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Material Sourcing Characteristics and Firm Performance: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

With the evolution of today’s economy, supply chain management for raw materials is a complex task, but it can be simplified with the appropriate strategies. Thus, relationships between firms and suppliers have become critical for enterprise success and country development. This study investigates the effects of raw materials sources, including domestic and international ones, on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. Supporting this research, all the regression models are conducted on Stata version 16.0 software with the dataset of 3485 manufacturing SMEs, utilizing longitudinal data derived from bi-annually repeated surveys of randomly selected SMEs in ten provinces in Vietnam over the period of 2011–2015. Additionally, the results of this study indicate the significant positive effects of domestic raw materials on firm performance. Meanwhile, international raw material sources present SMEs with several disadvantages in maintaining the effectiveness of SMEs’ operations. In addition, the results also highlight that the overflow of raw materials from non-state enterprises has negative effects on firm performance. Alternatively, this study aims to fill the literature gap on supply chain management to suggest to SMEs some justifiable strategies to fortify sustainable growth and the rational flow of raw materials.