The aim of this study is to investigate the internal determinants of the export
performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Building
upon the Resource-Based Theory, hypotheses on the internal determinants
of export performance of SMEs in Vietnam are proposed. A sample of 569
SMEs with export activities in Vietnam during the year 2018 is collected to
carry out this research. To ensure the reliability of data, this study excludes
joint venture companies due to ambiguous participation between the
government and the foreign element. A linear regression approach is applied
along with the Robust standard errors method to test the proposed
hypotheses of the research model. In addition, this study also examines
several control variables in the model, including cultural distance, geographic
distance, economic distance, and institutional distance. Estimation results
reveal that firm size, firm industry, and research and development (R&D)
have a positive and statistically significant impact on the export performance
of SMEs in Vietnam, while the manager’s gender has a negative and
statistically significant influence on the export performance of these firms.
Based on the empirical findings, several governance implications are
provided for managers to improve the export performance of their SMEs in
Vietnam.