Elements affecting manufacturing efficiency of small and medium sized enterprises in Vietnam

Abstract

This study is conducted to identify the score which can be used as a proxy to rep-resent a level of technical efficiency and the determinants to this score for the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Employing the updated survey of SMEs in March 2014, Data Envelopment Analysis in the first stage and Tobit regression in the second stage, the results are presented as follows: (1) the technical efficiency scores are from 52% to 80%, depending on the industries (in the assumption of variable returns to scales); (2) firm’s size and firm’s age have strong relationship with firm’s technical ef-ficiency: while firm’s size has positive relationship with the level of technical efficiency, firm’s age impacts negatively on this level of a firm; and (3) using financial leverage can help to enhance the level of technical efficiency for firms operating in the food and beverages industry and fabricated metal industry.

Keywords

• doanh nghiệp vừa và nhỏ
• hiệu quả kỹ thuật
• quy mô
• thời gian hoạt động
• cơ cấu vốn