ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CAPABILITY AND R&D CAPABILITY THE CASE STUDY OF VIETNAMESE FOOD ENTERPRISES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS By Student’s name: Mr: TRAN TAN HOANG VU (MBA03042) Advisor: PhD. NGUYEN QUYNH MAI International University - Vietnam National University HCMC Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam September 2012 i Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CAPABILITY AND R&D CAPABILITY THE CASE STUDY OF VIETNAMESE FOOD AND ENTERPRISES Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its members, this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: --------------------------------------------------Chairperson --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------Committee member --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------Committee member --------------------------------------- Advisor’s signature Committee member Committee member ii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 iii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Acknowledge To complete this thesis, I have been benefited from the following people: First of all, I would like to express deep gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Nguyen Quynh Mai, School of Business, International University, Ho Chi Minh City. As the research leader, she gave me a chance to join the research project group, and also gave me great support as effective academic advisory. I would like to thanks Ms. An, former BA student, who gave me the foundation and a lot of useful knowledge. I would like to thank Dr. Tung, Dr. Phuong, Dr. Tuan, Mr. Quang, Ms. An, Mr. Vu, the research group members in this phase. Without teamworking, I could not get the chance to interact with many people and learn new knowledge. I also thank to the Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Hanh, vice president of Chemistry institute; Dr Le Van Viet Man, Food department of University of Technology; Mr. Dang Van Lam, R&D Manager from Cautre; Mr. Nguyen Huu Thuy, Technical Manager from ThienHuong JSC; Dr. Nguyen Tien Hung, General Director of Vimedimex; Mr. Nguyen Anh Linh, R&D expert from Masan Corporation; Mr. Kha, R&D Manager of Bibica. These experts gave research group a lot of feedback during our interview. I would like to express my thanks to Mr. Toan from Bach Khoa University, Ms. Thu from Business Magazine for supporting research group to collect data. Last but not least, thank my family, my parents, my wife who give me encouragement and financial support through the whole course. They have supported me with all the love and patient. iv Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Plagiarism Statements I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions. I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Hochiminh City. v Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. © Tran Tan Hoang Vu/ MBA03042/2010-2012 vi Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CONTENTS List of Table ................................................................................................................ix List of Figures .............................................................................................................x Abbreviation ..............................................................................................................xii Abstract .....................................................................................................................xiii Chapter One - INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Current situation of Vietnamese Technology Competitiveness .................... 1 1.2. Vietnamese food industry ............................................................................. 3 2. Research problem ................................................................................................. 6 3. Research objectives .............................................................................................. 7 4. Scope and limitation............................................................................................. 7 5. Implication ........................................................................................................... 8 6. Organization of the study ..................................................................................... 8 Chapter Two - Literature review ............................................................................. 9 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 9 2. Definition ............................................................................................................. 9 2.1. Technology:................................................................................................... 9 2.2. Technology Transfer ..................................................................................... 9 2.3. Technology Transfer Capability ................................................................. 10 2.4. R&D Capability .......................................................................................... 10 3. Role of Technology and Technology Transfer .................................................. 10 4. Components of Technological Capability.......................................................... 12 5. R&D Capabilities ............................................................................................... 15 6. Environmental factors ........................................................................................ 17 7. Effectiveness of Technology Improvement ....................................................... 18 Chapter Three - Research methodology ................................................................ 20 1. Research process ................................................................................................ 20 2. Research model .................................................................................................. 21 3. Measurement design........................................................................................... 22 3.1. TTC factor measurements ........................................................................... 22 3.2. RDC factor measurement ............................................................................ 23 3.3. Innovation Environment factor measurement ............................................. 24 3.4. Effectiveness of Technology Improvement measurements ........................ 25 4. Questionnaire design .......................................................................................... 26 vii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 4.1. Semi-structure interview design:................................................................. 26 4.2. Questionnaire design ................................................................................... 26 5. Sample size and data collection method ............................................................ 27 5.1. Population & Sample size ........................................................................... 27 5.2. Collection method ....................................................................................... 27 6. Data analysis method ......................................................................................... 28 Chapter Four - Data analysis .................................................................................. 29 1. Sample demongraphic ........................................................................................ 29 2. R&D strategy ..................................................................................................... 31 3. Reliability test .................................................................................................... 34 4. TT Capabilitity description ................................................................................ 34 4.1. Ability to Recognize ................................................................................... 35 4.2. Ability to Acquire ....................................................................................... 36 4.3. Ability to Assimilate ................................................................................... 37 4.4. Ability to Apply and Adapt ......................................................................... 38 5. R&D Capabilities description ............................................................................ 39 5.1. Ability to Innovate ...................................................................................... 39 5.2. Facility capabilities ..................................................................................... 40 5.3. HR Capabilities ........................................................................................... 41 6. Performance description..................................................................................... 42 7. Innovation environment description .................................................................. 44 7.1. Internal environment ................................................................................... 44 7.2. External environment .................................................................................. 45 8. Cluster and Scatter chart .................................................................................... 47 8.1. Method to define weight: ............................................................................ 47 8.2. Trend analysis ............................................................................................. 48 8.3. Cluster analysis ........................................................................................... 51 8.4. Radar charts ................................................................................................. 53 Chapter Five - Conclusion, limitation and Recommendation.............................. 56 1. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 56 2. Limitation & recommendation for further study ................................................ 57 LIST OF REFERENCES ...........................................................................................58 APPENDIX ………………........................................................................................62 viii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 List of Tables Table. 1: Table. 2: Table. 3: Table. 4: Table. 5: Table. 6: Table. 7: Table. 8: Table. 9: Table. 10: Table. 11: Table. 12: Table. 13: Table. 14: Table. 15: Table. 16: Table. 17: Table. 18: Table. 19: Table. 20: Table. 21: Table. 22: Table. 23: Table. 24: Table. 25: Table. 26: Table. 27: Technology Transfer Revenue ................................................................... 2 Food CPI - Data & Forecast ...................................................................... 5 Ability to Recognize ................................................................................ 22 Ability to Acquire .................................................................................... 22 Ability to Assimilate ................................................................................ 23 Ability to Apply and Adapt ..................................................................... 23 Ability to Innovate ................................................................................... 23 Facility Capabilities ................................................................................. 24 Human resource capabilities .................................................................... 24 Internal environment ............................................................................ 25 External environment ........................................................................... 25 TT and R&D investment Performance ................................................ 25 Business number of employees ............................................................ 29 Investment reasons descriptive statistic ............................................... 32 Reliability statistic of measurement factors ......................................... 34 Ability to Recognize descriptive statistic ............................................. 35 Ability to Acquire descriptive statistic................................................. 36 Questionnaire response on Ability to Acquire ..................................... 36 Ability to Assimilate descriptive statistic ............................................ 37 Ability to Apply and Adapt descriptive statistic .................................. 38 Ability to Innovate descriptive statistic................................................ 39 Facility Capabilities descriptive statistic.............................................. 40 HR Capabilities descriptive statistic .................................................... 41 Performance of Technology Improvement descriptive statistic........... 42 Internal Environment descriptive statistic ............................................ 44 Questionnaire response on Internal Environment ................................ 44 External Environment descriptive statistic........................................... 45 ix Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 List of Figures Fig. 1: The Technology Transfer Effects .................................................................. 1 Fig. 2: Gross production of Food Processing Industry in Vietnam compare to 1994 price (source General Statistic Office, 2010) ............................................................... 5 Fig. 3: Gross production of Food Processing Industry in HCM compare to 1994 price (source General Statistic Office, 2010) ............................................................... 6 Fig. 4: Customer Value Creation through Technological Capability ..................... 11 Fig. 5: Technological progress trajectory (Source: Guan et al. 2006) .................... 12 Fig. 6: New mechanism for transferring technology to China – TDAID (Source: Wang and Zhou, 1999) ............................................................................................... 12 Fig. 7: Element divisions as part of the supply chain (Source: Martin L. Jackson and Andy Sloane 2007) .............................................................................................. 13 Fig. 8: Components of absorption capacity (Source: Whangthomkum, 2006) ...... 14 Fig. 9: R&D as a processing system ....................................................................... 16 Fig. 10: Research process ...................................................................................... 20 Fig. 11: Hypothesis Model .................................................................................... 21 Fig. 12: Business ownership types chart ............................................................... 29 Fig. 13: Business number of employees chart....................................................... 30 Fig. 14: R&D/revenue expenditure chart .............................................................. 31 Fig. 15: Technical transfer plan chart.................................................................... 32 Fig. 16: Investment objective – sort by mean ...................................................... 33 Fig. 17: Questionnaire response on investment objective ..................................... 33 Fig. 18: Questionnaire response on Ability to Recognize ..................................... 35 Fig. 19: Ability to Recognize – sort by mean ....................................................... 35 Fig. 20: Ability to Acquire – sort by mean ........................................................... 36 Fig. 21: Questionnaire response on Ability to Assimilate .................................... 37 Fig. 22: Ability to Assimilate – sort by mean ....................................................... 37 Fig. 23: Questionnaire response on Ability to Apply and Adapt .......................... 38 Fig. 24: Ability to Apply and Adapt – sort by mean ............................................. 38 Fig. 25: Questionnaire response on Ability to Innovate........................................ 39 Fig. 26: Ability to Innovate – sort by mean .......................................................... 39 Fig. 27: Questionnaire response on Facility Capabilities ...................................... 40 Fig. 28: Facility Capabilites sort by mean............................................................. 40 Fig. 29: Questionnaire response on HR Capabilities ............................................ 41 Fig. 30: HR Capabilities – sort by mean ............................................................... 42 Fig. 31: Questionnaire response on Performance of Technology Improvement... 43 Fig. 32: TT and R&D Investment Performance sort by mean .............................. 43 Fig. 33: Internal Environment – sort by mean ...................................................... 44 Fig. 34: Questionnaire response on External Environment................................... 46 Fig. 35: External Environment – sort by mean ..................................................... 46 Fig. 36: TTC vs RDC ............................................................................................ 48 Fig. 37: TTC vs Performance ................................................................................ 49 Fig. 38: RDC vs Performance ............................................................................... 50 Fig. 39: TTC vs RDC Cluster chart....................................................................... 51 Fig. 40: TTC vs Performance Cluster chart .......................................................... 52 Fig. 41: RDC vs Performance Cluster chart .......................................................... 53 Fig. 42: TTC vs. business ownership .................................................................... 53 Fig. 43: TTC vs. business size............................................................................... 54 Fig. 44: RDC vs. business ownership ................................................................... 54 x Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Fig. 45: RDC vs. business size .............................................................................. 55 xi Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Abbreviations ANOVA: Analysis of Variance BMI: Business Monitor International EFA: Exploratory Factor Analysis FFA: Food & Foodstuff Association FPI: Food Processing Industry FDI: Foreign Direct Investment GSO: General Statistic Office GCR: Global Competitiveness Report GDP: Gross Domestic Product HR: Human Resource IE: Innovation Environment R&D: Research & Development RDC: Research & Development Capability SME: Small and Medium Enterprises SEM : Structural equation modeling TT: Technology Transfer TTC: Technology Transfer Capability TTE: Technology Transfer Effectiveness, Effectiveness of Technology Improvement TDAID: Transfer - Digestion - Absorption - Innovation - Dissemination WEF: World Economic Forum WTO: World Trade Organization xii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Abstract Nowaday, Technology Improvement through TT and R&D activities is condition for enterprises in Food Processing Industry (FPI) to compete in open market. If enterprises can access their own capability, they can find the suitable strategy to develop and compete in this fierce market. The research result indicates that Technology Transfer Capability and R&D Capability have positive relationship and contributing to Performance of Technology Improvement. This research also shows the method to assess Technology Transfer Capability, R&D Capability and Innovation Environment of Vietnamese Food Processing Enterprises in HCM City. From these results, Vietnamese enterprises have a lot of missions to improve their Technology level. xiii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction 1.1. Current situation of Vietnamese Technology Competitiveness According to Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of World Economic Forum (WEF) (2011), technology has increasingly become an important element for the firm to compete and prosper. Whether the technology used has or has not been developed within national borders, it is irrelevant for its ability to enhance productivity. In general, technology can be gained in three ways (Jon-Chau Hong, 1994): - Purchasing production techniques; - Transferring production techniques; - Developing one’s own techniques. And the Technology Transfer (TT) effect is as below figure: Fig. 1: The Technology Transfer Effects From this study, TT cost more, but it takes shortest time. On the other hand, purchasing techniques will do little good for industrial upgrading. In short, TT is the right strategy for developing Technology Capability in term of time and money. The needs of small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) in the agricultural and food sectors are continually changing in the global marketplace. TT is one means of advancing SMEs to be more competitive in the global marketplace and to embrace 1 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 changes that are critical to their survival. (Michael T. Morrissey, Sergio Almonacid, 2004) GCR (2011) also points out that Vietnam is lowly ranked in the Technological Readiness and Innovation index. Particularly, Vietnam is ranked 102 in Availability of latest Technology, 60 in Firm level technology Absorption. Considering Innovation Index, Vietnam is ranked 62 in University-industry collaboration in R&D, 87 in Utility patents per million population, and 66 in Availability of scientists and engineers. According to the annual report of Vietnam National University – HCM city, the TT revenue: Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Revenue (bil VND) 46.6 54.7 53.4 57.3 63.1 68.3 69.7 99.5 76.3 86.3 84.3 Source: Vietnam National University – HCM city Table. 1: Technology Transfer Revenue This has pointed out that the need in TT (or in a broader view is R&D) is supreme for the manufacturing enterprises. Especially, we have joined WTO, and if enterprises cannot compete with foreign products in either cost, quality or model our businesses will be dead and our economy will be doom in the future. These are the reasons that many Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises started to pay attention to investment into TT and R&D. Though they have been facing with the problem that there is no previous study on which factors would effect on the effectiveness of TT and R&D activities in Vietnamese environment so many enterprises are investing unsystematically and ineffectively. From 1998 to 9/2003, there have been 4800 FDI projects approved, registered capital of 52.5 bil USD, and there are still 4100 projects with effective capital of 39.87 bil USD. 2170 projects have been operated, and 700 under basic construction. Among them, about 70% of the projects related to TT or manufacturing new type of product, but only about 4% Contracted Technology Transfer projects were approved by law through Ministry of Science and Technology. These approved Contracted Technology Transfer Project, about 63% are industry project, 26% are Food Processing project and 11% are in cosmetic. (Hoang Van Cuong, Le Danh Ton) 2 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Le Net (2006) showed that when buying a new technology, enterprises did not have enough information, such as which technology was good, bad or backward. For instance, a plastic company wanted to import a new device. A Hong Kong company sold that device at two million USD, but then a Korean company sold the same device at six hundred thousand USD. How could this plastic company find the precise information in order to buy the device at a good price? 1.2. Vietnamese food industry Vietnam's FPI is booming. After 20 years of renovation, the socio-economic development achievements of the country positively impact on people's daily life. The FPI has tremendous opportunities on the market. At home, people's demand for processed food is increasing largely and diversely. Currently, the food processing industry, seen as priority for development, is competitive advantage, market value, export and resolves labor intensive. From 1995 to date, FPI has accounted for the largest in the industry, delivered more profit and contribution to the national GDP. The development of the FPI has also influenced other ancillary and supported other industries’ development such as: packaging printing industry, packaging industry, frozen industry, food preservation, animal packaging materials industry, and plastic processing industry slaughter by-products. In addition, the development of the FPI also supports growth of agriculture (crops, livestock), transportation, mechanical manufacturing, and trade and services (distributors such as supermarkets, shops, etc.). FPI’s products include raw food, processed food and refined food. In particular, refined FPI benefits and contributes to the economy more. In Vietnam, due to the level of technology is limited, refined food is still in small number, mainly used for domestic demand. Exporting to the world market in majority is the crude product. According to Foodtexvietnam, Vietnam's FPI comprises around 260 seafoodprocessing plants (the country is a major exporter), with an annual production capacity of 250,000 tons, 24 slaughter houses and meat-processing plants, 160 beverage plants, 65 fruit- and vegetable-processing plants, manufacturing instant noodles and 23 confectionery manufacturers. Despite a significant proportion of processed food being imported, consumption of imported produce remains fairly low in the country – although it has increased in the main population centers of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. 3 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 In recent data, Vietnam is an agricultural country with abundant agricultural raw materials but equipment, agro-processing technologies are capable of manufacturing exports. This food industry brings high economic effectiveness because it has the biggest proportion in gross output of industry, for example, the proportion of food industry in 2010 is 14.17% (Tran Sinh, 2011). Moreover, the development of this industry helps to develop agriculture. Therefore, FPI is the priority industry in the growth of Vietnam economy. According to the Organization of Business Monitor International (BMI), total food consumption in the Vietnamese market in the period 2009-2014 will increase 67.3%. Especially in 2014, this consumption estimated at 426,997 billion. Average per capita consumption is estimated at 56.4% (equivalent to 4,537,628) in 2014. BMI has studied the food consumption data of Vietnam in the second quarter of 2008, along with data on the expenditure of households of the General Statistics Office (GSO). These figures reflect spending on food and drinks; however, BMI is also wary on forecasts by reporting data may have eliminated the low figures reported by several groups of consumer’s capacity in rural areas. BMI will continue to check the comparison made by the GSO data with other sources of information to be the most accurate assessment of the prospects of food consumption in Vietnam during the period from 2005 to 2014. 05 06 07 08 09e 10f 11f 12f 13f 14f 9,93 11,23 12,75 14,6 14,35 14,68 16,75 19,13 21,75 24,75 119,3 133,1 148,9 168,3 163,1 164,6 185,3 208,8 234,3 263,1 14,61 13,12 13,49 14,58 6,36 7,74 14,19 11,16 10,62 10,58 Food consumption (billion USD) Food consumption per capita (USD) Total food consumption growth (annual) 4 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Growth of per capita food 13,00 11,51 11,9 13 4,92 6,29 12,66 9,68 9,17 9,09 19,44 18,94 18,31 16,23 15,51 14,92 15,14 15,1 14,91 14,8 consumption (annual) Food consumption (% of GDP) Excluding drink expense *: forecasting value – Source: General Statistics Office of Vietnam, BMI Table. 2: Food CPI - Data & Forecast Gross production of FPI increases steadily in recent years, and accounting for around 24% gross production of Processing Industry (Figure 2). Even the percentage contribution by FPI is declined, it still accounts for nearly 25% gross production of Processing Industry. This means FPI still plays important role in Vietnam economic. 1000.0 25.00% 826.68 723.95 Thoundsand Billion 800.0 600.0 400.0 200.0 417.81 351.68 497.62 573.68 24.50% 620.34 24.00% 23.50% 86.2 102.1 140.7 121.3 150.8 169.9 198.7 0.0 22.50% Processing industry Fig. 2: 23.00% Food processing industry Contributed weight of FPI Gross production of Food Processing Industry in Vietnam compare to 1994 price (source General Statistic Office, 2010) In HCM City, gross production of FDI also increases in value but the contribution to Processing Industry has been declined from 17.48% (2005) to 16.25% (2010) (Figure 3). Market for the majority of the industry's products (except seafood processing industry) mainly domestic, export markets have not been developed, present only in the form of the potential. The markets of Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia is the market that the business involved more than any other export markets. Participation in the European market, America is not significant due to food products 5 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 of Vietnam do not fully meet the strict regulations on quality, hygiene and food Thoundsand billion safety of these countries. 206.05 220 166.68 180 180.23 148.17 140 129.90 114.12 100 60 22.70 21.36 28.03 24.60 30.47 33.49 20 -20 2005 2006 2007 2008 Processing industry Fig. 3: 2009 2010 Food industry Gross production of Food Processing Industry in HCM compare to 1994 price (source General Statistic Office, 2010) 2. Research problem There are many theoretical frameworks all over the world that measure the Technology Transfer Effectiveness (TTE) and each of them focuses different factors. There are also journals and a few of research about TT and R&D in Vietnam. However, none of them study about the acquiring Technology Transfer Capability (TTC) of small and medium enterprise and R&D performance in Vietnam food industry. That means there is no research about how transferee’s technology capability or effectiveness improves after TT, which factors affect their improvement and the relationship between TTC and RDC. In previous research phase, TTC was defined as Ability to Recognize, Ability to Acquire, Ability to Assimilate, Ability to Apply and Adapt, Ability to Innovate. R&D Capability (RDC) was defined as Facility Capability, Human Resource Capability, and Investment Capability. However, Technology Capability and RDC have the relationship and overlapped. Also from this study, the assessment of TTC and RDC, food enterprises are willingness to adopt new technology. These enterprises agreed TT is the quickest way to expand their business. 6 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 However, previous research has not found out how TTC, RDC effect on Business performance. It has not analyzed the Environment (or the Throughput in some other research) factor either. More important, on each factor, it has not developed the measurement scale for each factor. So that, the purpose of this research is to assess TTC and RDC of Vietnamese food enterprises. If they can measure their capabilities, they can improve it. 3. Research objectives For these reason, the objectives of this research are: - Develop measurements for TTC, RDC, and Innovation Environment (IE) factors, Effectiveness of Technology Improvement (TTE). - Use these measurements to evaluate TTC, RDC and TTE of Food companies in HCM, and Vietnamese IE. - Explore the relationship between TTC; RDC and TTE. - Suggest the solutions for Vietnamese food Enterprise so they can improve the TTE. 4. Scope and limitation This research is conducted from July 2012 to January 2012, in Ho Chi Minh City. This research will only focus on Effectiveness of TT and R&D in Food industries enterprises. The enterprises ownership modes include state own, joint venture, joint stock, private, limited liability SMEs. The acquired sample population is small compare to the number of question due to the number of business operating in this industry in this region, the time to collect data (the period business focusing in manufacturing for new year occasion) and the respondent’s requirement. The list of Vietnamese food enterprises in HCM city only consists of around 200, and many of them were shut down due to the economic crisis. That makes the effective list is only around 160. Besides, many enterprises consider technology as sensitive topic, and they refused to take part in the survey. These make sample size small, and many statistic techniques cannot be used to assess the relationship between factors. Instead, this research will use descriptive statistic to explore these relationships. 7 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 In addition, the questionnaire design uses Likert-scale, and the study is quite new for respondent, so the respond may be bias. 5. Implication Firstly, it is expected to find out which factors will be influenced on the TTE from this research. By exploring these factors, the research can be used for academic purpose or providing suggestions to the enterprises, which want to invest more into TT and R&D. Secondly, from this research, enterprises can assess their TTC and RDC. Combining their business strategic and these value, they can have they can have the plan to improve their capabilities. Thirdly, the finding may provide a good method to evaluate TTE. Vietnamese businesses can use these to build a KPI system to assess their investment, and do the research on their own companies to improve based on their environment. Lastly, by exploring the difficulties of IE, enterprises can work together to suggest the change in government policy to make us more competitive on our home ground and supply the domestic demand. 6. Organization of the study This research is structured and organized in five (5) chapters as follows: Chapter 1 – Introduction: Introduce the thesis topic and a brief background about it, followed by the rationale, problem statement, research objectives, research scope and limitations, significance of the research. Chapter 2 – Literature Review: presenting the related secondary literature concerning the TTC, RDC, IE, and the TTE. Chapter 3 – Research methodology provides detail instrument of the research process such as Measurement and Question design, Sample, Collecting data method, Data analysis method: Design the framework; and the procedure and method for collecting the data used to conduct the research. Chapter 4 – Discussions and Findings: Analyze collected data and interpret into initial findings of the research Chapter 5 – Draw out conclusion and make recommendation, suggestion for academic and enterprises. 8 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Introduction It is important to understand the crucial role of Technology, TT and R&D in businesses. The investment into TT and R&D will result as the performance of business. This review is based on relevant published researches on Technology, Technology Capability and RDC; IE; and the method to evaluate TTE. 2. Definition 2.1. Technology: Technology: is the application of science or knowledge to commerce and industry. Technology is, simply, the application of knowledge to solve the problem or invent useful tools. Generally speaking, technology can be gained in three ways (1) Purchasing production techniques; (2) Transferring production techniques; (3) Developing one’s own techniques. 2.2. Technology Transfer Technology transfer: According to business dictionary, technology transfer is: (1) the assignment of technological intellectual property, developed and generated in one place, to another through legal means such as technology licensing or franchising; (2) the process of converting scientific and technological advance into marketable goods or service. TT can also be defined as a process of transferring skills, knowledge, technologies, method of manufacturing, samples of manufacturing and facilities among identities to ensure scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users who can then further develop and exploit the technology into product, processes, applications, materials or services. TT implies the movement of physical structure, knowledge, skills, organization, values, and capital from the site of generation to the receiving site (Mittleman & Pasha, 1997). 9 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 2.3. Technology Transfer Capability According to enterprise-architecture’s definition: Technology capabilities are Conceptual View that defines WHAT technology can do. These often have quite abstract names but it is important that they do not imply any particular class of technology or products. Technology Capability is one of the sources of company competitive advantage. In paper “The Role of Technological Capabilities in Determining Performance: The Case of the Upstream Petroleum Industry”, technological capabilities are defined here as the knowledge and skills required to identify, appraise, utilize and develop technologies and techniques relevant. 2.4. R&D Capability RDC is the set of organizing processes and principles that a firm uses to deploy its resources to develop new products and improve manufacturing processes in response to the change in external environment (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Grant, 2002) 3. Role of Technology and Technology Transfer Technology plays a crucial role in economic development. According to Garfield (1988), in the late 1950s, Robert Solow, the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, formulated theory of economic growth that emphasized the importance of technology. He stated that technology-broadly defined as the application of new knowledge to the production process-is chiefly responsible for expanding an economy over the long term, even more so than increases in capital or labor. Technological knowledge is the understanding of the best ways to produce goods and services (Mankiw, 2003) The concept of TT has gained much attention and been variously defined by many scholars and researchers. In 2000, Tarek Khalil defined TT as a process which permits the flow of technology from a source to a receiver. It means that the source is the owner or holder of the knowledge, while the recipient is the beneficiary of such knowledge. TT also mean the transfer of technology know how and expertise. 10 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Transferring technology is important to economic transformation because it turns the intellectual value of knowledge into commercial value. Firms can then exploit his – commercial value and produce high value-added outputs (Ministry of Research Science and Technology of New Zealand, 2001). TT is indicated as “the activity leading to the adoption of a new-to-the-user product or procedure by any user or group of users” by Harder and Benke (2005). New-to-the-user means any improvement over existing technologies or processes and not only a recent invention of research result. Ramanathan (2001) mentioned that all enterprises whether they are large or SMEs can compete effectively only on the basis of “customer value creation”. His framework has implied how a firm acquires and deploys technology to create customer value. The effectiveness of these activities would be determined by the firm core technological and supportive capability (Panda and Ramanathan, 1997, 1998; Ramanathan, 1998, 2001) Fig. 4: Customer Value Creation through Technological Capability In this framework, these capabilities are generic and supportive to other capabilities: 11 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042  Capability to plan and manage TT (specify, identify, assess, negotiate, and finalize the purchase or sale of product, process, and peripheral technologies from global technology suppliers)  Capability to continuously develop and refine human skills (human resources development – HRD) 4. Components of Technological Capability Guan et al. (2006) presented a technological progress trajectory for the catch-up countries from imitation to innovation that is comprised of acquisition, assimilation and improvement of technology. Wang and Zhou (1999) considered the role of foreign enterprises and created a model of “transfer-digestion-absorption-innovationdissemination” (TDAID) in China’s perspective for increasing involvement in international production and trade activities within a global market. Acquisition Fig. 5: Transfer Fig. 6: Assimilation Improvement Technological progress trajectory (Source: Guan et al. 2006) Digestion Absorption Innovation Dissemination New mechanism for transferring technology to China – TDAID (Source: Wang and Zhou, 1999) Martin L. Jackson and Andy Sloane (2007) in research “A model for analyzing the success of adopting new technologies focuses on electronic commerce”, the four key elements which are vital to any successful adoption are: process, management, human resource, and organizational culture. A model were created, showing how these four elements are totally interactive with one another and in themselves construct organization, which in turn is part of supply chain as below figure: 12 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Organization Organizational culture Supply chain Human Resources Management Fig. 7: Supply chain Processes Element divisions as part of the supply chain (Source: Martin L. Jackson and Andy Sloane 2007) Fransman (1984) identified the following elements:  Capability to search and select the most appropriate technology for importation.  Capability to master imported technology and successfully use it for the transformation of inputs into outputs.  Capability to adapt imported technology in order to suit local production conditions and further develop the adapted technology as a result of local incremental innovation.  Capability to institutionalize the search for more important innovations and breakthroughs. Technology capability is divided into five abilities, which are the ability of learning by searching and acquiring strategy by learning from employees, the ability of learning from practicing, the ability of learning from performance feedback, the ability of learning from changes, and the ability of learning by training (Bell, 1984). Thailand Development Research Institute conducted a study on the technological capability of Thai industry (Kritayakirana et al., 1989). The industry was graded on four capabilities:  Acquisitive capability: refers to the firm's ability to search, assess, negotiate and procure relevant technologies as well as to install and start up production facilities. 13 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042  Operational capability: includes the efficient operation of process and machinery, including its maintenance.  Adaptive capability: comprises knowledge acquisition, technology digestion, and minor product and process modifications.  Innovative capability: involves carrying out research and development activities and making radical or major product and process modifications. In 1990, the concept of TTC or Absorptive Capacity was first defined as a firm's "ability to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends" by Cohen and Levinthal. Recently, Whangthomkum (2006) studied empirically components of absorption capacity. The figure below illustrates his conceptual model. Ability to Recognize Ability to Acquire Absorption Capacity Ability to Assimilate Ability to Apply Fig. 8:  Components of absorption capacity (Source: Whangthomkum, 2006) Ability to recognize value of new technology: Firms need to be able to identify and translate external knowledge inflows into tangible benefits, as well as a means of achieving superior innovation and time-lagged financial performance (Kostopoulos et al., 2010). This ability is measured according to two components, “basic knowledge” and “specialized knowledge” 14 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042  Ability to acquire new technology: The acquisition process determines which technologies the firm needs, which vendors have the technology that it wants to obtain, and what resources should be prepared before buying the new technology (Lin et al.,2002). The most frequently used measures in the literature to determine the acquisition ability is: number of 15 years having experience in in-house R&D and the amount of R&D investment.  Ability to assimilate the new technology: Assimilation of technology is the process through which firms bring new technology components into use. Assimilation ability can be measured through various processes and outputs, such as functional interfacing, knowledge sharing, and communication; knowledge processing system, compensation practices and firm structure; and the number of cross-firm patent citations or citations made in a firms’ publications about research developed with other firms .  Ability to apply & adapt new technology: A successful knowledge transfer is effective only when the knowledge transferred is retained for use and to be retained for use, the knowledge acquired and communicated must be applied. This ability can be measured through current knowledge learned from the foreign parent, international joint-venture strategies and training and development competence; the number of external research communities in which the firm participates; the number of patents, new product announcements or length of product development cycles. New products and new applications using assimilated technology, finding alternative use for the assimilated technology, and fusing assimilated technology with other technologies. 5. R&D Capabilities  According to Brown and Svenson (1988), R&D includes several phases that contain several subjects for the measurement of performance. They have created the model as Fig.9 15 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Fig. 9: R&D as a processing system In this model:  Inputs are for instance people, information, ideas, equipment, requests and funds needed for activities.  The processing system is normally the R&D lab.  The outputs of processing systems are e.g. publications, new products or processes, knowledge and patents  Finally, the outcomes, can be for instance cost reductions, sales, or product improvements.  The study of Lee (1996) presents evaluation criteria and their operationalization in following R&D system phases: Input, Throughput, Output and Outcome. A measurement scheme with 15 criteria has been validated empirically by respondents from 28 industrial firms System phases Evaluation criteria Input Enough R&D investments Enough R&D facilities Degree of professionalization Skill level of R&D personnel Feasibility of R&D plans Adequate education/training Validity of selected R&D topics Throughput 16 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Output Outcome Collaboration between R&D and Production/Marketing Effort to strictly follow plans Adequate information management Expansion and diversification of research areas Degree of goal achievement Usefulness of developed technology Expected profit increment Effects on general management improvement In this research, Input, Processing (Brown and Svenson) or Input and Throughput (Lee) are used as the Resources factor impacting on TT and R&D effectiveness. 6. Environmental factors According to Liu and Jiang (2001), PRIs are the major sources of technological innovation and transfer in China. Their missions are mainly to serve the ministerial departments and enterprises within their industry. Due to the legacy of centrally planned economy structure, technology development and transfer activities in these institutes were managed by vertical administration from the government departments. According to Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011), at a macro level, literature findings show that there are many environmental factors promoting international TT, which include national policy, economy growth, and market trend. For example, TT needs appropriate legislation on intellectual property protection. It is also directly influenced by market need and investment. International TT and acquisition should align with national goal in technology development. Macro level regulations and incentives can have major impacts on the efficiency of TT process. Many researchers in China have done research on topic TT. One of these topics states that government support, the constitution of the R&D performers, and the regional industry-specific IE are significant determinants of innovation efficiency (Li, 2009). Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011) also state that domestic SMEs, which cannot afford to do so, should increase early-stage technology collaborations by sharing R&D resources, and consolidating upstream/downstream resources. 17 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Considering that every enterprise having their own organizational culture, the study of Shabbir Hussain (1998) on TT models across cultures: Brunei-Japan joint ventures can be applied. In this study, desired cultural change necessary towards the success of TT, could be achieved through:  A strong commitment by the CEO;  The replacement of staff with those who are more receptive to technology;  Appropriate training and education of the staff (including visits and on the-job training);  Performance-based and quality-linked re-vamp of the structure of the organization. 7. Effectiveness of Technology Improvement  There are many methods to measure or evaluate the result of R&D. In many studies, they’ve grouped these method based on the purposes of R&D performance measurements, suggested or reported measurement level, types of R&D as measurement subject, perspective of measurement, and the phase of R&D ( Ville Ojanen and Olli Vuola, 2003).  The fact that R&D investments often compete with other investments in the company has changed the thinking R&D as the “black box”, isolated function before that. They have to prove that R&D brings the productivity and profit to the company.  There are numbers of measures or evaluation method indicating R&D performances have been reported in the literature during the last decades. The final set of measures and evaluation method will be utilized depends on a number of factors and its specific type of organization.  Cooper and Kleinschmidt (1996) did a benchmarking study of 161 business units includes ten performance metrics, which capture how well the business unit’s total new product effort performs. The metrics are listed below: 18 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042  Success rate: The proportion of development projects that became commercial success  Percentage of sales by new products (introduced within the last three years)  Profitability relative to spending  Technical success rating  Sales impact  Profit impact  Meeting sales objectives  Meeting profit objectives  Profitability versus competitors  Overall success  Tipping et al. (1995) presented to 11 metrics out of 33 metrics in their “technology value pyramid” as assessed by 165 industrial companies. The model provides a top-down perspective that is output-oriented. The top 11 metrics are listed below:  Financial return to the business  Strategic alignment with the business  Projected value of R&D pipeline  Sales or Gross profits from new products  Accomplishment of project milestones  Portfolio distribution of R&D projects  Customer satisfaction surveys  Market share  Development of cycle time  Product quality & reliability  Gross profit margin 19 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CHAPTER THREE - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1. Research process - Research objectives - Make suggestion for the full scale survey Initial Findings Initial finding Literature review and develop research model - Develop measurement & questionnaire in semi-structure form Data collection (pilot test) Conduct in-deep semistructure interview Analyze expertise feedback to create survey questionnaire Check validity of question Test theoretical model and hypotheses Fig. 10: Research process In this phase of research, it will be divided to four steps: Step 1: Review literature, theory, model to create the model and questionnaire.. Step 2: conduct qualitative research by in-deep interview with expertise, to refine the model and questionnaire. Step 3: Pilot test and perfect the questionnaire for the survey. Step 4: Conduct survey and analyze data. 20 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 2. Research model After a lot of discussion, the research group has developed the following model. TT Capabilities: - Ability to Recognize - Ability to Acquire Ability to Assimilate - Ability to Apply & Adapt R&D Capabilities - Ability to Innovate - Facility Capability - Human Resource Capability Effectiveness of Technology Improvement - Process and product performance. Business performance. Environment + Internal (Management): - Businesses’ TT and R&D goal - Organizational Structure. - Organizational Culture - Organizational Policy + External (Policy) - Government Policy - HR supply - R&D Institution Capability Fig. 11: Hypothesis Model With the limitation of sample, the research model above is used to develop the measurements and variables only. 21 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 3. Measurement design Measurement was based on literature review of previous researches and semistructure interview. For Absorption Capability or TTC in this research, measurements were referred to following authors Cohen & Levinthal (1990), Lyles and Salk (1996), Lane and Lubatkin (1998), Welsch et al. (2001), Lin et al. (2002), Zahra and George (2002) For RDC in this research, measurements were referred to following authors: M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee (1996), Wong et al. (1999), Abu Bakar (2004), Escribano et al. (2008) for RDC; For IE factor, knowledge from authors Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011) are referred; Cooper and Kleinschmidt (1996), Wong et al. (1999), Kerssens-van Drongelen and Bilderbeek (1999) knowledge were referred to build TTE measurements 3.1. TTC factor measurements Variable A2RE01 Measurement Recognizing market need A2RE02 Basic knowledge A2RE03 Advance knowledge Description Company foresees or catch up with the market need Company has basic knowledge of technology Company has advance knowledge of technology Author/source Cohen & Levinthal (1990) Lane and Lubatkin, 1998 Lane and Lubatkin, 1998 Table. 3: Ability to Recognize Variable A2AC01 Measurement Technology need A2AC02 A2AC03 A2AC04 A2AC05 Supplier Technology evaluation Supplier evaluation Technology transfer management Negotiation and contract A2AC06 Description Define required Technology to transfer Search for supplier Evaluate Technology Evaluate supplier Plan and manage Technology transfer project Independently negotiate and contract to supplier Table. 4: Ability to Acquire 22 Author/source Lin et al., 2002 Lin et al., 2002 Lin et al., 2002 Narrative Wang et al, 2001 Narrative Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Variable A2AS01 Measurement Installation A2AS02 Information sharing A2AS03 Planning ability A2AS04 A2AS05 Accepting and learning new technology Learning ability A2AS06 Finding out problem, unfit Description Understand procedure to install and operate of transferred technology Share information among project group Planning, assigning specifically in project group Ready to learn spirit Can fully understand from instructor During technology testing, can find unfit problem in equipment Author/source Zahra and George, 2002 Welsch et al., 2001 Zahra and George, 2002 Lane and Lubatkin, 1998 Lane and Lubatkin, 1998 Narrative Table. 5: Ability to Assimilate Variable A2AA01 Measurement Training ability Description Train operating employee A2AA02 Operating ability Operate and achieve the target objectives A2AA03 Integration ability A2AA04 Ability to fix small problem Integrate small part into whole system Fix small problem A2AA05 Maintenance ability Maintain new technology A2AA06 Evaluating ability Evaluate efficiency of new technology Author/source Lyles and Salk (1996) Lyles and Salk (1996) Lin et al., 2002 Lyles and Salk (1996) Lyles and Salk (1996) Narrative Table. 6: Ability to Apply and Adapt 3.2. RDC factor measurement Variable A2IN01 A2IN02 A2IN03 A2IN04 Measurement Ability to apply transferred technology Ability to generate new product Ability to generate new tech Ability to create new equipment Description Generate new application by using transferred technology Generate new product by using transferred technology Research to create new technology Research to create new equipment Table. 7: Ability to Innovate 23 Author/source Wong et al., 1999 Wong et al., 1999 Lin et al., 2002 Narrative Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Variable RDIN01 Measurement Training schedule RDIN02 Satisfaction of R&D equipment Modernity of R&D equipment Effective usage of R&D fund Policy on R&D, investment, information RDIN03 RDIN04 RDIN05 Description R&D employees get frequent training R&D equipment satisfy company’s needs R&D equipment are modern Author/source Lee et al. (1996) Company use R&D fund effectively Government policy encourage business to invest in R&D, and gives good information Narrative Lee et al. (1996) Lee et al. (1996) Narrative Table. 8: Facility Capabilities Variable Measurement RDCAP01 R&D employee's creativity Description R&D employee's creativity RDCAP02 R&D employee's problem solving skill RDCAP03 R&D employee's demand analysis skill RDCAP04 R&D employee's implementation skill RDCAP05 R&D employee's research skill RDCAP06 R&D employee's discipline RDCAP07 R&D employee's product RDCAP08 R&D employee's planning skill RDCAP09 R&D employee's collaboration skill R&D employee's problem solving skill R&D employee's demand analysis skill R&D employee's implementation skill R&D employee's research skill R&D employee's discipline R&D employee's product R&D employee's planning skill R&D employee's collaboration skill Author/source M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee, (1996) M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee, (1996) M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee, (1996) M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee, (1996) M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee, (1996) Lee (1996) Narrative M. Lee; B. Son & H.Lee, (1996) Lee (1996) Table. 9: Human resource capabilities 3.3. Innovation Environment factor measurement Variable InEn01 Measurement Company's QA system InEn02 Company's goal & strategy Company's working condition InEn03 InEn04 Company's policy InEn05 Company's empower system Company's commitment InEn06 Description Company has good QA system Company has long term goal/ strategy Working environment encourage improvement idea Company policy (finance or non-finance) encourage technical improvement Employees are empowered Author/source Narrative Leaders commit to continuous improvement Kerssens-Van Drongelen and Cook (1997) 24 Narrative Kerssens-Van Drongelen and Cook (1997) Kerssens-Van Drongelen and Cook (1997) Narrative Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 InEn07 Company's recruitment/treatment Company's training system Company's culture InEn08 InEn09 Recruit and treat well to talent Training policy to R&D employee Company’s culture make employees enjoy the change Table. 10: Kerssens-Van Drongelen and Cook (1997) Narrative Kerssens-Van Drongelen and Cook (1997) Internal environment Variable ExEn01 Measurement Government Tax policy Description Government tax policy encourage R&D ExEn02 Government investment Government have fund to help TT development ExEn03 Information support system/capability ExEn04 ExEn05 Human resource market Safety, hygiene procedure ExEn06 IP policy Government organization support information consulting Human resource supply Clear procedure, policy about safety, hygiene Intellectual Property is protected by law. ExEn07 Market environment Fair market Table. 11: Author/source Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011) + narrative Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011) + narrative Narrative Narrative Narrative Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011) Leong Chan and Tugrul U. Daim (2011) External environment 3.4. Effectiveness of Technology Improvement measurements Variable Per01 Measurement Outcome vs. plan Description Create product as planned Per02 Sustainable product Per03 Product's quality Per04 Per05 Plant's efficiency Patent New product has profit in long term Product has high and stable quality Increase plant’s efficiency Generate research patent Per06 Diversify product line Per07 Product's diversification Time to market Per08 Revenue Increase revenue Per09 Export revenue Increase export revenue Table. 12: Reduce time to market Author/source Wong et al. (1999) Narrative Narrative Narrative Kerssens-van Drongelen and Bilderbeek (1999) Wong et al. (1999) Lyles et al. (1997) Cooper and Kleinschmidt (1996) Narrative TT and R&D investment Performance 25 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 4. Questionnaire design 4.1. Semi-structure interview design: By combining the definition of TTC, RDC, IE and Performance with the knowledge from other research, research group created a semi-structure interview as Appendix A. The semi-structure interview was conducted to: - Confirm interviewee’s understanding on the definition from used term; - Get interviewee’ agreement with the measurements used in the semi-structure interview; - Which scale should be used for the survey questionnaire; - Which items should be added for each factor. The semi-structure interview was conducted to 5 experts: Mr. Thuy, Mr. Lam, Ms. Hanh, Mr. Hung, Mr. Man, in which 3 from enterprises, and 2 from University/Institure. The result of the semi-structure interview as below: - Some items were merged into one. - Some new items were added. - Term/Words were modified for easy to understanding - Some items were rearranged into the better factor. - Scale: Unimportant -> Important for Investment reasons; Totally Disagree -> Totally Agree for other factors. 4.2. Questionnaire design The questionnaires are designed to match with objectives of the study and conceptual framework. The questionnaires are designed based on 3 dimensions of independent variable and 1 dimension of dependent relating manufacturing performance. Six-point Likert scale, ranged from 1 (very low/very unimportant) to 6 (very high/very important) is used, to avoid neutral answer. The higher the rating scale the higher the result of statement. The questionnaire were created based on the liturature knowledge, and the feedback from the semi-structure interview. The questionnaire went through the pilot 26 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 test of 4 experts (Mr. Lam, Mr. Thuy, Mr. Linh, Mr. Kha) to confirm the reliability. After receiving the feedback of these experts, the questionnaire was refined again by research group. The words were modified to be more friendly, and some redundant questions were removed to reduce the length of questionnaire. Based on the items of constructs, and to avoid the language barrier the initial Vietnamese draft of questionnaire was designed. Then the questionnaires are translated into English for the report. The translation is reviewed by Supervisor. See Appendix B & Appendix C for Vietnamese and English versions of Questionnaire. 5. Sample size and data collection method 5.1. Population & Sample size The population: Businesses operating in food industry in Ho Chi Minh City and nearby province. The database of these enterprises was created by a group of students. It was referred to the existed data of research group (from professor Tuan), and research from Internet, Yellow page, Vietnam high quality products group, Food and Foodstuff Association (FFA) list …. The database consists of the name of the enterprise, the address, phone number and especially some enterprises with contact details of people working in these enterprise. After removing very small enterprises and duplication, the list was finalized at 200 enterprises. Questionnaire survey, in introduction, may be answered by R&D or Technical officer, but due to the required data and information, most of questionnaires are answer by the manager level or with the assist of the department manager. Based on the resource (human resource and time), the sample size of 60 was targeted. 5.2. Collection method For the semi-structure interview, 5 experts were face to face interviewed. From the feedback, questionnaire was created by research group. In pilot test, 4 experts’ feedback were received to ensure the validity of the measurement and remove redundant questions. Some adjustments on wording were made by research group 27 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 In survey phase, many methods were used to get the maximum number of sample. The questionnaire was issued through web, email (via connected people or outsourcing people), or directly delivered to company by research’s assistants. For data that was collected through, the result came with the respondents’ contact detail for verifying, to increase the reliability. To create the weight for each factor, three experts were consulted. The weight of each factor is the average from these three experts. 6. Data analysis method Answers from the respondents were reviewed and verified for completion and usefulness. Accepted questionnaire were coded and the raw collected data will be processed by SPSS software. Data will go through these analysis methods: - Because the population is small, SEM or EFA cannot be used for this research. So in this research, descriptive statistic and visualization are used to explore and demonstrate the findings. - Descriptive statistic provides the overview of the sample, to show the coverage of the sample. This technique is also used to evaluate TTC, RDC, IE and Technology Improvement Performance. - Reliability test: The reliability of measurement scales was evaluated by using Cronbach’s alpha value. A scale is reliable if the alpha value is higher than 0.7 - Cluster and Scatter chart techniques were used to show the status of businesses based on dimensions: TTC, RDC and TTE. From these charts, the relationship between these factors is explored. The data from the questionnaire was analyzed by using SPSS and EXCEL software. 28 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CHAPTER FOUR - DATA ANALYSIS In the list of 200 enterprises, only 150 were able to contacted. Other enterprises were shutdown or unable to contact through their contact info. There are 49 valid responses over 54 responses received from these distributed questionnaires. 1. Sample demongraphic Figure 12 shows the distribution of these businesses in term of business ownership, while Figure 13 displays the relative size of businesses base on the number of employees. With these descriptive statistics, sample population can represent the population. Business Ownership 6.12% 2.04% Joint stock 16.33% Ltd 44.90% State own Private Others 30.61% Fig. 12: Business ownership types chart No. of employees Valid Frequency 14 Percent 28.6 Valid Percent 28.6 Cumulative Percent 28.6 100 -> 499 18 36.7 36.7 65.3 500 -> 1000 9 18.4 18.4 83.7 > 1000 8 16.3 16.3 100.0 49 100.0 100.0 1000 > 1000 36.73% Fig. 13: Business number of employees chart According to the chart, the main ownership types are “joint stock” and “limited liability”. There are 44.9% and 30.61% enterprises respectively in “joint stock” and “limited liability”. This is explained through the size of capital these enterprises need, and the decision making process, which helps them to compete in changing market. For small business, they prefer to operate in “ttd” mode, because of the structure is easier to manage with small capital. With small capital, the business needs a fast response to the changing market, and “ltd” is advance, because the decision can be made through the decision of the owner. For larger business, many enterprises prefer “joint stock” because this structure make it easier to get larger capital, and the decision making process need to be more transparent and precise. In joint stock mode, each project is analyzed carefully before approval for budget. Even the final decision still mostly rely on BOD, it is still faster than state own enterprise. Nowaday, the number of Vietnamese state own enterprise become less, because they hardly adapt to the change of market with their complicated decision making process. These type also reflect partly through the relative size of company. 28.57% of enterprises are small size, which mostly cover Ltd and private type. While larger size enterprises represent joint stock or state own enterprise. 30 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 2. R&D strategy R&D/revenue expenditure 38.10% 47.62% 0% < x < 2% 2% < x < 3% x > 3% 14.29% Fig. 14: R&D/revenue expenditure chart According to the response, more than 50% of enterprises (28/49) did not disclose their R&D/revenue expenditure. This is explained as these enterprises consider R&D expense as strictly confidential information. Figure 14 shows the investment of these Businesses into TT and R&D. The TT and R&D investment should be considered as a part of business development strategy, to grow or sustain in challenging market. 47.62% of enterprises response they invest less than 2% of revenue on R&D. This means many enterprises do not have enough attention to R&D. However, about the same number of enterprises invest more than 3% of revenue on R&D. This is not reasonable ratio compare to the average expense of the countries. This is explained as these enterprises may have sudden expense to catch up with the technology, or young company. From the list of these company, it is easy to find out these companies are young or private companies. 31 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 TT plan 6.12% 18.37% No plan Plan for next year 38.78% Plan for 3-5 years 36.73% Fig. 15: Others Technical transfer plan chart Fig 15 show that nearly 80% of the business have short or long-term plan for TT. This means Vietnamese manufacturing companies are recognizing that Technology is important to gain competitive. N Maximum 6 Mean 5.18 Std. Deviation .755 Improved product 49 Minimum 3 Branding 49 2 6 5.02 1.164 Market 49 2 6 5.00 .957 New high-tech product 49 2 6 4.90 1.085 Manufacturing cost 49 2 6 4.84 1.067 Product trend 49 3 6 4.84 .943 VAT product 49 2 6 4.82 1.014 Energy & environment 49 2 6 4.53 1.043 Employees' TT absorption capability 49 2 6 4.33 1.068 Co-brand, Franchise, OEM, M&A 49 1 6 3.59 1.206 Owner’s interest 49 1 6 3.59 1.485 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 14: Investment reasons descriptive statistic 32 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Owner's interest Co-brand, Franchise, OEM, M&A Employees' TT absorbtion capability Energy & environment VAT product Product trend Manufacturing cost New high-tech product Market Branding Improved product 3.59 3.59 4.33 4.53 4.82 4.84 4.84 4.90 5.00 5.02 5.18 1.00 Fig. 16: 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 Investment objective – sort by mean Owner's interest Co-brand, Franchise, OEM, M&A Employees' TT absorbtion capability Very unimportant Energy & environment Unimportant VAT product Seem to be unimportant Product trend Likely important Manufacturing cost New high-tech product Important Market Very important Branding Improved product 0% Fig. 17: 50% 100% Questionnaire response on investment objective Investment objective descriptive statistic shows that most of Vietnamese companies invest into TT and R&D because of three reasons: Improving their product, Improving their brand image and Market competitiveness. This statistic also points out that Positioning strategy (to become Co-brand, Franchise …) and Owner’s interest are weak reasons for businesses to invest their money. This is explained as when companies become competitive and well-organized, they are not either less affected by CEO’s interest nor want to share their profit with others. 33 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 3. Reliability test To test the reliability of the data, Cronbach's α (alpha) is used. Cronbach’s alpha is commonly used as a measure of the internal consistency or reliability of a test score for a sample of examinees. Gliem & Gliem (2003) insists that it is imperative to calculate and report Cronbach’s alpha when using a Likert-type scale. Reliability Statistics Cronbach Cronbach's Alpha Based N of 's Alpha on Standardized Items Items Effectiveness of Technology Improvement .898 .902 9 Ability to Recognize .814 .818 3 Ability to Acquire .905 .905 6 Ability to Assimilate .858 .858 6 Ability to Apply and Adapt .867 .868 6 Ability to Innovate .840 .847 4 Facility Capabilities .847 .856 5 R&D Capabilities .916 .916 9 Internal environment .930 .931 9 External environment .864 .866 7 Table. 15: Reliability statistic of measurement factors Above table shows the reliability statistics of all measurement factors in this research (for details, please refer to Appendix E). This table shows that the minimum value of Cronbach’s alpha is 0.818 (of Ability to Recognize), and highest value is 0.93 (of Internal environment). These Cronbach alpha values are very high, especially for the new model, which makes this research worth for further study. This result means that all the factors were built in good method. All the factors’ measurement are likely to measure different dimension in a factor, so all the items should be kept in this research. 4. TT Capabilitity description All the four abilities of TTC (Ability to Recognize, Ability to Acquire, Ability to Assimilate, Ability to Apply and Adapt) have very high mean value (smallest is 4.53 in Technology need and Integration ability measurements), which still more than 1 point higher than the neutral value (3.5). According to the respondents, the range of the response was not good enough. No measurements get full range cover (from 1 to 6). This means all observed companies evaluate themselves very good in TTC. 34 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 4.1. Ability to Recognize N Maximum 6 Mean 5.12 Std. Deviation .881 Advance knowledge 49 Minimum 3 Basic knowledge 49 4 6 5.08 .731 Recognizing market need 49 3 6 4.63 .834 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 16: Ability to Recognize descriptive statistic Strongly Disagree Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree Totally agree Recognizing market need Basic knowledge Advance knowledge 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Fig. 18: Questionnaire response on Ability to Recognize Recognizing market need 4.63 Basic knowledge 5.08 Advance knowledge 5.12 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 19: Ability to Recognize – sort by mean With the response score, it is able to conclude that “Ability to recognize market need” of Vietnamese enterprises should be improved. This is not the skill that is trained from the training, but it requires the information feedback from the market. Vietnamese enterprises have not paid enough attention to do market research, which is why this score is not as good as others 35 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 4.2. Ability to Acquire Negotiation and contract N 49 Minimum 2 Maximum 6 Mean 4.82 Std. Deviation 1.014 Supplier evaluation 49 2 6 4.78 .872 Technology evaluation 49 2 6 4.78 .919 Supplier 49 2 6 4.63 1.035 Technology transfer management 49 2 6 4.59 .934 Technology need 49 2 6 4.53 .892 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 17: Ability to Acquire descriptive statistic Strongly disagree Technology need Technology transfer… Supplier Technology evaluation Supplier evaluation Negotiation and contract 0% Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Totally agree Table. 18: Questionnaire response on Ability to Acquire Technology need Technology transfer management Supplier Technology evaluation Supplier evaluation Negotiation and contract 4.53 4.59 4.63 4.78 4.78 4.82 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 20: Ability to Acquire – sort by mean All measurements in “Ability to Acquire” score pretty high. In these, the ability to define technology need and TT management score lowest. This is easy to understand, because Vietnamese enterprises have to face a pool of new Technology while their bases (in finance and Technology) still relative low. They are struggling to define which technology to develop first. In addition, Vietnamese is not confident in management skill when facing new problem. These explained the low score in “Technology need” and “Technology Transfer management” 36 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 4.3. Ability to Assimilate Accepting and learning new technology N 49 Minimum 3 Maximum 6 Mean 5.12 Std. Deviation .949 Learning ability 49 3 6 4.90 .872 Finding out problem, unfit 49 2 6 4.86 1.061 Planning ability 49 2 6 4.78 .985 Installation 49 2 6 4.67 .987 Information Sharing 49 2 6 4.55 1.022 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 19: Ability to Assimilate descriptive statistic Strongly disagree Information Sharing Installation Planning ability Finding out problem, unfit Learning ability Accepting and learning new… 0% Fig. 21: Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Totally agree Questionnaire response on Ability to Assimilate Information Sharing Installation Planning ability Finding out problem, unfit Learning ability Accepting and learning new technology 4.55 4.67 4.78 4.86 4.90 5.12 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 22: Ability to Assimilate – sort by mean All measurements in Ability to Assimilate score high. The lowest score is “Information sharing” (4.55) and the highest score is “Accepting and learning new technology” (5.12). Vietnamese people, especially HCM people, are eager to learn new knolwedge. This city is one of the most adapting region, where new technology product are tested, that’s why the willing to learn of employees are high. However, knowledge sharing is always the problem for Vietnamese, that’s why information sharing score lowest for ability to assimilate. 37 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 4.4. Ability to Apply and Adapt N Maximum 6 Mean 5.29 Std. Deviation .736 Ability to fix small problem 49 Minimum 4 Maintenance ability 49 2 6 4.96 .815 Evaluating ability 49 3 6 4.86 .890 Operating ability 49 3 6 4.67 .851 Training ability 49 2 6 4.63 .951 Integration ability 49 2 6 4.53 1.002 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 20: Ability to Apply and Adapt descriptive statistic Strongly disagree Integration ability Training ability Operating ability Evaluating ability Mantainance ability Ability to fix small problem Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree 0% Fig. 23: 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Totally agree Questionnaire response on Ability to Apply and Adapt Integration ability Training ability Operating ability Evaluating ability Mantainance ability Ability to fix small problem 4.53 4.63 4.67 4.86 4.96 5.29 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 24: Ability to Apply and Adapt – sort by mean All measurements in Ability to Apply and Adapt score high. The lowest score is “Integration ability” (4.53) and the highest score is “Ability to fix small problem” (5.29). Vietnamese engineers mostly have problem when study new thing and adapt them to the existence knowledge or system. However, fixing problem is based on knowledge of one machine only, and it is easy for Vietnamese employees to complete that. 38 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 5. R&D Capabilities description 5.1. Ability to Innovate Ability to apply transferred technology N 49 Minimum 3 Maximum 6 Mean 4.51 Std. Deviation .916 Ability to generate new product 49 3 6 4.51 1.063 Ability to generate new tech 49 1 6 3.96 1.290 Ability to create new equipment 49 1 6 3.67 1.313 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 21: Ability to Innovate descriptive statistic Ability to create new… Strongly disagree Ability to generate new tech Disagree Tend to disagree Ability to generate new… Likely to agree Ability to apply transferred … Agree 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Fig. 25: Questionnaire response on Ability to Innovate Ability to create new equipment 3.67 Ability to generate new tech 3.96 Ability to generate new product 4.51 Ability to apply transferred technology 4.51 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 26: Ability to Innovate – sort by mean For factor Ability to Innovate, as expected, its appearance is divided into two groups. The more advance ones (Ability to generate new tech, Ability to Create new Equipment) have lower score than the easy ones (3.96 & 3.67 score compare to 4.51 for both others. When enterprises do TT, their main target is use that Technology to achieve their target. From the application of these technologies, it is easy for them to create new products (like changing input material, add/change flavour to adapt with Vietnamese appetite). But to generate a new technology or new equipment, the engineers need to understand the development of technology to move forward. They may need passion, training, skill, time or motivation to create something new. In Vietnam, because we 39 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 still behind others in Technology, and Vietnamese engineers spend their time to catch up with others in technology, and can not spend much time to create new technology. However, these still score more than the neutral value. This is a good sign, because with the right investment and strategy, these score may be improved in the future. 5.2. Facility capabilities N Maximum 6 Mean 4.47 Std. Deviation 1.174 R&D investment 49 Minimum 2 Training schedule 49 1 6 4.37 1.131 Satisfaction of R&D equipment 49 1 6 4.20 1.224 Modernity of R&D equipment 49 1 6 4.16 1.106 Effective usage of R&D fund 49 1 6 3.88 1.452 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 22: Facility Capabilities descriptive statistic Effective usage of R&D… Strongly disagree Modernity of R&D… Disagree Satisfaction of R&D… Tend to disagree Training schedule Likely to agree R&D investment Agree 0% Fig. 27: 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Questionnaire response on Facility Capabilities Effective usage of R&D fund 3.88 Modernity of R&D equipment 4.16 Satisfaction of R&D equipment 4.20 Training schedule 4.37 R&D investment 4.47 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 28: Facility Capabilites sort by mean From the chart, “R&D investment” has the highest score (4.47), while the “Effective usage of R&D fund” has lowest score (3.88). 40 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Recently, government has promoted many program to encourage enterprises invest in R&D. There are tax redemption or reduced tax rate incentive for companies deriving income from performing R&D. Newly established companies in high technology are entitled to a 10% reduced tax for 15 years (Ernst & Young’s report). These policies and more others explained why “R&D investment” scores high. However, R&D fund seem not to have a good management. In many Vietnamese companies, R&D activities are proposed from bottom, get approved and processed. It is not the result of the R&D department when they have power to manage a part of income as their operational capital. In some companies, when there is R&D fund, it is not controled by people belonging to R&D only. This will make the usage of these fund ineffective. 5.3. HR Capabilities R&D employee's collaboration skill N 49 Minimum 1 Maximum 6 Mean 4.73 Std. Deviation 1.056 Policy on R&D, investment, information 49 1 6 4.63 1.055 R&D employee's problem solving skill 49 1 6 4.61 .996 R&D employee's discipline 49 2 6 4.61 .931 R&D employee's planning skill 49 1 6 4.45 1.156 R&D employee's demand analysis skill 49 1 6 4.35 1.200 R&D employee's product 49 2 6 4.29 1.041 R&D employee's implementation skill 49 1 6 4.18 1.054 R&D employee's research skill 49 1 6 3.76 1.199 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 23: HR Capabilities descriptive statistic R&D employee's research skill R&D employee's… R&D employee's product R&D employee's demand… R&D employee's planning skill R&D employee's discipline R&D employee's problem… Policy on R&D, investment, … R&D employee's… Strongly disagree Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree Totally agree 0% Fig. 29: 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Questionnaire response on HR Capabilities 41 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 R&D employee's research skill R&D employee's implementation skill R&D employee's product R&D employee's demand analysis skill R&D employee's planning skill R&D employee's discipline R&D employee's problem solving skill Policy on R&D, investment, information R&D employee's collaboration skill 3.76 4.18 4.29 4.35 4.45 4.61 4.61 4.63 4.73 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 HR Capabilities – sort by mean Fig. 30: For the HR capabilities factors, all the factors except “R&D employees’s research skill” score between 4 and 5. “R&D employee’s research skill score only 3.76. This means that Vietnamese’s R&D employees are very skillful, except the research skill. The “R&D employees research skill” is the result of the training program, policy, recruitment and treatment. For Vietnamese enterprises, the investment reason also pointed out that they do not target R&D employees skill as priority. In addition, the recruitment, training, policy do not support R&D skill of employees. Theses explained why this measurement’s score is low. 6. Performance description Frequency of collected data is presented in Table 24, and Fig 31, 32 N Maximum 6 Mean 4.71 Std. Deviation 1.061 Product's quality 49 Minimum 1 Product's diversification 49 2 6 4.43 1.021 Plant's efficiency 49 2 6 4.41 .934 Sustainable product 49 2 6 4.35 .855 Time to market 49 2 6 4.31 .871 Outcome vs plan 49 2 6 4.29 .913 Revenue 49 2 6 4.22 1.026 Patent 49 1 6 4.04 1.117 Export revenue 49 1 6 3.84 1.297 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 24: Performance of Technology Improvement descriptive statistic 42 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Export revenue Patent Revenue Outcome vs plan Time to market Sustainable product Plant's efficiency Product's diversification Product's quality Strongly disagree Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree Totally agree 0% 20% 40% 60% 80%100% Fig. 31: Questionnaire response on Performance of Technology Improvement Export revenue Patent Revenue Outcome vs plan Time to market Sustainable product Plant's efficiency Product's diversification Product's quality 3.84 4.04 4.22 4.29 4.31 4.35 4.41 4.43 4.71 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 32: TT and R&D Investment Performance sort by mean The TT and R&D Investment Performance scores spread in wide range (from minimum of 1 or 2 to maximum of 6). On average, all the performances were evaluated achieved above the middle point (3.5). Through these score, product’s quality, product diversification and plant efficiency are likely the main achievement of Vietnamese enterprise (score 4.71, 4.43 and 4.41 respectively). This is explained as Vietnamese FPI expect their product quality improvement when implementing TT. The objective of investment is short term, which lead to short term result. The diversificaion and efficiency normally come in package, when enterprises apply these new technology, changing input or reduce their waste in the process. Referring to the purpose of Investment on Table, product quality and market competitiveness are two most reasons that enterprises apply Technology Improvement. In the response, it is easy to recognize that export revenue is achieved least among the performance. It is easy to understand this, because most of the sampled enterprise focus domestic market as main market. The technology improvement is aimed to 43 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 increase their competitiveness on homeground before going abroad. So export revenue is currently just an additional effect of technology improvement. 7. Innovation environment description 7.1. Internal environment N Maximum 6 Mean 5.00 Std. Deviation 1.080 Company's QA system 49 Minimum 1 Company's goal & strategy 49 1 6 4.73 1.132 Company's commitment 49 2 6 4.65 .969 Company's empower system 49 1 6 4.57 1.021 Company's working condition 49 3 6 4.45 .959 Company's policy 49 1 6 4.41 .998 Company's training system 49 1 6 4.22 1.026 Company's culture 49 1 6 4.20 1.207 Company's recruitment/treatment 49 1 6 4.14 1.099 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 25: Internal Environment descriptive statistic Company's… Company's culture Company's training system Company's policy Company's working condition Company's empower system Company's commitment Company's goal & strategy Company's Q&A system Strongly disagree Disagree Tend to disagree Likely to agree Agree Totally agree 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Table. 26: Questionnaire response on Internal Environment Company's recruitment/treatment Company's culture Company's training system Company's policy Company's working condition Company's empower system Company's commitment Company's goal & strategy Company's QA system 4.14 4.20 4.22 4.41 4.45 4.57 4.65 4.73 5.00 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 33: Internal Environment – sort by mean 44 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 In the IE, the highest score goes to measurement “Company’s QA system. It is easy to understand that most companies agree that they have good QA system because this is one of the “must” condition for food industry enterprises to operate. In contrast, the “Company’s recruitment and treatment” of Vietnamese companies is getting worst score. This is explained as Vietnamese enterprises haven’t got the effective system in salary, promotion, talent engineers. In many companies, the brain drain phenomena is still a big problem that Vietnamese enterprises have to face. Many good engineers are leaving for foreign company, because their incomes haven’t been improved, and they are not recognized by the company. For the fresh undergraduates, they are not attracted by company system if they choose their path as a researcher. In addition, “Company’s culture” and “Company’s training system” score close to the “Company’s recruitment/treatment” strategy. This add more reasons to explain why human resourse development is not good and why Research skill of R&D employees (from Technology Capability) is not high. These give HR department an idea to learn how to integrate good human resourch plan, especially for R&D employees. 7.2. External environment N Maximum 6 Mean 4.10 Std. Deviation 1.195 Safety, hygiene regulation 49 Minimum 1 IP policy 49 1 6 3.84 1.231 Government Tax policy 49 1 6 3.69 1.310 Government investment 49 1 6 3.61 1.288 Market environment 49 1 6 3.61 1.272 Information support system/capability 49 1 6 3.45 1.100 Human resource market 49 1 6 3.39 1.187 Valid N (listwise) 49 Table. 27: External Environment descriptive statistic 45 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Human resource market Information support… Strongly disagree Market environment Disagree Government investment Tend to disagree Government Tax policy Likely to agree IP policy Agree Totally agree Safety, hygeine procedure 0% Fig. 34: 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Questionnaire response on External Environment Human resource market Information support system/capability 3.39 3.45 Market environment Government investment Government Tax policy 3.61 3.61 3.69 IP policy Safety, hygiene regulation 3.84 4.10 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 5.50 6.00 Fig. 35: External Environment – sort by mean External environment, in contrast score very low. The highest score is in “Safety, hygiene regulation” (4.10) while the lowest scores are for “Information support system” and “Human resource market”. It is understandable “hygiene, safety regulation” measurement to score the highest value for external environment. It is necessary for FPI to have the related licence to operate and get product accpeted. However, this score is not very high compare to the expectation. This expose the fact that the national regulation still have a lot of unclear points. Governement, association and authorities need better procedure, instruction to help enterprises to achieve it. “Information support system” and “Human market resource” score below neutral value (3.5). This happens, because Vietnam hasn’t built the system to provide the information to enterprises, especially information related to Technology. Even government tries to help through Technology fair, Industry fair but the help have not been enough from enterprises point of view. Through the in-depth interview, enterprises expect government support more information, in systematic way. They 46 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 hope government can connect enterprises, so they know who already has a technology, or which companies want the same technology with them, so that they can cooperate to gain the technology with less finance. In addition, “Labor market” for this field is not sufficient for enterprises. The curriculum of University/Institute does not help students to start research on their own after graduated. Moreover, technology, knowledge from university are rather old, or not practical to apply in modern environment. Enterprises wish that government pay more attention in education, to provide them better R&D human resource. 8. Cluster and Scatter chart 8.1. Method to define weight: From definition: - TTC includes four (04) factors: Ability to Recognize, Ability to Acquire, Ability to Assimilate, Ability to Apply and Adapt - RDC include three (03) factors: Ability to Innovate, Facility investment, Human Resource capability. - The Performance of Technology Improvement include nine (09) measurements as in questionnaire Three (03) experts (Mr. Lam, Mr. Thuy, Mr. Man) were sent questionnaire, asked them to evaluate the weight contribution of each factor (measurement) on TTC, RDC and Performance of Technology improvement. The total contribution of all factors/measurements is 100%. After receiving all three feedbacks, the average on each factor/measurement is compute to define the contributing weight of each. From the feedback of expertise, contributing weight of TTC, RDC and Performance of Technology Improvement are as Appendix F. By using these weights, new scale variables TTC, RDC and TT and R&D Investment Performance can be generated as below equations: TTC RDC = 0.35 * A2RE + 0.2333 * A2AC + 0.1833 * A2AS + 0.2333 * A2AA = 0.2333 * A2IN + 0.2667 * RDCAP + 0.5000 * HRCAP PER = 0.0906 * PER04 + 0.0572 * PER05 + 0.1000 * PER06 + 0.0572 * PER01 + 0.1572 * PER02 + 0.1667 * PER03 + 0.0739 * PER07 + 0.1739 * PER08 + 0.1233 * PER09 47 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Means of all measurements Ability to Recognize, Ability to Acquire, Ability to Assimilate, Ability to Apply and Adapt, Ability to Innovate, Facility Capability and and HR Capability are used as the intermediate variables. By using these means and equation, new variables are created for TTC, RDC and Performance. The set of points are generated as Appendix G 8.2. Trend analysis By using these data, scatter charts for TTC vs RDC, TTC vs Performance, RDC vs Performance are generated as Fig 36 to Fig 38 TT Capability vs. RD Capability 6 5.5 5 R&D Capability 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 TT Capability Fig. 36: TTC vs RDC 48 4.5 5 5.5 6 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 From this chart, it is posible there is correlation between TTC and RDC. If enterprise has high TTC, it is likely to have high RDC. TT Capability vs. Performance 6 5.5 5 4.5 Performance 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 TT Capability Fig. 37: TTC vs Performance 49 5 5.5 6 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 R&D Capability vs. Performance 6 5.5 5 4.5 Performance 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 R&D Capability Fig. 38: RDC vs Performance From these chart, it is able to say that TTC and RDC have positive impact on TTE. From these chart, it is also to conclude that RDC have larger impact on TTE than TTC. Using correlation function of SPSS for these 3 factors below result is achieved: D PER Pearson Correlation PER 1 Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation TTC TTC Sig. (2-tailed) N RDC .452 ** .586 ** .001 .000 49 49 49 ** 1 .452 .001 49 50 .767 ** .000 49 49 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Pearson Correlation RDC Sig. (2-tailed) N .586 ** .767 ** .000 .000 49 49 1 49 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 8.3. Cluster analysis By using cluster analysis function of SPSS, Fig 39 to Fig 41 show the scatter chart and clusters for TTC vs RDC; TTC vs Performance; RDC vs Performance: Fig. 39: TTC vs RDC Cluster chart Fig 39 show the 3 clusters, which demonstrate the overview of Vietnamese enterprise. They can be defined as 3 groups: average RDC with average TTC group; high TTC and high RDC group; very high TTC with very high RDC group. These clusters mean that TTC and RDC have positive relationship. The higher TTC, the higher RDC that enterprise has. From this chart, enterprise can learn which strategy is suitable for each level of TTC and RDC to apply to their context. 51 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Fig. 40: TTC vs Performance Cluster chart Fig 40 shows the 3 groups of TTC and Performance: average TTC (3 -> 4) and average performance group; High TTC with fluctuated performance group; and very high TTC with high performance group; 52 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Fig. 41: RDC vs Performance Cluster chart Fig 41 shows the 3 groups of RDC and Performance: medium low performance group; high performance with average RDC group; and very high performance with high RDC. 8.4. Radar charts A2RE 5.5 5 4.5 4 Government 3.5 A2AA 3 A2AC Join stock Private Ltd A2AS Fig. 42: x TTC vs. business ownership 53 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 A2RE 6 5.5 5 4.5 4 [...]... the world that measure the Technology Transfer Effectiveness (TTE) and each of them focuses different factors There are also journals and a few of research about TT and R&D in Vietnam However, none of them study about the acquiring Technology Transfer Capability (TTC) of small and medium enterprise and R&D performance in Vietnam food industry That means there is no research about how transferee’s technology. .. However, Technology Capability and RDC have the relationship and overlapped Also from this study, the assessment of TTC and RDC, food enterprises are willingness to adopt new technology These enterprises agreed TT is the quickest way to expand their business 6 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 However, previous research has not found out how TTC, RDC effect on Business performance It has not analyzed the Environment... of Technology Improvement This research also shows the method to assess Technology Transfer Capability, R&D Capability and Innovation Environment of Vietnamese Food Processing Enterprises in HCM City From these results, Vietnamese enterprises have a lot of missions to improve their Technology level xiii Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction 1.1 Current situation of. .. are: - Develop measurements for TTC, RDC, and Innovation Environment (IE) factors, Effectiveness of Technology Improvement (TTE) - Use these measurements to evaluate TTC, RDC and TTE of Food companies in HCM, and Vietnamese IE - Explore the relationship between TTC; RDC and TTE - Suggest the solutions for Vietnamese food Enterprise so they can improve the TTE 4 Scope and limitation This research is conducted... more receptive to technology;  Appropriate training and education of the staff (including visits and on the- job training);  Performance-based and quality-linked re-vamp of the structure of the organization 7 Effectiveness of Technology Improvement  There are many methods to measure or evaluate the result of R&D In many studies, they’ve grouped these method based on the purposes of R&D performance... suggestion for academic and enterprises 8 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Introduction It is important to understand the crucial role of Technology, TT and R&D in businesses The investment into TT and R&D will result as the performance of business This review is based on relevant published researches on Technology, Technology Capability and RDC; IE; and the method to evaluate... defined by many scholars and researchers In 2000, Tarek Khalil defined TT as a process which permits the flow of technology from a source to a receiver It means that the source is the owner or holder of the knowledge, while the recipient is the beneficiary of such knowledge TT also mean the transfer of technology know how and expertise 10 Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 Transferring technology is important... new year occasion) and the respondent’s requirement The list of Vietnamese food enterprises in HCM city only consists of around 200, and many of them were shut down due to the economic crisis That makes the effective list is only around 160 Besides, many enterprises consider technology as sensitive topic, and they refused to take part in the survey These make sample size small, and many statistic techniques... level, types of R&D as measurement subject, perspective of measurement, and the phase of R&D ( Ville Ojanen and Olli Vuola, 2003)  The fact that R&D investments often compete with other investments in the company has changed the thinking R&D as the “black box”, isolated function before that They have to prove that R&D brings the productivity and profit to the company  There are numbers of measures... the biggest proportion in gross output of industry, for example, the proportion of food industry in 2010 is 14.17% (Tran Sinh, 2011) Moreover, the development of this industry helps to develop agriculture Therefore, FPI is the priority industry in the growth of Vietnam economy According to the Organization of Business Monitor International (BMI), total food consumption in the Vietnamese market in the ...Research_Thesis _HoangVu_03042 ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CAPABILITY AND R&D CAPABILITY THE CASE STUDY OF VIETNAMESE FOOD AND ENTERPRISES Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and. .. relationship and overlapped Also from this study, the assessment of TTC and RDC, food enterprises are willingness to adopt new technology These enterprises agreed TT is the quickest way to expand their... none of them study about the acquiring Technology Transfer Capability (TTC) of small and medium enterprise and R&D performance in Vietnam food industry That means there is no research about how transferee’s