Evaluating Entrepreneurship Performance in Vietnam Through the Global Entrepreneurship Development Index Approach

This study mainly aims to measure entrepreneurship performance in Vietnam at the national level through a new approach — the Global Entrepreneurship Development Index (GEDI). The GEDI consists of three sub-indices, including Entrepreneurial Attitudes, Entrepreneurial Abilities and Entrepreneurial Aspiration, which are divided into fourteen pillars and can be further subdivided into 28 variables. By analyzing these pillars and variables in comparison to two Southeast Asian developing economies — Thailand and Indonesia — which have similar cultural, economic and social characteristics, the study identifies the best and worst performing variables of the GEDI. The research results indicate that in Vietnam, nine bottlenecks of fourteen pillars are poorly performing with very low scores, in which the highest policy priority is given for four pillars, including risk acceptance, opportunity perception, internationalization and technology absorption. Finally, the Penalty for Bottleneck (PFB) methodology, which is considered as the policy application of the GEDI methodology and a simulation of “optimal” policy allocation are suggested to alleviate the weakest performing pillars, aiming to achieve the greatest improvement of entrepreneurship performance as well as reach the desired five-point increase in Vietnam's GEDI.