Course Title:  Professional Doctorate in Business Administration

Thesis Title: Ecommerce for SME's in Vietnam: Case Study of Selected Companies in Hanoi

Supervisors:  Dr Loong Wong & Dr Anni Dugdale 

Abstract:
The emergence of electronic commerce over the past decade has radically transformed the economic landscape. For developing countries, the digital revolution offers unprecedented opportunities for economic growth and development, as entrepreneurs from Bangalore to Guadalajara to Dakar can testify. 

Kofi A. Annan¹

It is difficult, and yes, it is possible. (Summing up how hard it is for SMEs in developing countries to use electronic commerce successfully.)

Edward da Costa²

The reach of the underlying information and communication technologies (ICT) making electronic commerce possible is also causing unprecedented changes of business. This research investigates the question of how electronic commerce technology is changing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in strategic aspect. SMEs usually face finance constraints that limit their resource development and hinder their technological advancement. However, it is an important contributor to the economy and affects a number of sectors including tourism. Tourism has pioneered the development of e-commerce and the related technologies; its share has been up to 50% on the whole e-activities. Many developing countries have made tourism their top national priority for economic development and tourism e-commerce is being promoted due to its relatively low start-up cost and its high potential to attract foreign capital. However, with a low overall level of e-readiness, deploying e-commerce in tourism small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is rather overwhelming endeavor.

This research presents a case study that uses extensive filed data collection to assess the effectiveness of e-commerce in promoting tourism in Vietnam. This study assist in better understanding the opportunities, challenges, and guidance necessary for tourism e-commerce to be effective in developing economies. Moreover, this study is set out to generate a preliminary understanding of strategic value of e-commerce to tourism SMEs in Vietnam. The research uses a qualitative approach, by undertaking a detailed case study within typical tourism SMEs.

Bibliography:
Nguyen Mai Thu is postgraduate student in DBA program. In Vietnam, she has been working for National Economics University since 2000. She is interested in e-commerce and had a few years of teaching this subject. In 2007, she joined a project of Teaching e-commerce effectively for Vietnam enterprises funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and development. Therefore, this research can be a next step for her to bring e-commerce closer with Vietnam SMEs.

¹UNCTAD Secretariat, E-Commerce and Development Report 2001, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations, New York and Geneva, 2001. (in Forward)
²p. 129, da Costa, Eduardo, Global E-Commerce Strategies for Small Businesses, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2001.