SME Innovation management:A study of Vietnam’s Healthcare industry

Innovation is a broad concept. Therefore, to study innovation pathway in Vietnam, this research only focuses on one aspect of innovation: product development. Next, the author chose a small industry that is medical equipment business to analysis. From SME point of view (the majority of enterprises in the Vietnam market), innovation pathway in Vietnam was discovered. First, innovation literature was reviewed in order to come to a unified concept of innovation which is product development. Next, the concept of SME's innovation was reviewed. To better understand how product development in Vietnam carried out, the author also reviewed three typical examples of innovation pathway of Japan, South Korea and China. Then, Vietnam's innovation pathway was reviewed, and a three-phases innovation was launched. In order to review the three-stage innovation pathway in Vietnam under SMEs’perspectives, the author used qualitative method combing with a case study in medical equipment in Vietnam. Data was collected from two sources: (1) Firstly, primary data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews with managers of eight companies in healthcare industry. (2) Secondly, secondary data was collected through the internet, Vietnam's annual health reports, financial reports as well as product development plans of interviewed companies, government regulations on healthcare business. All the data then was analysed by thematic methodology. After analyzing the data, the findings and discussion on three-stage of innovation in the healthcare industry in Vietnam are presented in the perspective of SMEs. This is a three-stages process: Learning, Developing and Innovating. Although this three-phases are similar to the three countries of Japan, South Korea and China, the characteristics of each stage much differed from the others. This comes from the characteristics of healthcare industry and the characteristics of the Vietnamese economy. At present, Vietnamese SMEs are at the Developing stage, starting with some Vietnam brand products. However, these products are very simple and mechanical assembly. The creation of "made in Vietnam" products has brought many opportunities and many challenges for SMEs in the industry as well. The last stage is "Innovating" is too far and it is expected that Vietnam can reach that stage in the future. Finally, limitation of this dissertation was discussed, and suggestions were recommended for further research in the future