Summary of Doctoral thesis: Competitive strategy of Vietnamese food enterprises

INTRODUCTON
1. Rationale of the topic research
Current economy globalization has led to more intense competition among
enterprises in all business fields. Changes in business environment have forced
enterprises to have more analysis on competitive behavior according to strategies of
different competitors in the market. This may explains the differences in business
performance when businesses apply different types of competitive strategies, thereby
deciding the most effective competition method. Discussing the role of competitive
strategy, economists all support the view that enterprises applying competitive strategy
tend to bring higher business efficiency than those without competitive strategy.
According to Thompson and Strickland (2010), competitive strategy includes all
actions that enterprises are implementing to attract buyers, withstand competitive
pressure and improve their competitive position in the market. Lester (2009) argues that
competitive strategy allows enterprises to identify business field as well as market to
exploit and seek for future profit. In Porter's view (1985), competitive strategy
determines the position of enterprises in a business whether its profit is higher or lower
than the industry average. Jegak, Haslinda & Alimin (2009) continue to assert that a
company that does something special and hard to imitate has a competitive advantage
will be more profitable than its competitors. Selecting competitive strategy is the
decision of business level and is able to affect business performance of enterprises in
the long term, so the determination of competitive strategy based on which
competitiveness is the central issue for enterprises.
Food industry is one of the important industries that always make up a high
proportion and make a significant contribution to industry sector in particular and
Vietnam's economy in general. Vietnamese food enterprises are aiming at development
strategy based on the use of advanced and modern technology, maximizing the use of
domestic raw material, creating diversified satisfying food hygiene and safety according
to Vietnamese and international standards and highly competitive to form a strong
economic sector, firmly integrate with the region and the world, and promote economic
development. It is necessary for Vietnamese food enterprises to select and implement
appropriate competitive strategies, to improve their competitiveness and thereby improve

business performance.
An overview of international studies has shown that no research has yet to
comprehensively examine competencies that constitute competitive strategy, the
impact of competitive strategy on business performance and factors affecting the
quality of competitive strategy, especially Vietnamese food enterprises. The
studies have mainly focused on a certain aspect of competitive strategy such as
completing the competitive strategy planning process. In addition, the absence of
in-depth studies on competitive strategy of Vietnamese food industry enterprises
also shows the research gap on this issue. Domestic researches have only mainly
solved the problem of selecting competitive strategy in specific businesses but not
to completely, comprehensively and update research about competitive strategy
towards improving competitiveness and improving business performance of
businesses in general and food business enterprises in particular. Derived from the
1


above arguments, the PhD student decided to research the thesis topic
"Competitive strategy of Vietnamese food enterprises ".
2. Research purpose and mission
Purpose of the thesis is to propose solutions to complete competitive strategy
in the direction of increase competitive capacity in order to improve business
performance of Vietnamese food enterprises. The research missions include: (1)
Synthesizing, analyzing and systematizing the theoretical basis about competitive
strategy and the impact of competitive strategy on business performance of
enterprises; (2) Assessing situation of competitive strategy and analyzing the impact
of competitive strategy on business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises; (3)
Proposing views and some solutions to complete competitive strategy in order to
improve capacity of competition and business performance of Vietnamese food
enterprises in the period to 2025 and vision to 2030.
3. Research subjects and scope

Subjects of research: Capacities of competition that constitutes competition
strategy, the impact of competition strategy on business performance and factors
affecting the quality of products of Vietnamese food enterprises.
Content of research: (1) The thesis uses the approach viewpoint on
competition strategy of M.Porter (1985) including low-cost competition strategy;
differentiated competition strategy and centralized competition strategy (2) The
thesis approaches to study the contents of competition strategy of Vietnamese
food trading enterprises according to the capacities of competition; (3) The thesis
approaches to study the business performance of Vietnamese food trading
enterprises based on financial performance indicators such as ROA, ROE,
revenue growth and profit growth.
Object of research: The research objects of the thesis are Vietnamese food
trading enterprises, which are enterprises that continuously implement one, some
or all stages of the process from investment, production to consumption of product
on the market aimed at profitability.
Market space: The thesis selects research space is the entire market of
Vietnam and food business activities of food enterprise in domestic market.
Timing: The thesis research on competition strategy of Vietnamese food
trading enterprises through data collected in the period of 2012 – 2017, and
proposes solutions for the period to 2025, vision to 2030.
4. Scientific and practical significance
+ Regarding theoretical: On basis of the overview and inheriting from
domestic and foreign research works, the thesis studies some theoretical issues about
competition strategy based on competition capacity and builds research model and
scale of the impact of competitive strategy on business performance according to the
groups of low-cost, differentiated and centralized competition strategy.
+ Regarding practical: Applying appropriate research methods including
descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis to measure
the impact of each type of competition strategy on business performance of
Vietnam food enterprises. The results show that research scales meet requirements

and reliability and the types of competition strategy have a positive impact on the
2


business performance of Vietnamese food trading enterprises, in which
differentiation strategy have the biggest impact, followed by the centralized and
low cost strategies, are likely to help businesses improve business efficiency.
+ Regarding the purpose: Through research results, managers in
Vietnamese food enterprises have more comprehensive view on the role and
importance of competition strategy for competition activities as well as the
enterprise business performance.
5. Structure of the thesis
Beside parts of introduction, conclusion and references, the thesis content is
structured into five chapters: Chapter 1: Overview of research situation; Chapter 2:
Some theoretical issues and practical experience on competitive strategy and the
impact of competitive strategies on business performance of enterprises; Chapter
3: Research methods; Chapter 4: Situation of competitive strategy and the impact
of competitive strategy on business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises;
Chapter 5: Development orientation, viewpoints and solutions to complete the
competitive strategy to improve business performance of Vietnamese food trading
enterprises.

3


CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SITUATION
1.1. Studies on competitive strategy and business performance of enterprises
Competitive strategy is one of the important research topics for businesses.
However, there are many different views and approaches about competitive
strategy, in which the views, definitions and classification of competitive strategy

are presented. Overview of some typical research projects in the world and
Vietnam such as: "Competitive strategy" by M. Porter (1980); "Ocean Blue
Strategy" by Chan Kim et al. (2004); Sanchez (2004) with the study of
"Understanding competence-based management: Identifying and managing five
modes of competence"; Ngo Kim Thanh (2012), Nguyen Hoang Viet & Nguyen
Hoang Long (2015) with the curriculum "Strategic Management" and some other
authors such as Gibert & Strerbel (1987,1989), Treacy & Wiersema (1995) , Hax
& Wilde (2001), etc. However, almost all of the viewpoints have similarities in
terms of idea with M. Porter's point of view.
1.1.2. Studies on business performance of enterprises
Discussing business performance of enterprises, there have been several
scientific projects in the world studying business performance of enterprises in different
business fields such as production, service, banking, textiles, etc. Specifically, Hiap and
partners (2006) with the topic "A balanced scorecard approach to measure industry
performance"; Pham Thi Thanh Huong (2016) with the topic "Effect of diversification
on business performance of Vietnamese enterprises"; "Solutions to improve business
performance at Vietnam Post Corporation" by Pham Anh Tuan (2017) and some
studies by Kaplan & Norton (1992); Neely (1995); Waal & Coevert (2007); Consuegra
(2008) and Laihonen (2014), etc. Studies have proposed a system of criteria for
measuring business performance of enterprises in specific business sectors.
1.2. Studies on the impact of competitive strategy on business performance of
enterprises
Studies on the impact of competitive strategy on business performance of
enterprises are mainly foreign studies. In which, the impact assessment model
mainly focuses on considering the impact of competitive strategy from the
perspective of M.Porter (1980) with the research "Competitive strategy: techniques
for analyzing industries and competitors"; Reitsperger and partners (1993) with
research on "Product quality and cost leadership: compatible strategies"; Wright
(1987) in the study "Research notes and communication of Porter's strategies";
Jennings (2003), "Strategy-performance relationships in service firms: A test for

equifinality"; "Competitive strategy and measurement performance in the
Malaysian context: An exploratory study" by author Jusoh and Parnell (2008);
Richard S. Allen, Marilyn M. Helms (2013) with the study of "Linking Strategic
Practices and Organizational Performance to Porter's Generic Strategies", etc.
These studies all point to the general competitive strategy of M.Porter which were
proven and widely accepted in the reality of enterprises, and assess the influence
and different impacts of each type of competitive strategy on business performance
of enterprises.
1.3. Studies on production and business activities of food enterprises

4


The studies on food business enterprises are mostly associated with each
country and the main related content is proposal associated with the context,
conditions and reality of each locality. Specifically in the studies: "Food
processing industry in Vietnam" by Ngo Dinh Giao (1998); Le Thi Thu Thuy
(2007) with the study "Building an international development strategy for food
processing enterprises", Düriye Canbaz (2009) with the study of "Competitive
Strategies of Ethnic Food Companies in Sweden "; JICA Japan (2012) in
"Summary report on attracting foreign investment in Vietnam's food processing
industry in the period of 2008 - 2012" , etc. assessed that the Vietnamese food
industry is an industry with great potential for development in the future will bring
good investment opportunities for both domestic and international enterprises.
However, there has not been any research on the quality of knowledge and the
impact of competitive strategy on the business performance of Vietnamese food
trading enterprises.
1.4. Research gaps and questions
Research gap: (1) studying competitive strategy based on competitive capacity
of enterprises to develop some core competitive capacity for each type of competitive

strategy; (2) building research model, scale as competitive capacities which constitute
competitive strategy and the impact of competitive strategy on business performance
of food businesses (3) determine the factors affecting competitive capacity of food
businesses.
The thesis raises some research questions as follows: (1) Competitive
strategy of Vietnamese food enterprises is constituted by which competitive
capacity?; (2) What factors affect the competitive strategy of Vietnamese food
enterprises?; (3) Which types of competitive strategy are Vietnamese food trading
enterprises deploying and how are their impact on business performance of the
enterprises?; (4) Which competitive capacity does Vietnamese food enterprises
need to select and focus on creating to improve business efficiency?

5


CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL ISSUES AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
ON COMPETITIVE STRATEGY AND THE IMPACT OF COMPETITIVE
STRATEGY ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF ENTERPRISE
2.1. Some basic concepts
2.1.1. Strategy and strategic levels in enterprises
2.1.1.1. Enterprise strategy
There are many different views on the strategy of enterprise, however, in this
thesis; the strategic approach of enterprise includes goals to be achieved in the long
term, guarantees of resources to achieve these goals and at the same time, the ways
and processes of action while using resources. A good, effectively implemented
strategy will help managers and employees at all levels of management to clearly
define their goals, identify the direction of action, and contribute to the success of
the enterprise.
2.1.1.2. Strategic levels in enterprises
In general, the views on strategic level in enterprises have many similarities

between authors. In which, the highest level is enterprise level, showing the decisions of
senior managers in orienting the development of enterprises in the long term, and at the
same time identifying the tasks, objectives and business fields. Next is the business
level associated with strategic business units (SBU) and indicates the main mode of
competition for each of these units. Finally, the functional level strategy includes
decisions associated with specific operational activities of enterprises. In this thesis,
competitive strategy of enterprises is approached in the business-level strategy to show
how enterprises compete in the industry in the most effective way to enhance the
competitive position and business efficiency.
2.1.2. Competitive capacity of enterprise
So far, there are several different viewpoints about competitive capacity of
enterprise. In this thesis, competitive capacity of enterprise is understood as the
ability to use and combine resources and capabilities of the enterprise to maintain
and create a competitive advantage to achieve higher business results than
competitors and adapt to changes in the business environment.
2.1.3. Competitive strategy of enterprise
2.1.3.1. Concept and nature of competitive strategy of enterprise
Competitive strategy is a category that attracts many researchers' attention
because of its role and importance for business performance in general and competitive
efficiency in particular. There are many different perspectives on competitive strategy
of enterprises, depending on the characteristics of the business sector, the development
stage, the specific business context and situation, which have different interpretations.
In this thesis, competitive strategy of enterprises is understood as a set of competencies,
tools, solutions and resources to establish the competitive position of enterprises in the
target market and at the same time improve business performance of the enterprise.
Competitive strategy is effort of enterprises to attract customers, improve
their competitive position in the market and is a strategy to supply products and
services of enterprises, therefore, competitive strategy of food businesses is a
strategy associated with the output products of these enterprises. Competitive

6


strategy of enterprises needs to provide accurate positioning of products with good
competitiveness as well as targeted market segments of enterprise.
2.1.3.2. Role of competitive strategy in enterprises
Competitive strategy plays an important role with the existence and
development of enterprises. Competitive strategy which is planned and developed
in the right way will orient long-term activities as a solid basis for business
activities of enterprise, ensuring the success and sustainable development of
enterprise. Competitive strategy demonstrates consistency and high concentration
in business lines of enterprises, avoiding the cost of resources in non-focused
activities. Competitive strategy is a tool to help businesses to capture market
opportunities and create competitive advantages in the market by applying the
limited resources of enterprises with high efficiency to achieve the set objectives
and help businesses identify the development and competition strategies in the new
business context.
2.1.4. Business performance of enterprise
This thesis uses the concept of Kaplan & Norton (1992) in combination with
the concept of Waal & Coevert (2007) because it meets the systematic and
comprehensive in measuring business performance of domestic enterprises in
dynamic environment. Specifically, business performance of enterprises is understood
as a comparison between the results obtained and the costs spent to achieve those
results, while demonstrating the level and ability to use resources and capabilities in
business activity, and is expressed through a number of financial and operational
criteria including: revenue growth, profit, ROA and ROE of enterprises.
2.2. Some theories about competitive strategy of enterprise
Table 2.1. Summary of theories on competitive strategy of enterprise
Author
1. Porter

2. Mintzberg
3. Gilbert &Strebel

Competitive strategy
Differentiation competitive strategy
Low cost competitive strategy
Centralized competitive strategy
Positioning strategy
Positioning strategy
Construction strategy
Expansion strategy
Growth strategy
Excellent management strategy
Product leadership strategy

Similar theory

Theory of industry analysis (Porter, 1986)
Competitive strategy theory of Porter (1986)
Growth strategy of Ansoff(1965)

Competitive strategy theory of Porter (1986)
Cost leadership strategy of Porter (1986)
Differentiation competitive strategy
4.Treacy a& Wiersema
Porter (1986)
Customer- friendly strategy
Centralized competitive strategy Porter (1986)
Best product strategy

Competitive strategy theory of Porter (1986)
Customer strategy
Centralized competitive strategy Porter (1986)
5. Hax and Wilde
Sharing, cooperation and successful Combination strategy of Gibert & Strebel
strategy
(1987)
Blue ocean strategy
Combination strategy of Gibert & Strebel
6. Chan Kim
(1987)
7. Wernefelt (1984), Sanchez Competitive strategy based on Growth strategy of Ansoff(1965)
& Heene (2010)
competitive capacity

Source: Compiled by the PhD student
7


2.3. Study the competitive strategy and the impact of competitive strategy on
business performance of enterprise
2.3.1. General competitive strategy and competitive capacities constitute the
competitive strategy of enterprise
Table 2.2: Summary of competitive capacities constitute the competitive strategy
Low-cost strategy
1. Enterprises apply modern management methods (such
as supply chain management, lean management, quality
management,
strategic
management,

knowledge
management, etc.) to reduce costs.
2. Enterprises apply low and flexible product pricing
methods (Pricing based on demand, competitors, milk
scum pricing, etc.)
3. Enterprises are always proactive in supplying and
transporting materials and inputs for production to achieve
optimal costs.
4. Enterprises have extensive sales distribution systems
(online sales, exclusive distribution, etc.)
5. Enterprises apply modern production technology to
increase productivity and reduce costs.
6. Enterprises have healthy financial activities, sufficient
capital to operate and ensure solvency.
7. Enterprises have large production scale and ability to
meet the number of products according to customer needs.
8. Enterprises have standardized products

Dess & Davis (1984)

Porter (1981), Dess & Davis (1984)

Dess & Davis (1984)

Porter (1981)
Porter (1981), Dess & Davis (1984)
Porter (1981), Wright (1987)
Porter (1981)
Madara M.Ogot (2014)

Differentiation strategy
1. Enterprises often create and innovate products to best Porter (1981), Dess & Davis (1984)
satisfy customers' needs.
2. Enterprises often create differences in customer service Dess & Davis (1984)
compared to competitors.
3. Enterprises are capable of developing internal supply Porter (1981)
chains and participating in the supply chain of the industry.
4. Human resources of enterprises ensure professional Porter (1981), Dess & Davis (1984)
skills and skills
DN thường xuyên sáng tạo và đổi
5. Enterprises have good customer management capacity
mới sản phẩm nhằm thỏa mãn tốt
nhất nhu cầu của khách hàng
DN nghiệp thường xuyên tạo ra sự
khác biệt về dịch vụ khách hàng so
với các đối thủ cạnh tranh

6. The brand of enterprises is well known.

7. Enterprises often apply quality management system and DN có đủ năng lực phát triển chuỗi
food safety management system as well as environmental cung ứng nội bộ và tham gia chuỗi
cung ứng của ngành
management system.
8. Enterprises often innovates communication technology Nguồn nhân lực của DN đảm bảo
về chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ, kỹ
of product marketing.

8

Low-cost strategy
năng

9. Enterprises ensure benefits of customers, employees and DN có năng lực quản trị quan hệ
khách hàng tốt
have a sense of environmental protection.
10. Enterprises often innovate and update and apply new Thương hiệu của DN được nhiều
người biết đến
technologies to production and business activities.
Centralized strategy
1. Enterprises often conduct market research to understand
customer needs as well as shape suitable products for each
market segment.
2. Products of enterprises are able to meet the specific
needs of customer.
3. Enterprises are able to supply products in high-price
market segments

Porter (1981)

Porter (1981), Wright (1987)
Porter (1981), Dess & Davis
(1984), Wright (1987)

4. The development strategy of different marketing Porter (1981), Wright (1987)
activities of enterprise always promotes efficiency in each
market area
Dess & Davis (1984)
5. Enterprises often expand and develop new markets
6. Enterprises often diversify product to meet the need of Dess & Davis (1984)

different market segments
Business performance
1. Revenue growth rate

Dess & Davis (1984)

2. Net profit margin on asset (ROA)

Porter (1981), Dess & Davis
(1984), Wright (1987)

3. Profit growth rate

Porter (1981)

4. Net profit to equity ratio (ROE)

Porter (1981), Dess & Davis
(1984)

5. Overall business performance.

Wright (1987)

Source: Compiled by the PhD student
2.3.2. Impact of competitive strategy on business performance of enterprise
2.3.2.1. Some research models on impact of competitive strategy on business
performance of enterprise
The influence of competitive strategy on business performance of enterprises has
been analyzed in some studies. According to Porter (1980), enterprises have clear

competitive strategy will easily overcome enterprises without strategy. This argument is
the basis for enterprises to proactively build their own quality of knowledge. Strategic
documents have clearly defined that one of the necessary conditions for the success of
an enterprise as a competitive position to help businesses in the first place as well as
financial efficiency. Porter also argued that general competitive strategies include lowcost, differentiation and centralized strategies, which are strategic options that
9


businesses can apply to compete successfully, but rarely do many businesses apply
different types of competitive strategies at the same time. Dess and Davis (1984)
believe that competitive strategy at least helps businesses achieve higher business
efficiency than other enterprises. Karnani (1984) assessed the difference in cost or the
difference in competitive position to help businesses get higher profits. White (1987)
identifies strategic business units of enterprises that are able to achieve higher return on
investment (ROI) when applying low-cost competitive strategy while differentiating
competitive strategy helps businesses increase sales thanks to the coordination between
important functional parts within the enterprise. Wright (1991) argues that businesses
applying both differentiated competitive strategy and low-cost competitive strategy all
bring the highest business efficiency. Bush and Sinclair (1992) conducted practical
research and said that successful enterprises in the market are enterprises that combine
flexibility and success between low-cost competitive strategy and differentiated
competitive strategy. Yamin (1999) examines the relationship between competitive
strategy, competitive advantages and business efficiency, thereby assessing business
performance of enterprises through profit targets.
2.3.3.2. Model to study the impact of competitive strategy on business performance
of food business enterprises
From the results of theoretical research on the impact of competitive strategy
on business performance of enterprises of M. Porter (1981), Dess & Davis (1984)
and Madara M. Ogot (2014), the PhD student developed research models and
research hypotheses as follows:

Low-cost competitive strategy
Differentiation competition strategy
Centralized competition strategy

H1

Business performance
of Vietnamese food
enterprises

H2

H3

Figure 2.1: Model to study the impact of competitive strategy on business
performance of food business enterprises
Source: Compiled and developed by the PhD student
The research hypotheses include:
Hypothesis H1: Low cost competitive strategy has a positive impact on the
business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises.
Hypothesis H2: Differentiation competitive strategy has a positive impact on
business performance of Vietnamese food trading enterprises.
Hypothesis H3: Centralized competitive strategy has a positive impact on business
performance of Vietnamese food trading companies.
2.3.3. Factors affecting the competitive strategy of businesses
+ Macro environment: Macro environment is a complex set of factors,
conditions and forces that can affect the competitive strategy and competitive
efficiency of enterprises. The analysis of the macro environment through the PEST
model includes the following elements: (1) Economic factor; (2) Political - law
factor; (3) Socio-cultural factor; (4) Technology factor.

10


+ Industry environment: The analysis of the business and market is conducted
through the 5 forces model of M.Porter (1986). Specifically include: (1) Existing
competitor; (2) Potential competitor from enterprises have been wishing to join a new
business; (3) Supplier; (4) Substitute product (5) Customer.
+ Internal environment of enterprise: consists of two groups of activities: basic
operations and supporting activities. In which, the basic activities show the activities
from the supply of input materials, production and assembly of products, reception of
distribution products, marketing promotion of products and after-sales services. The
complementary activities are not directly related to the creation of value for the product,
but they are involved in the process of creating and increasing the value and supporting
basic activities such as purchasing management, human resource management, etc.
2.4. Competitive strategy of some food enterprises in the world and lessons for
Vietnamese enterprises
Based on the collected data, the thesis focuses on analyzing the experience of
competitive strategy, capabilities that constitute the competitive capacity and impact of
competitive strategies on business performance of some Enterprises in the world
include: (1) JBS Company - Brazil, Safal - India, Tianyun - China and Dole Food America. In which, there are both successful enterprises and those who failed to choose
to implement competitive strategy.
From there, draw some lessons for Vietnamese enterprises as follows: (1)
Businesses operating in the market always need to build and implement
competitive strategy and must build specific competitive advantages in the context
of fierce competition of the industry. (2) Each food trading company must always
establish suitable quality of products for each SBU of enterprises on the basis of
promoting core competencies and competitiveness to determine the competitive
position in the industry; (3) The success of food businesses also requires
businesses to diversify types of competitive strategy according to strategic groups
(low cost or differentiation or concentration); (4) Most of the food business

enterprises are now aiming at sustainable growth, this is reflected through business
performance; (5) Enterprises pursuing different competitive strategy need to
constantly develop new products, improve quality, improve new technologies and
strictly control production processes to ensure food safety. (6) Safal's experience
also emphasizes that enterprises implementing low-cost competitive strategy need
to invest in building the value chain of enterprises, constantly improving
production technology to meet production needs and product quality to serve
customer needs.

11


CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS
3.1. Research design
3.1.1. Research process
In order to implement the research task, the research process is divided into two
phases as follows: (1) After determining the research objectives and objectives of the
topic and conducting theoretical research to build research model, building scale
system. After designing and conducting a preliminary investigation, the scale system
is calibrated to form the official measuring bar system and design the official survey
form; (2) After conducting an official investigation, the survey results are included in
the identification and verification of reliability of the scale, assessment of the scale
value through analysis of the EFA discovery factor, finally is regression analysis,
testing the appropriateness of theoretical models and research hypotheses as well as
making conclusions and solutions to research problems.
3.1.2. Research sample
The thesis uses convenient sampling method through taking the list and address of
food enterprises in the major provinces in the country. Thanks to the assistance of the
Institute of Productivity, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Department of
Industry and Trade and Food Hygiene and Safety Bureau of some provinces and cities, the

PhD student conducted a direct investigation of food businesses or via email. Number of
issued survey forms: 200, Number of collected survey forms: 141, valid survey forms: 130
(List of surveyed enterprises - Appendix 09; Structure of survey samples - Appendix 05).
3.1.3. Research scale
Table 3.1: Summary of research scale
Low-cost competitive strategy (Code LC1 – LC8)
(1) Enterprise management capacity; (2) Valuation capacity of enterprise; (3) Proactive
capacity of input materials of enterprise; (4) Distribution capacity of enterprise; (5) Capacity of
applying modern production technology of enterprise; (6) Financial capacity of enterprise; (7)
Large-scale production capacity of enterprise; (8) Product standardization capacity of
enterprise.
Differentiation competitive strategy (Code DS1-DS10)
(1) Capacity of product innovation of enterprise compared to competitors; (2) Capacity of
differentiation in customer service compared to competitors; (3) Capacity to develop internal
supply chain and join industry supply chain of enterprise; (4) Capacity of organizational
innovation; (5) Capacity of customer relationship management; (6) Brand capacity of
enterprise; (7) Capacity of product quality and safety management of enterprises; (8) Capacity
of product PR and marketing of enterprises; (9) Corporate social responsibility capacity; (10)
Capacity to innovate and create new technology processes in business production of enterprise.
Centralized competitive strategy (Code FS1-FS7)
(1) Capacity of market research and product positioning; (2) Product supply capacity in highpriced product segment (or low prices); (3) Marketing capacity is differentiated for each
market segment of the enterprise; (4) Ability to meet the specific needs of customer; (5) New
market development capacity of enterprise; (6) Product diversification capacity of enterprise.
Enterprise business performance (Code PB1-PB6)
(1) Revenue growth rate; (2) Net profit margin on asset (ROA); (3) Profit growth rate; (4) Net
profit to equity ratio (ROE); (5) Overall business performance.

Source: Compiled by the PhD student
12

3.1.4. Questionnaire development
The questionnaire is divided into 7 main parts: General information; business
environment analysis; industry environment analysis; assess the competitive capacity
of enterprises to constitute competitive strategy; reality of implementing competitive
strategy and assessing business performance of enterprises. The questions are
evaluated on a scale of 5 levels in which 1 - Completely disagree to 5 - Completely
agree.
3.2. Qualitative research
In-depth interview method: To determine the components of competitive
strategy of Vietnamese food trading enterprises, thereby developing into observed
variables in research and thereby assessing the suitability, reliability and science
study of research scale. The thesis uses in-depth interview with expert opinion
collected through meetings, exchanges and also through direct comments on the
research contents. The study has interviewed a total of 16 experts with comments
and suggestions that have been synthesized by the researcher and no longer found
new ideas about the scale of the elements in the research.
Case method: The development of typical situations to serve as a practical
basis to reinforce the theory of competitive strategy has approached above.
Through interviews with managers of some enterprises, it is possible to assess the
competitive strategy platforms of each enterprise object as well as the contents of
competitive strategy based on the competitiveness of such enterprises.
3.3. Quantitative research
3.3.1. Preliminary study
Preliminary study result
Preliminary quantitative research of the project was conducted on 70 survey
forms. The objects of investigation are leader of food businesses. The results obtained
58 responses (reaching the response rate of 82.86%), there were 12 invalid votes for
having the same answer above 65% or leaving more than 30% blank. The preliminary
investigation process was carried out from October 2016 to December 2016. In which:

(1) The results of reliability assessment of low-cost competitive strategy scale show that
Cronbach Alpha coefficient reaches 0.823> 0.6 and total correlation coefficient of
observed variables varies from 0.456 to 0.703 and > 0.3. Thus, this scale achieves the
necessary reliability; (2) The results of reliability assessment of differentiation
competitive strategy scale show that Cronbach Alpha coefficient reaches 0.914 which is
greater than 0.60, ensuring the necessary reliability and total correlation coefficient of
observed variables variation from 0.529 to 0,800, which is greater than 0.30; (3) The
evaluation results of reliability show that centralized competitive strategy scale with
Cronbach Alpha coefficient = 0.877 which is greater than 0.60 is to ensure necessary
reliability. However, the correlation coefficient of the total variable of FS2 = 0.286
which is less than 3.30, so this observed variable is not satisfied, thus remove this
variable; (4) The results of evaluating the reliability of business performance scale show
that Cronbach Alpha coefficient is 0.839, greater than 0.60, is to ensure necessary
reliability. However, correlation coefficient of total variable PB6 = 0.274, less than 3.30
so this observed variable is not satisfied, thus eliminating this variable.

13


3.3.2. Official research
After conducting the survey, collected survey forms were checked for
validity, cleaned data, entered data on SPSS 20.0 software and is included in the
analysis according to the following steps: (1) Descriptive statistics on the factors
affecting competitive strategy; (2) Statistics of the description of the competitive
capacity constituting competitive strategy of enterprises; (3) Exploratory factor
analysis (EFA) and regression analysis. Regression model is as follows:
Y (HQKD) = β0+ β1LC+ β2DS + β3 FS + εi
In which: Y (HQKD): Dependent variable, business performance of
Vietnamese food trading enterprises; LC: Low cost competitive strategy; DS:
Differentiation competitive strategy; FS: Centralized competitive strategy; β0:

Coefficient of overall regression Y when the independent variables are 0,
representing impact level of factors other than the factors defined in the model; εi:
Error.

14


CHAPTER 4: SITUATION OF COMPETITIVE STRATEGY AND IMPACT OF
COMPETITIVE STRATEGY ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF
VIETNAMESE FOOD ENTERPRISES
4.1. Overview of food industry and Vietnamese food enterprises
4.1.1. Overview of Vietnamese food industry
Food industry is an important contributor to Vietnam's economy, which has
achieved rapid growth during the past decade thanks to technological improvements and
private sector participation. Vietnam has become an important supplier of products: rice,
seafood, fresh food, and processed foods. The food industry is oriented to serve domestic
and export needs so far Vietnam has become a large-scale business with the participation
of over 7000 businesses with hundreds of thousands of employees of which 84% are
small and medium enterprises with the number of employees under 50, the average
growth rate of the food industry in the past 10 years reached an average of 10% and
contributed 15% of the gross domestic product (GDP) for Vietnam economy.
4.1.2. Overview of Vietnamese food enterprises
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (2017), food enterprises account
for a significant proportion of the total number of enterprises in the country. Specifically,
after more than 20 years of construction and development, food enterprise accounts for
approximately 2% of total number of enterprises in the country and constantly grows
over the years. In 2012, there were 5,644 enterprises operating in the whole country, up
to 7,173 in 2017. The average annual increase of each year is about 300 enterprises. The
increase in the number of food enterprises has partly contributed to meeting the
production needs to serve the increasingly strong consumption of food by the people.

4.2. Competitive strategy of some Vietnamese food enterprises
Through researching competitive strategy and business performance of some
typical Vietnamese food companies include: Vietnam Animal Industry Joint Stock
Company, Vinamit Joint Stock Company, Ha Long Canned Food Joint Stock Company, it
showed some basic issues as follows: (1) Selected enterprises typically developed
competitive strategy and have clearly defined the competitive advantage of enterprises in
the target market, associated with products which it is providing; (2) The application and
implementation of quality control in food enterprises allow them to improve business
situation and business performance remarkably. However, the level of improvement in
business performance of enterprises when pursuing different competitive strategy is
different. In particular, the enterprises implementing differentiated competitive strategy
have the ability to improve the best business performance among the three types of
competitive strategy, which are being widely applied by enterprises; (3) In order to
effectively implement different competitive strategy in the market, food business
enterprises tend to focus on certain competitiveness; (4) When applying specific
competitive strategy and setting up appropriate strategic tools, it helps the food business
enterprises to identify the competitive position in the food industry market, and at the same
time create different differences in products to attract customers and constantly improve
and improve business efficiency.

15


4.3. Situation of competitive strategy and business performance of Vietnamese
food enterprises
4.3.1. Situation of competitive capacity constitutes competitive strategy of
Vietnamese food enterprises
4.3.1.1. Low-cost competitive strategy
The reality of low-cost competitive strategy of Vietnamese food enterprises is as
follows: (1) Among 8 competitive capacities that constitute low-cost competitive strategy

of Vietnamese food trading enterprises, enterprises have basically verified define basic
contents of distribution capacity, product standardization capacity, large-scale production
capacity, low and flexible product pricing capacity and the ability to apply modern
management methods into the production and business process of enterprises; (2) There
are still some capabilities that the food business enterprises currently do not really care
about and include in the low-cost competitive strategy content, including: Capability of
application of production technology and the ability to take initiative in supply and
transport of materials and inputs for product production and financial capacity of
enterprises. These are weaknesses in capacity for enterprises pursuing low-cost competitive
strategy, which need to focus on improving business efficiency of enterprises.
4.3.1.2. Differentiation competitive strategy
The situation of competitive capacity constitutes a differentiation strategy as
follows: (1) In the 10 differentiating capacity of competitive strategy, it is included in the
evaluation that there are 6 capacity elements that are well evaluated by enterprises.
including: the ability to offer products different from competitors, differentiated
capabilities of customer service, human capacity, marketing communication capacity and
product innovation capacity; (2) Four competency factors are assessed with below
average scores including: new process and technology innovation capacity, no stable
brand, product quality management capacity and social responsibility.
4.2.1.3. Centralized competitive strategy
Statistics on the average value of the centralized competitive strategy scale show
some issues as follows: (1) Avantages of Vietnamese food trading enterprises applying
centralized competitive strategy are good implementation of some capabilities. Mainly
as: Market research capacity to understand customer needs and shape new products,
Different marketing capabilities for each market segment of the enterprise, ability to
supply products in niche market segments and ability to meet individual needs of
customers; (2) The weakness of enterprises applying competitive strategy is the
capacity of product diversification and market development capacity. This shows that
the application of centralized quality of products makes the current food business
enterprises fall into a stuck situation; it is difficult to identify the low-quality or highquality enterprises' products and services, leading to a lack of information customers'

ideas when consuming their products.
4.3.2. Impact of competitive strategy on business performance of Vietnamese
food enterprises
4.3.2.1. The impact of strategic planning and implementation methods on business
performance of Vietnamese food trading enterprises
The survey results show that 58.34% of Vietnamese food businesses are planning
and implementing competitive strategy responsively and 41.66% of enterprises apply
16


proactively. This also has an important impact on performance of Vietnamese food
enterprise. The results show that overall business efficiency tends to increase and increase
for 52.38% of enterprises (42.86% and 9.52%), applying active competitive strategy, and
having 33.33% to do this. thanks to the application of competitive strategy painting
reaction. Meanwhile, 9.52% of enterprises have reduced their overall business efficiency
due to active application of competitive strategy and up to 19.97% of enterprises using
competitive strategy have fallen into this situation. Thus, there is an impact relationship
between competitive strategy and overall business performance of enterprises.
4.3.2.2. Research results of the impact of competitive strategy on business
performance of Vietnamese food enterprises
(1) Testing the reliability of official scale
The results of running Cronbach’s Alpha show that all factors achieve
reliability. For each factor in the model, there is Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient
greater than 0.6; if any of the observed variables in this factor are removed, the
Alpha coefficients are reduced, and the correlation coefficients are greater than 0.3
so all observations are kept.
(2) Analysis of EFA discovery factors
+ Analytical result of EFA discovery factor of competitive strategy show that
there are 3 factors extracted from 24 variables that measure attributes in the group of
competitive strategy factors. These three factors extract 70.61%> 50%, the scale is

accepted. KMO coefficient = 0.931 is wihin the range of 0.5 is appropriate. Barlett test with Sig. = 000 represents a high level of significance. All
factor load values of each group are greater than 0.50 and therefore satisfactory.
+ Analyze EFA discovery facto of business performance of enterprise
The analytical results show that there is one factor extracted from three variables
that measure attributes in the group of elements inside and outside the enterprise
environment. This factor extracted 72.550%> 50%, the scale is accepted.
(3) Regression analysis
+ Regression analysis of the impact of low-cost competitive strategy on
business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises
Table 4.1: Results of regression analysis of impact of low cost competitive
strategy on business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises
Not standardized coefficients Standardized coefficient
Variable
T Sig.
B
Standard error
Beta
1 (Constant) 2.648
0.421
6.286 0.000
LC
0.338
0.116
0.253 2.925 0.004
a. Dependent Variable: PB
Source: Analytical result of surveyed data
Regression analysis results in Table 4.1 shows that low-cost competitive strategy
affects the business performance of Vietnamese food enterprise. The application of this
strategy helps increase business efficiency 0.338 times. The Pearson coefficient shows a

moderate, positive and significant correlation between low-cost competitive strategy
and business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises (r = 0.253, significant level =
0.004). Therefore, Vietnamese food enterprises should focus on cost control by

17


focusing on product design to save material costs, reduce management costs, and invest
in distribution systems to compete by product cost.
The results of this study are consistent with previous studies on the impact of lowcost competitive strategy and business efficiency of enterprises. Specifically, the research
results of Dess & Davis (1984), Marques & partner (2000), Shah & partner (2000), etc.
+ Regression analysis of the influence of differentiation competitive strategy
to business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises
The results of single variable regression analysis on the affect of differentiation
competitive strategy to business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises. The test results
show that there is a positive impact differentiation competitive strategy on the business
performance of Vietnamese food enterprises (β = 0.48 and significance level <0.001).
Therefore, the application of differentiation competitive strategy increases 0.48 times the
business efficiency of enterprises applying differentiation competitive strategy. With the
level of significance is less than 0.05 hypothesis of differentiation competitive strategy has a
positive impact on Business performance of Vietnamese food businesses is accepted.
Table 4.2: Results of regression analysis of differentiation competitive strategy
Not standardized coefficients Standardized coefficient
Variable
T Sig.
B
Standard error
Beta
1 (Constant) 2.069
0.407

5.077 0.000
DS
0.48
0.107
0.2374 4.492 0.000
a. Dependent Variable: PB
Source: Analytical result of surveyed data
These results are consistent with some previous studies, namely Allen & Helms
(2002), Murage (2011), Kimoto (2012), etc.
+ Regression analysis of the influence of centralized competitive strategy
on business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises
The study hypothesizes that centralized competitive strategy positively affects
the business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises. The research results show
that there is a positive impact of centralized competitive strategy on the business
performance of food businesses with the level (β = 0.306 and the significance level =
0.005) as shown in Table 4.34. This shows the application of centralized quality control
to allow enterprises to increase 0.306 business efficiency of enterprises. With the p value meaning being less than 0.05, the hypothesis is accepted and it can be concluded
that there is a positive influence between centralized competitive strategy and business
performance of Vietnamese food businesses.
Table 4.3: Results of regression analysis of centralized competitive strategy
Not standardized
Standardized
coefficients
coefficient
Variable
T Sig.
B
Standard error
Beta
1 (Constant) 2.693

0.416
6.471 0.00
FS
0.306
0.106
0.2512.884 0.005
a Dependent Variable: PB
Source: Analytical result of surveyed data

18


These results are similar to some previous studies on the relationship between
centralized competitive strategy and business efficiency of enterprises. Specifically,
Dess & Davis (1984), Porter (1985), etc.
+ Multiple regression analysis
More specifically, Table 4.37 shows beta LC coefficients (β = 0.044,
significance level = 0.747), Ds (β = 0.412, significance level = 0.007) and FS
(0.075, significance level = 0.545) ) demonstrating the positive impact of
competitive strategies on business performance of food businesses.
Table 4.4: Results of multiple regression analysis
Not standardized coefficients Standardized coefficient
Variable
T Sig.
B
Standard error
Beta
1(Constant)1.880 0.500
3.7610.000
LC

0.044 0.135
0.033
0.3230.047
DS
0.412 0.150
0.321
2.7380.007
FS
0.075 0.123
0.061
0.6070.045
a. Dependent Variable: PB
Source: Analytical result of surveyed data
The regression results shown in the table above show that the regression analysis
content with selected reliability is 95% corresponding to the significant independent
variables less than 0.05 and the positive Beta normalization coefficient. Thus, the
independent variables LC, DS and FS correlate with the PB dependent variable.
The results show that all variables are satisfactory and the model is suitable for
research orientation. The regression equation has the following form:
Y (HQKD) = 1.880 + 0.044LC+ 0.412DS + 0.075 FS
4.3.3. Situation of factors affecting competitive strategy of Vietnamese food
enterprises
From results of analyzing the competitive environment of Vietnamese food
enterprises, it may see some main opportunities, challenges and strengths, as follows:
+ Opportunities: (1) Stable economic growth and increased people's income
elevate the demand for food consumption, the income of Vietnamese people has
increased continuously in the past 30 years, reaching 2,300 USD/ person/ year will
create momentum for fast growing food industry in the coming time; (2) Thanks to
participating in the international market and taking advantage of opportunities from
international cooperation agreements, food enterprises are able to learn and inherit the

experience of many enterprises around the world to improve the quality of human
resources and technology for the development of the industry; (3) Competition is a
matter of creating opportunities and driving forces for Vietnamese food trading
companies, which are not weak opportunities for current businesses.
+ Challenges: (1) The situation of competition among enterprises has become
increasingly fierce. Currently, number of food enterprises participating in the domestic
market is increasing rapidly and strongly, the landing of foreign enterprises has caused
fierce competition; (2) The psychological preference of a part of young people is increasing
the presence of more and more international food brands, partly creating advantages for
foreign businesses to gradually dominate the market in country if domestic companies do
not promote brand promotion activities; (3) Vietnamese goods exported in the past years
19


tend to face difficulties due to strict regulations on tariffs, epidemiological hygiene,
verification of pheasants, technical barriers of products including export food products.
+ Strengths: (1) The biggest advantage of businesses is diverse source of
materials, with the characteristics of an agricultural country to create diverse sources of
rich materials to create opportunities of new product development and product
innovation; (2) Promotion programs for Vietnamese goods consumption have been
promoted. More and more domestic enterprises are innovating production processes to
meet consumer tastes of clean products for Vietnamese food products.
+ Weaknesses: (1) Food quality problems and food hygiene and safety standards
of many enterprises are not guaranteed, leading to a series of poor quality products that
are harmful to health, calculated consumer network; (2) Although there have been
certain efforts, the overall view of the food industry is still low compared to foreign
enterprises; (3) The connection between enterprises in the same industry, between the
production and consumption stages is still loose. (4) The size of Vietnamese food
industry enterprises is still relatively small compared to foreign enterprises.
4.4. General assessment on competitive strategy and the impact of competitive

strategy on business performance of Vietnamese food enterprises
Successes: (1) Vietnamese food businesses have initially created a common level
of understanding about the role and importance of competitive strategy for competitive
position and improving business efficiency; (2) Vietnamese food businesses have
selected competitive strategies according to each competitive advantage that enterprises
have identified; (3) The selection of the application of different methods of business in
Vietnamese food business enterprises, partly helps enterprises improve business
efficiency, help enterprises achieve the targets of quality improvement; (4) A number of
Vietnamese food trading enterprises have successfully implemented competitive
strategy, thus helping businesses increase their competitiveness and business efficiency;
(5) For Vietnamese food business enterprises pursuing competitive strategy, focused on
developing some suitable competitive capacities.
Limitations: (1) Most of the current food business enterprises develop and
implement CLCTs, both in response to the reaction; only a few enterprises build and
implement competitive strategy in the direction of proactivity and lesson. copy; (2)
Current food business enterprises mainly implement competitive strategy lacks
investment for some necessary competitiveness; (3) The implementation of competitive
strategy of Vietnamese food trading companies currently has not invested and paid due
attention to the results of the strategy or business efficiency but mainly focused on some
previous objectives like cost reduction, product quality, etc.
Causes of limitations: (1) The development process of Vietnam's food business
is long but traditional and spontaneous; (2) Most Vietnamese food enterprises are small
and medium-sized, unevenly distributed among cities and provinces, between urban
and rural areas and therefore diversified and complex competition activities; (3)
Limitation of capital in production and business is a factor that influences the selection
of competitive strategy as well as improving the competitiveness of Vietnamese food
businesses; (4) The competition situation is increasingly fierce not only among
domestic food businesses but also between domestic and foreign enterprises, competing
with imported food products also makes it difficult for enterprises.
20

CHAPTER 5: SOME DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATIONS, VIEWPOINTS
AND SOLUTIONS TO COMPLETE COMPETITIVE STRATEGY TO
IMPROVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF VIETNAMESE FOOD
ENTERPRISES
5.1. Development trend and forecasting some changes in business environment of
Vietnamese food enterprises
In the world: (1) New advances in technology with the 4th industrial revolution,
green production, changing consumer tastes and growing demand for healthy food is
the development trendof food industry in the future; (2) Participation in a product
supply chain has brought opportunities to reduce costs for food businesses by
rationalizing and optimizing business activities; (3) The demand for food consumption
in the world is increasingly diversified due to the global population growth rate and the
travel trend of many customers; (4) With life becoming more and more busy, customers
are looking for new, convenient products to enhance health benefits.
In Vietnam: (1) The food industry is ranked in 7 sectors with high potential for
growth and profit growth and contributes significantly to the economy and also shows
that it is an attractive industry to attract foreign investment, especially high-tech
investment in the future; (2) Investment tendency to produce clean products; (3)
Vietnamese consumers are increasingly concerned about food hygiene and safety.
5.2. Development orientation and viewpoint to improve the competitive strategy
of Vietnamese food enterprises until 2025, vision to 2030
+ Development orientation of Vietnamese food trading enterprises: (1) Make
the most of advantages of raw material sources and strengthen links between regions
to ensure adequate supply of raw materials for the food industry; (2) Diversifying
types and designs in combination with improving product quality; (3) Development
of food industry coupled with technological innovation; (4) According to the
orientation of Vietnam's food industry development by 2020, the vision of 2030,
food will account for 25% -27% of the industry structure, the growth rate reaches

from 9% -10%, meeting 80% -85% of market demand by 2020. By 2030 these ratios
will be respectively 21% - 23%; 8% -9% and 90% -95% (Ministry of Industry and
Trade, 2012).
+ The view to perfecting the competitive strategy to improve the business
performance of Vietnamese food enterprises: (1) It is necessary to have strong
innovation both in thinking and scientific approach in using strategic management
science in general and competitive strategy management in particular at Vietnamese
food enterprises; (2) Improving competitive strategy of food businesses based on
scientific and practical methods; (3) Competitive strategy must be associated with the
goal of improving business performance of Vietnamese food businesses; (4)
Competitive strategy of food business enterprises must be built towards focusing on
developing some core competitive capacity.
5.3. Some solutions to complete competitive strategy to improve business
performance of Vietnamese food enterprise
5.3.1. Group of solutions to choose type of competitive strategy
In the context of the economy's competition in general and Vietnam's food
industry in particular requires businesses to have thinking and select appropriate
21


competitive strategy, in which three issues must be paid attention to: (1) The Vietnamese
food trading companies need to be proactive in developing and implementing
competitive strategy; (2) When selecting and implementing differentiated competitive
strategy, it is necessary to focus on creating unique and outstanding quality products for
customers based on the foundation of enterprises to promote their strengths in bright
innovation. create products, build brands, improve product or technology quality that is
superior to competitors in the industry; (3) Enterprises that choose competitive strategy
should pay more attention to and focus on effective management capacity, financial
capacity, distribution system, adapting to the changes of the environment and managing
materials.

5.3.2. Group of solutions to improve competitive capacity constitutes competitive
strategy
5.3.2.1. For the group of enterprises implementing low-cost competition strategy
+ Solutions to enhance the initiative and stability of raw material sources include:
(1) Implementing reviewing and planning of raw material areas for food industry, need to
focus on developing material areas with developing food businesses; (2) Food business
enterprises should actively participate in investment, promote the application of modern
science and technology in the production of raw materials to overcome the limitation of
seasonality for many types of materials with sources. original from agricultural products
like today; (3) It is necessary to strengthen inspection and control for raw material suppliers
in order to ensure the quality of input materials for processing on the other hand need to
proactively source raw materials for enterprises through investment in direct raw material
production.
+ Solution to apply lean production: Lean production is a system of methods
applied in enterprises to eliminate waste and minimize production time, improve
productivity and profitability. In the streamlined production model to improve
production efficiency, enterprises focus on detecting and identifying wastefulness
and then applying tools and methods to minimize activities which are excessive
and no added value for production and processing of enterprises. Applying a lean
production model can eliminate both waste and environmental risks.
+ Solutions to improve financial capacity of Vietnamese food enterprises: In the
coming years, to expand business scale, expand markets and enhance the effectiveness of
low-cost implementation of enterprises, enterprises measures should be taken to increase
capital scale. Businesses should improve and promote the effectiveness of planning
activities in all business and production activities: market, investment, technology,
materials, labor, wages, plans and main It accurately identifies the demand for each type of
capital that is guaranteed for the production and business process. Effectively exploit the
capital sources that enterprises have access to from shareholders, funds and external
sources of capital such as commercial credit, bank credit, customers, credit leasing assets ...
Use saving capital in production and business stages to reduce capital demand, cost of

capital used to lower production and business costs.
5.3.2.2. For the group of enterprises implementing differentiated competitive
strategy
+ Enhancing the application of new technologies to production and
business activities: (1) Organize designing and manufacturing a number of
22


equipment which can be manufactured in the country for food production and
trading; (2) Develop and improve the technology of preserving traditional foods in
the direction of technological innovation in industrial production and business
through a combination of modern and traditional, technology transfer and selfstudy and apply new technologies as well as take advantage of existing
technologies in combination with modernization; (3) Develop and apply BLOC
technology (bagged products) and IQF technology (products in bulk).
+ Strengthening the application of quality management system and food
safety management system as well as environmental management system:
Developing product quality management system including completing product
measurement system. Develop methods, means and systems to quickly check the
criteria of food hygiene and safety, product quality right from the raw material
harvest, transport, preliminary processing, refining and preservation of finished
products service provided to consumers. Developing reasonable small package and
packaging system for all types of product. Expand application of quality standard
systems.
+ Solutions to enhance the social responsibility of Vietnamese food
trading enterprises: (1) Need to consider the safety and health of customers who
are operating principles, need to provide honest and complete information on
goods products of enterprises; (2) Enterprises need to organize food production and
business activities in parallel with environmental protection and expressed by
specific policies and actions; (3) Fully implement the obligations to the employees,
ensure the regimes and policies for the employees are appropriate, lawful and

create comfort and fairness for the employees to feel comfortable working.
+ Building and developing brands for Vietnamese food enterprises:
Vietnamese food enterprises need to quickly develop branding strategy of industry
to protect, develop and promote the brand, especially in the context of competitive
integration between Vietnamese and foreign brands will be increasingly fierce.
Therefore, food business enterprises should orient their brands to focus on certain
products, not to spread scatteredly. These brands must be keystay products, when it
is mentioned that it is a domestic consumer and especially foreigner must know
that it is a Vietnamese food brand.
+ Completing the food supply chain in the direction of: (1) Food enterprises
need to regulate the common competition of the industry in the direction of avoiding
internal competition and strengthening business cooperation activities to supply
market products with synchronous and high quality; (2) Vietnamese food businesses
can further promote the sector's activities by enhancing the ability to participate in the
supply chain; (3) Building association of Vietnamese food trading enterprises, in
order to coordinate activities between members on business production, technology,
human resource training as well as marketing and trade promotion activities.
5.3.2.3. For the group of enterprises deploying centralized competitive strategy
In order to improve the competitive performance of Vietnamese food businesses,
it is necessary to diversify Vietnamese products to attract and meet customers'
requirements. In particular, it is necessary to develop new products and improve and
improve the quality of existing products, while focusing on market development,
23


specifically: (1) Vietnamese food businesses need to be concerned research and study
experience of product diversification of foreign food businesses have been successful in
diversifying products to develop products according to customer tastes and product
positioning of enterprises, creating differences and characteristics compared to other
businesses; (2) Developing export markets through participating in investment

promotion seminars and conferences between Vietnamese business community and
foreign importers to approach investors and traders and to introduce and promote
information about businesses to other businesses and partners; (3) Developing the rural
market is a synchronous way and promoting the production and consumption of goods
for food products.
5.3.3. Other solutions
+ Perfecting strategic leadership oriented competitive strategy of Vietnamese
food enterprises: The role of leader in the success of competitive strategy of the
enterprise is extremely important; it is emphasized as the first decisively motivating and
inspiring employees to make changes in businesses. For Vietnamese food enterprises,
leaders have the effect of encouraging, promoting human resources to create and
innovate thinking, which has a significant influence on competitive efficiency and
business efficiency. of enterprises.
+ Improving the effectiveness of management of changes in Vietnamese
food enterprises: The Vietnamese food industry always has rapid changes in
technology, competitive environment changes continuously and customer demand
are increasingly diversified, thus requiring Vietnamese food trading enterprises to
select suitable competitive strategy in order to continue to exist and develop at the
same time to carry out corporate restructuring activities to better adapt to with the
fluctuation of the environment.

24