Do intangible assets stimulate firm performance? Empirical evidence from Vietnamese agriculture, forestry and fishery small- and medium- sized enterprises

Innovation and intangible asset (IA) management have not received adequate attention amongst labour-and capital-intensive sectors. This study investigates the effect of IAs on firms' performance and the internal and external determinants of firms' IA development amongst small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Vietnamese sectors of agriculture, forestry and fishery (AFF). The study adopts a stochastic frontier analysis to estimate firms' performance and propensity score matching to examine the difference between firms with and without IAs. Ten hypotheses of innovation determinants including firms' internal and external factors are also investigated. The results reveal three notable findings. (1) For Vietnamese AFF sectors, IAs diminish firms' performance. (2) Internal factors such as age, size and financial robustness have positive effects on the formation of IAs, while investments in land, labour and research and development impose mixed effects. (3) External factors, such as regional and province-specific characteristics, have significant impacts on IAs. These results suggest a review of current policies on innovation and IA management amongst SMEs.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. on behalf of Journal of Innovation & Knowledge. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of intangible assets (IAs) on firms' performance and the factors influencing IA development among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Vietnamese agriculture, forestry, and fishery (AFF) sectors. The findings reveal that IAs diminish the performance of SMEs in the AFF sectors of Vietnam. Internal factors such as age, size, and financial stability have positive effects on IA formation, while investments in land, labor, and research and development have mixed effects. External factors, including regional and province-specific characteristics, also significantly impact IAs. These results suggest a need for a review of current policies on innovation and IA management for SMEs.