chiến lược tiếp thị của tỉnh bắc giang, việt nam bản tóm tắt tiếng anh

ThAi nguyen University Southern luzon STATE University
Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of Philippines





DISSERTATION ABSTRACT
STRATEGIC MARKET PLAN OF BAC GIANG, VIETNAM



Advisor : Dr. Edwin Bernal
Name of Researcher: MAI SON
English Name: JACKSON
Date of Birth: 29-11-1974
Course : SLSU-DBA1





Bac Giang August, 2013



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PREFACE
In the recent decades, strategic market plan had been used as a strategy for
enhancing competitiveness that led to achieving growth in the economies of some
successful places worldwide. This approach can be consider as an essential tool for
the growth of urban economies in the global context. The model of place planning
based on principles of marketing named Strategic Market Plan (SMP) that consists of
the process of developing strategies so that a place can reach its growth objectives
through identifying and meeting its target market demand. Place marketing is said to
be both a consequence of, as well as a necessity for, increased competitive capacity
among places for the development of resources.
With these points of view, the dissertation proposes a system of criteria to
describe the perceptions of the investors on factors affecting the competitive capacity
of Bac Giang Province as basis for introducing place marketing innovations as inputs
to the Strategic Market Plan (SMP) model for the province.

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study
In the recent decades, strategic market planning had been used as a strategy
for enhancing competitiveness that led to achieving growth in the economies of some
successful cities worldwide. Some scholars have judged this approach as an essential
tool for the of urban economies in the global context (Ashworth 1994; Ashworth &
Voogd 1990; Gold 1994; Jessop 1998; Kotler et al. 1999; Kotler, Haider & Rein
1993; Kotler et al. 2002; Levine 1998; Luo & Zhao 2003; Wells & Alvin 2000).
They have been generalizing and conceptualizing this phenomenon in an effort to
build a model of place planning based on principles of marketing. Kotler (ibid.)
named this approach Strategic Market Planning (SMP) which consists of the process
of developing strategies so that a place can reach its growth objectives through
identifying and meeting its target market demand. A place’s target market might be
businesses, visitors, residents, investors, donors and international financing
institutions.
The competition is among developing places and/or among post-industrial
cities which has resulted in more aggressive and complex forms of competition. As a
consequence of the increasingly wide-ranging and aggressive competition, a place
marketing strategy for retaining and attracting investment has become essential.
Bac Giang province, in particular, is a competitor in attracting investment.
Located at the Nanning (China)-Lang Son- Hanoi-Hai Phong economic corridor and
adjacent to the northern key economic region covering Hanoi, Hai Phong and Quang
Ninh, Bac Giang is included in the Hanoi regional construction planning towards

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2030, with a vision to 2050. The province boasts a rich source of young labors. It is
promoted as a destination for development of high technologies and supporting
industries. It has set out a plan for six industrial parks (IPs) with a total area of about
1,400 hectares. In agriculture, the province has rich land resources and is one of the
main suppliers of vegetables for Hanoi and the neighbouring provinces. Transport
network is a great advantage of Bac Giang as it is connected to ports, airports, borders
and is also a connection point between northern provinces and other countries in the
region. Bac Giang has planned to become a commodity logistics centre of the
northern region. Remarkably, Bac Giang possesses abundant tangible and intangible
cultural resources. Highlights include the Quan ho folk, recognized by UNESCO as
an intangible cultural heritage of humanity and the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda woodblocks,
recognized as the world's documentary heritage for the Asia-Pacific region.
There are four existing issues that hinder the socio-economic development of
Bac Giang, namely land compensation, quality human resources, administrative
procedures and infrastructure. In particular, infrastructure is a prerequisite for
economic development. However, more than 50 percent of the province’s roads are in
bad and very bad condition. The province has only few transportation routes for
container trucks. Given the current budget constraints, the province has been actively
taking advantage of all sources of capital. Its immediate action is to mobilize
investment government bonds, from the state budget and especially official
development assistance (ODA) funds. Since 2002, donors and international financial
institutions have shown increasing interest in Bac Giang province. Donors include
international financial institutions such as the World Bank (WB), the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),


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the European Union (EU), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the
Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
In recent years, Bac Giang has mobilized, received and implemented a total of
22 ODA projects with a total capital commitment of nearly VND3 trillion ($148.3
million). Up to now, total disbursement of projects across the province reached
VND1,481 trillion ($74.061 million), of which $60.323 million came from ODA and
the rest has been contributed by the government (GSO, 2012).
Although, the Provincial government has already achieved significant
milestones in its development efforts, it must inevitably continue to work towards
achieving the level of development that it aspires for its people and the province. It
must continue to attract and encourage investments to support its efforts towards
gaining steady progress in transitioning beyond being a developing economy. It is in
this context that the need for devising a Strategic Market Planning model, particularly
for the Bac Giang Province in Vietnam, that this research project was conducted.
Statement of the Problem
This study aimed to describe the perceptions of the investors on factors
affecting the Provincial Competitive Index (PCI) of Bac Giang province as basis for
introducing place marketing innovations as inputs to the Strategic Market Planning
(SMP) model for the province. Specifically, this study tried to find answers to the
following research questions:
1. What is the profile of the investors-respondents of working years, type of
business, line of business, capital size, and numbers of employees?
2. What is the investor-respondents’ perception on Bac Giang Province’s
competitiveness measured in terms of entry costs, land access and tenure,


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transparency, informal charges, time cost, proactive, business support services, labor
training and legal institutions?
3. Is there any significant relationship between the selected investor-

respondents’ characteristics and their perception on Bac Giang Province’s
competitiveness?
Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study was to describe the perceptions of the
investors on factors affecting the Provincial Competitive Index (PCI) of Bac Giang
province as basis for introducing place marketing innovations into the Strategic
Market Planning (SMP) model for the province. Specifically, this study aimed:
1. To describe the profile of the respondents in terms of:
a) Working years
b) Type of business
c) Line of business
d) Capital size
e) Numbers of employees
2. To analyze the competitiveness of Bac Giang Province based on the
perception of the investors measured in terms of:
a, Entry costs
b, Land access and Tenure
c, Transparent
d, Informal charges
e, Time cost
f, Proactive


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g, Business support services
h, Labor training
i, Legal institutions?
3. To measure any relationships between the selected respondents’ characteristics
and the respondents’ perception on Bac Giang Province’s competitiveness.
Significance of the study

The result of this study is envisioned to contribute knowledge to effective and
efficient management; hence, it will benefit the following:
For the investors, based on analysis of this paper, Bac Giang’s government
will build special action plans to improve competitiveness of their province. Hence,
investors will have more facilities when they invest to Bac Giang.
For Bac Giang’ government, this study will help them understand their
strong and weakness. In addition, Bac Giang’s government will understand what
investors are thinking about business environment of their province, especially in
term of entry costs, land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost,
proactive, business support services, labor training and legal institutions. Hence, the
government can build a Strategic Market Plan to improve business environment of the
province to attracting more investors.
Scope and limitation of the study
Based on the perception of investor-respondents, the study assessed the
competitiveness capacity of Bac Giang province in terms of the following major nine
variables: entry costs, land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost,


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proactive, business support services, labor training and legal institutions. The study
was confined to Bac Giang Province and involved respondents coming from 122 local
enterprises.
Base on these analyses, the paper will come up with some meaningful
recommendations on how the province will proceed at formulating strategies in order
to effectively attract investors to put their resources into the province.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This section presents the basic concepts, the content related to Strategic
Marketing Plan sorted by the variables studied.

Conceptual Framework
Research Framework describes briefly, how to define the problem, to which
the authors propose solutions to improve competitiveness capacity of Bac Giang
based on the selected variables.



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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

Research Design
This study basically used the descriptive method of research. It is the
appropriate method used for collecting, processing, and analyzing data on the factors
affecting the competitiveness of Bac Giang province, namely: entry costs, land access
and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost, proactive, business support
services, labor training and legal institutions. As well, this paper also used a
correlation method which involved using regression statistics to analyze the factors
which influences to competitiveness capacity of Bac Giang province.
Research locale
The study assessed the perception of investors about business environment of
Bac Giang province in term of entry costs, land access and tenure, transparent,
informal charges, time cost, proactive, business support services, labor training and
legal institutions.
Population and Sampling
According to MOLISA (2012), Bac Giang had 3306 companies. However, the
study conduct survey with sample size 122 only based on the Slovin’s formula due to
limited financial and human resources, as follows

Where:

n is size of the sample
N is total number of employee
e is standard error at α = 0.09


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The 122 investor-respondents were picked out based on random sampling technique.
Research Instrument
This research used the self-constructed questionnaire to gather the primary
data. The questionnaire was composed of three parts. The first part asked about the
respondents’ profile. The second part was on perception of investors. The third part
was assessment of factors which affecting to competitiveness of Bac Giang province.
Base on these result, we will build strategic market plans for Bac Giang.
The questions were in the form of five (5) point Likert scale where five (5)
was the highest and one (1), the lowest. Values were assigned as follows: for the
independent variables the adjectival ratings follows: 5- Excellent; 4- Good; 3- Fair; 2-
Poor; and 1- Very Poor. Meanwhile, for the dependent variables, the ratings were: 5-
Very competitive; 4- Moderate competitive; 3- Neutral; 2- Less competitive, and 1-
Uncompetitive.

Point Range
Investor’ evaluation
Descriptive Interpretation
4.20 – 5.00
Very competitive Excellent
3.40 – 4.19
Competitive Good
2.60 – 3.39
Neutral Fair
1.80 – 2.59

Less competitive Poor
1.00 – 1.79
Uncompetitive Very Poor






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Data Gathering Procedure
Some agencies were visited to gather information needed: National Statistics
Office, Ministry of Planning and Investment and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce
and Industry. Theories and concepts about competitiveness were gathered from
books and other research materials. Websites were also visited to gather additional
data regarding the subject matter.
The formulated questionnaires were initially sent to 10 investors. Next, they
modified and gave it to some faculty experts for the validation of its contents.
Thereafter, the researcher conducted a dry-run to test the reliability of the
questionnaire. The statistician used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
software program to check the reliability of the questionnaire. After the reliability
was proven, the researcher conducted the actual survey.
The researcher distributed the questionnaires to the 122 investors-respondents.
Then, the questionnaires were retrieved. The results were tallied, tabulate and treated
statistically. Finally, the results were interpreted and the findings and conclusions
were drawn.
Statistical treatment

The descriptive statistics, such as mean, standard deviation, rank, percent, and
frequency was used to describe the profile of the respondents in terms of working
years, type of business, line of business, capital size and numbers of employees.
It was further used to describe perception of respondent in term of entry costs,
land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost, proactive, business
support services, labor training and legal institutions.


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The correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between
independent variables and competitiveness capacity of Bac Giang province. The
research also used multivariate regression to determine the factors affecting
competitive capacity. The multivariate regression equation follows:

CC = B
0
+ B
1
*EC + B
2
*LAT + B
3
*TR + B
4
*IC + B
5
*TC + B
6
*PR + B
7

*BSS +
B
8
*LT + B
9
*LI + e
Where:
EC = Entry costs
LAT = Land access and tenure
TR = Transparent
IC = Informal Charges
TC = Time cost
PR = Proactive
BSS = Business support services
LT = Labor training
LI = Legal institutions
CC = Competitiveness capacity
e = Random error



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CHAPTER IV
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Profile of respondents
In type of business, there is 64% of respondents are Limited Liability
Company. Meanwhile, there is only an 8.0% of respondents are private companies
and 28% of respondents are joint-stock company. Structure by line of business:
training and service cover 59%, construction cover 17%, industry and production

cover 13% and agriculture-fishing-forestry are 9% and mining is only 2%. About
working years, there is less than 5 years-the highest percentage of respondents are
young companies. There is an 24% of respondents with working time 5-10 years.
Company with working year more than 10 years cover only 11%. The companies of
Bac Giang province mostly have 15% are small capital size and medium - 63% .
There are only 6% companies are big with capital size. The companies of Bac Giang
mostly are small (81%) with number of employee less than 50. Big companies with
number of employee are bigger than 300 cover only 2%. There are an 14% companies
of Bac Giang province are medium size.
Respondents’ perception on competitiveness of Bac Giang
Quantitative research was used to test the hypothesis for research methods,
with technical surveys collected opinions through the questionnaire with the sample
set size n = 122. Researcher used Cronbach's Alpha to test the reliability of the
questionnaire. Model and research hypotheses were tested through correlation
analysis and Multiple Linear Regression. The research results show:
After, researcher used Cronbach's Alpha to test the reliability of the
questionnaire and don't remove variables.


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Through regression analysis results, researcher concluded 9 factors: entry cost,
land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost, proactive, business
support service, labor training and legal institution had influenced to strategic market
plan for Bac Giang province.

Factors Production Construction Service
Agriculture
WM

Descriptive

Interpret.
WM

Descriptive
Interpret.
WM

Descriptive
Interpret.
WM

Descriptive
Interpret.
Entry costs
3.3
Fair 3.0 Fair 3.0 Fair 3.2 Fair
Land access
and tenure

3.7

Good 2.7 Fair 2.5 Poor 3.2 Fair
Transparent
3.2
Fair 2.7 Fair 2.6 Fair 3.5 Fair
Informal
charges

3.8

Good 3.3 Fair 3.7 Good 3.7 Good
Time cost
3.0

Fair 2.7 Fair 2.5 Poor 3.0 Fair
Proactive
3.7
Good 4.0 Good 3.5 Good 4.0 Good
Business
support
services
3.7 Good 4.0 Good 3.8 Good 4.0 Good
Labor training

2.7
Fair
3.0 Fair 3.2 Fair 3.2 Fair
Legal
institutions

3.7
Good
3.2 Fair 2.8 Fair 2.8 Fair
Average WM

3.4
Good
3.2
Fair
3.1

Fair
3.4
Good


Regression analysis was carried out with 9 independent variables as entry
costs, land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost, proactive,
business support services, one dependent variable is competitive capacity.






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Model
Coefficients
Sig.
Collinearity Statistics
B Std. Error Tolerance VIF
1
(Constant)

.322

1.306

.808

EC

.323

.305

.036

.616

1.623

LAT

.289

.219

.027

.656

1.524

TR

.199

.216

.037

.394

2.537

IC

.306

.310

.033

.703

1.
423

TC

.307

.282

.029

.298

3.357

PR

.425

.212

.032

.471

2.122

BSS

.245

.199

.023

.639

1.564

LT
.224 .187 .045 .412 2.015
LI
.312 .225 .012 .602 1.578

Looking at the result table of linear regression analysis after variables were
excluded, we saw Variance inflation factor (VIF) of each variable that were less than
10, so multicollinearity phenomenon does not affect the model interpretation results.
The rules are when VIF exceeded 10, it has signs of multicollinearity phenomenon.
Linear regression equation takes the following form:
CC
Bac Giang
= 0.425 * PR + 0.323*EC + 0.312 * LI + 0.307 * TC + 0.306 *
IC + 0.289 * LAT + 0.245 * BSS + 0.224 * LT + 0.199 * TR
The regression results show that the independent variables PR, EC, LI, TC,
IC, LAT, BSS, LT, TR have Sig smaller than 0.05 so the variables are significant at
95%. So at 95% confidence level, the independent variable affects the dependent
variable and the slope coefficients are respectively 0.425, 0.323, 0.312, 0.307, 0.306,
0.289, 0.245, 0.224, 0.199. The variables of PR, EC, LI, TC, IC, LAT, BSS, LT, TR
are positive so all variables affect the same direction of the competitiveness of Bac
Giang province variable is negative affecting reverse with competitiveness .
Meanwhile, the importance of proactivity (PR), entry cost (EC),legal
institutions (LI), time cost (TC), informal charges (IC), land access and tenure (LAT),


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business support service (BSS), labor training (LT), transparency (TR) for the
competitiveness capacity (CC) of Bac Giang province were determined based on beta
coefficient. The statistical test showed that the most important factor affecting to
competitiveness of Bac Giang Province was PR (Beta = 0.425). This was followed by
EC factor (Beta = 0.323), LI factor (Beta = 0.312), TC factor (Beta = 0.307), IC factor
(Beta = 0.306), LAT factor (Beta = 0.289), BSS factor (Beta = 0.245), LT factor (Beta
= 0.224) and finally TR factor (Beta = 0.199). Based on the regression results, all 9
factors affected the competitiveness of Bac Giang Province. In particular, PR factor

has the greatest impact and TR factor, the least effect, on the competitiveness of Bac
Giang Province.

Comparison of respondents’ perception according to related profile
Comparison between the respondent’s perceptions are explained details in
below tables:
Indicator

Working
Years
Type of
Business
Line of
Business
Capital Size

Number of
Employees
EC .000
Reject Null
.119
Accept Null

.337
Accept Null

.100
Accept Null

.522

Accept Null

LAT .021
Reject Null
.546
Accept Null

.056
Accept Null

.109
Accept Null

.150
Accept Null

TR .000
Reject Null
.065
Accept Null

.656
Accept Null

.436
Accept Null

.204
Accept Null

IC .008
Reject Null
.219
Accept Null

.231
Accept Null

.230
Accept Null

.578
Accept Null



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TC .003
Reject Null
.418
Accept Null

.532
Accept Null

.341
Accept Null

.184
Accept Null

PR .019
Reject Null
.446
Accept Null

.000
Reject Null
.614
Accept Null

.169
Accept Null

BSS .100
Accept Null

.702
Accept Null

.234
Accept Null

.751
Accept Null

.147
Accept Null

LT .032

Reject Null
.179
Accept Null

.292
Accept Null

.185
Accept Null

.081
Accept Null

LI .005
Reject Null
.198
Accept Null

.229
Accept Null

.910
Accept Null

.004
Reject Null
CC .000
Reject Null
.184
Accept Null

.372
Accept Null

.114
Accept Null

.196
Accept Null


The result of research show that: With working years factor, the sig
coefficients of variables are less than 0.05, this indicates that respondents with
different years of working had significant differences in the perception on entry costs,
land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost, proactive, labor
training, legal institutions and competitiveness capacity. Business support service
factor has Sig=0.1>0.05, shows that there were no significant differences between the
respondents’ perception on business support service.
About types of business, the sig coefficients of variables were greater than
0.05, this indicates that there were no significant differences between the respondents’
perception.
About line of business, proactive factor had Sig=.000<.05, showed that
respondents working in different lines had significant differences in perception on


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proactive. The remaining variables had the sig coefficients of variables are greater
than 0.05, this indicates that there were no significant differences in respondents'
perception.
About capital size, the sig coefficients of variables were greater than 0.05, this

indicates that there were no significant differences between the respondents’
perception.
About number of employees, the sig coefficients of variables were greater
than 0.05, there were no significant differences between the respondents’ perception
on entry costs, land access and tenure, transparent, informal charges, time cost,
proactive, business support service, labor training and competitiveness capacity with
number of employees. Legal institutions factor had Sig=.004 which showed that
respondents with different numbers of employees had significant differences in
perception on legal institution.


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CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of findings, conclusions and the
recommendations.
Conclusions
From the findings of the study, the following conclusions were obtained:
1. Bac Giang Province has a great potential for socio-economic development.
However, up to now, this place has not been an ideal destination for big investors
yet. Most of the enterprises doing business in Bac Giang are newly established,
small and medium scale in terms of number of employees and capital size.
Enterprises working in the field of training and service account for big amount.
2. Overall competitive capacity of Bac Giang is fair. Good points are
business support service, proactive and informal charges factors. Other factors
were evaluated at the fair in the 4 areas of production, construction, training and
service, agriculture. However, time cost is poor in the field of training and service.
Bac Giang provincial government needs to improve its strategic market plan by
focusing on the deficiencies related to entry cost, land access and tenure,

transparency, time cost, labor training and legal institutions.
3. Respondents' characteristics do not affect much on their perception on the
factors related to province's competitiveness.
Recommendations
From the findings and conclusions derived, the following programs were
hereby recommended:
(1) Private-Public Partnership Program
(2) Accelerated Business Processing and Registration Program


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(3) Strategic Belief Improvement Program
(4) Effective Administration Improvement Program
(5) Administrative Image Improvement Program
(6) Land Reform Policy Program
(7) Business Support Service Program
(8) Human Resource Development Program for Investors and Entrepreneurs
(9) Administrative Transparency Improvement Program
(10) Administrative Transparency Improvement Program