (GSO 2004), from which the number of non-state registered household business establishments that do not satisfy the conditions stated in the Enterprise Law was taken. Second, the Industrial Survey (GSO 2007), from which the number of enterprises formally registered under the Enterprise Law, was obtained. Our ten provinces jointly covered 30 per cent of the country’s overall non-state manufacturing population in 2005. As we wanted to ensure representativeness at the province level for formal/registered non-state manufacturing firms, we aimed at estimating the sample size for the smallest group (in this case Lam Dong) and subsequently determine the sample sizes for the remaining provinces. For reasons of implementation, the survey had to be limited to a select number of districts within each province. Thus, firm selection took place in a two-step sampling procedure. In the first step, districts within each province were selected using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling. The number of selected districts in each province is proportional to the number of districts in each province. In the second step, firms within a selected district were randomly selected from the population list of formal/registered non-state and household manufacturing firms (including 164,468 firms).

During the pilot surveys, it became clear that we could only collect information on informal manufacturing firms through snowballing techniques. Accordingly, within each district, we selected firms not represented in the ‘formal’ sampling frame, yet visually present for interview (on-site identification). Within each district, we asked the enumerators to find as many additional informal firms as possible within each chosen site (block enumeration). The results of this stratified 2-step sampling approach.

Characteristics of the Sample

The core variables used in subsequent chapters are firm size (number of employees), location, sector, ownership, and formality status. We measure firm size based on the number of employees and classify firms in three size categories following World Bank suggestions: Micro enterprises are composed of fewer than ten employees, while small-sized firms have between 10 and 49 workers and medium companies from 50 up to 300 employees. Due to our focus on SMEs, we exclude large enterprises with more than 300 workers. In our sample, the average number of workers per firm decreased from 19 in 2005 to 16 in 2015. In 2005, 63 per cent of the sample’s enterprises were micro sized, 29 per cent small and 8 per cent medium sized. These shares changed to 70, 23, and 7 per cent in 2015, respectively.

Source:

https://academic.oup.com/book/40407/chapter/347266078

https://www.wider.unu.edu/database/viet-nam-sme-database