Determinants of technology adaptation in the supply chains: the case of smes in the industrial zone in vietnam

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the different impacts that some factors may exert on the probability that an industrial zone-located firm adapts. Recently, industry policy in developing countries tends to spur both SMEs and the industrial zone in terms of adaptation, considering them as the main driver of innovation and growth. However, not all industrial zone-located firms adapt. Departing from an extensive sample of the Vietnam Technology and Competitiveness Survey in combination with the Vietnam Enterprise Survey in 2011-2013, we try to determine those factors that cause firms to become industrial zone-located adaptation SMEs (IA-SMEs, firms fewer than 250 employees, being located in the industrial zone and adapting existing technologies). The analysis results highlight the importance of direct linkages, technology transfer between FDI firms and industrial zone-located adaptation SMEs, economic obstacles, and the interactions between them that cause industrial zone-located adaptation SMEs to adapt in the supply chain (obtained through direct transfer of technology between linked firms).