Internal R&D, family ownership and product innovation performance of entrepreneurial ventures in Vietnam: the moderating roles of informal exchange and internationalization

The pivotal roles of internal R&D and types of ownership in accelerating innovation have been highlighted by several researchers; however, lack of research has focused on the effects of these factors in the context of transition countries, where the economy is high institutional opacity and many issues of family firms have been unexplored. We examine the moderating effects of informal exchange and internationalization on the impact of internal R&D and family ownership on product innovation performance (PIP) of Vietnamese entrepreneurial ventures. A firm-level survey of 12,798 entrepreneurial ventures (EVs) in Vietnam is employed. Tobit regression revealed that informal exchange weakened the relationship between internal R&D and PIP and improved the association between family ownership and PIP; and internationalization facilitated the impact of internal R&D and family ownership on PIP. Our results indicated that social capital theory, agency theory, and capability-building perspective are essential in examining such associations on the growth of EV.