KAIZEN for Managerial Skills Improvement in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Impact Evaluation Study in a Knitwear Cluster in Vietnam

Policy implications

Business training for entrepreneurs has the potential to improve business practices, as well as increase the willingness for them to invest in their own learning. Providing training initially for could increase entrepreneurs' willingness to financially invest in improving their capacity.

Key information

Treatment description

KAIZEN training program, aimed at production management improvement, provided to entrepreneurs in June to August 2010. There were two types of training: on-site KAIZEN training, and classroom multifaceted training specialising in KAIZEN but also included entrepreneurship, business strategy and marketing.

Outcomes

Participation in training. Willingness-to-pay (WTP) for trainings. Firm's performance: Sales revenue, value-added, gross profit. Firm's business practices: Business recordkeeping practices, sales promotion activities, quality improvement practices, marketing strategies, KAIZEN practices.

Results

Participation: Male owners were 20% more likely to participate in the training given the random invitation. Being younger by one year increased the probability of participation by 1-2%. Willingness-to-pay (WTP) for training: Having participated in the training increased WTP for the trainings, and was economically significant. Firm's performance: Impact forthcoming pending future follow-ups. Firm's business practices: Training improved separation of the household and firm's expenses, sales promotion, owner's communication of quality defects to workers and recoding of customer complaints, marketing strategy, and adherence to KAIZEN practices.

Additional information

Hypotheses/research question

What institutions in the private sector in developing countries can arise to counteract market failures hindering industrial development? What policy should be prescribed to correct this market failure and how can it link with other effective measures toward cluster-based industrial development? Can training help entrepreneurs improve their management knowledge, even in a short training programme? Does the training pass a Cost-Benefit Analysis?

Study design

Clustered

Entrepreneurs in the industrial clusters of knitwear in Ha Noi, and rolled steal in Bac Ninh. Entrepreneurs were randomly selected into treatment or control.

Cost benefit ratio

Not yet available.

Rounds of data collection

2: Baseline + 1st post-training survey (additional data on business performance to follow)

Baseline data collection and method

Baseline survey conducted using personal interviews with the sample of entrepreneurs. Data collected information on business practice questions, willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, and production and cost questions.

Data collection method and data collected

Post-training survey conducted using personal interviews. Data collected was the same as baseline; information on business practice questions, willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, and production and cost questions.

Unit of analysis

entrepreneur; firm

Stratification

Reference

Sonobe, T., Suzuki, A., Otsuka, K. & Nam, V. 2012. 'KAIZEN for Managerial Skills Improvement in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Impact Evaluation Study in a knitwear cluster in Vietnam'. No 29, Working Papers, Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), Vietnam.

KAIZEN for Managerial Skills Improvement in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Impact Evaluation Study in a Knitwear Cluster in Vietnam

Key information

Additional information

Key facts

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