Characteristics of innovation in Vietnamese firms: An exploratory research. Based on previous literature on innovation at the firm level as well as literature on the business environment in developing countries and in Vietnam, this research proposes four propositions on characteristics of firm innovation in the country. | Journal of Economics and Development, , , December 2014, pp. 82-95 ISSN 1859 0020 Characteristics of Innovation in Vietnamese Firms: An Exploratory Research Phan Thi Thuc Anh National Economics University, Vietnam Email: phanthucanh@ Abstract Based on previous literature on innovation at the firm level as well as literature on the business environment in developing countries and in Vietnam, this research proposes four propositions on characteristics of firm innovation in the country. Two Vietnamese firms, one of them operating in the software industry and the other operating in the electronic game industry were selected to find out their innovation characteristics. Within each case, a triangulation of data collection methods was employed including field observations, documents, and direct personal interviews. It was found that evidence collected from the two cases generally supported the proposed propositions. The research provides a number of important implications for the government and businesses in Vietnam. Keywords: Innovation; product innovation; process innovation; marketing innovation; organizational innovation; incremental innovation; radical innovation. Journal of Economics and Development 82 Vol. 16, , December 2014 1. Introduction tions on characteristics of firm innovation in Vietnam and evidence to support these propositions. It is structured as follows: the next section presents background information on innovation and types of innovation at the firm level, followed by a section on proposition development. The subsequent sections outline the research methodology and then research findings on Vietnamese firms’ innovation characteristics. In the last section is discussion and implications for future research. Innovation has attracted very special attention from national governments, researchers and practitioners. Previous research has pointed out that innovation is a key determinant of an enterprise’s success (Baldwin,
