Firm characteristics, perceived obstacles of instutional environment and export performance: evidence from Vietnamese firms

Although prior studies have investigated the effects of both internal and institutional factors on export performance of Vietnamese firms, we argue that Vietnamese institutional envionment has changed rapidly under the impact of economic integration and we need more research to understand export behavior of Vietnamese firms. In this paper, we examine how their internal factors and perceived obstacles of external factors affect their export intensity and propensity with an updated micro dataset collected form Enterprise Surveys of World Bank conducted in 2009 and 2015. The research findings show that internal factors including firm size and foreign ownership have positive effects on both export propensity and export intensity. Competition from the informal sector and perceived obstacles of customs and trade regulation have negative and positive impacts on export performance respectively. These findings confirm the role of firm size, foreign ownership, competition in firm export performance in a transition country pursuing export-led growth strategy.