Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. X, No.

Y, xxxx 1

The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese

super-rich: the sources of their successful
business performance

Tran Thi Ngoc Lan

Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry,
140 Le Trong Tan, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: [email protected]

Le Doan Minh Duc

University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City,
59C Nguyen Dinh Chieu, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: [email protected]

Nguyen Hoang Tien and Do Huu Hai*

Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry,
140 Le Trong Tan, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
*Corresponding author

Dinh Hoang Anh Tuan

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education,
1 Vo Van Ngan, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: [email protected]

Vo Khac Truong Thanh

University of Phan Thiet,
225 Nguyen Thong, Phan Thiet City,
Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam
Email: [email protected]

Abstract: This paper examines the sources and the development patterns of the
most successful Vietnamese entrepreneurs, many of them are in the Forbes list.
In order to test three competing hypotheses, we analyse the biographies of the
founders of Vietnam’s biggest companies whose private assets surpassed
USD100 million as of June 2022 when COVID-19 was officially declared over.
In contrast to the prevailing assumption that the most successful entrepreneurs
are returnees from the West, we have found that they are predominantly
graduates from universities in Eastern Europe. Rather than Western or national
entrepreneurial experience, our findings pointed to the very specific

Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

2 T.T.N. Lan et al.

entrepreneurial experience gained during the period of study and start-up

business in transforming Eastern Europe as the most likely drive of their
business performance later on in Vietnam.

Keywords: business performance; start-up; Vietnamese overseas; Eastern

Europe; social mobility; entrepreneurship.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Lan, T.T.N., Duc, L.D.M.,
Tien, N.H., Hai, D.H., Tuan, D.H.A. and Thanh, V.K.T. (xxxx) ‘The
entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich: the sources of their
successful business performance’, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business,
Vol. X, No. Y, pp.xxx–xxx.

Biographical notes: Tran Thi Ngoc Lan is a Lecturer of the Ho Chi Minh City
University of Food Industry. Her specialization is in business management.

Le Doan Minh Duc is a Lecturer of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh

City. His specialization is in financial management.

Nguyen Hoang Tien is a Lecturer of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Food
Industry. His specialization is in business management.

Do Huu Hai is a Lecturer of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry.
His specialization is in business management.

Dinh Hoang Anh Tuan is a Lecturer of the Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology and Education. His specialization is in business management.

Vo Khac Truong Thanh is a Lecture of the Phan Thiet University. His

specialization is in business management.

1 Introduction

There is a wide-spread belief in the significant impact of social mobility on large scale
entrepreneurship and high business performance in many developing countries, including
Vietnam (Anderson and Gaddefors, 2016). Such a belief has been so far intensified by
massive emigration of Vietnamese generations to multiple outbound destinations in a
search for a better life and better entrepreneurial opportunities. Most of them start with
humble beginnings or even from scratch being young and inexperienced students or
workers overseas. After many years, most of them have achieved certain success in terms
of accumulated (social) capital. However, the reason behind exponential business growth
of some of the successful businessmen later on is the right moment they chose to return to
Vietnam to continue and sustain their business path/model growth.
Nonetheless, the spectacular entrepreneurial success and high business performance
of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, billionaires, super-rich are inconsistent with typical
advantages found in recent research tied with world successful giant entrepreneurs. There
are countless extensive researches exploring the determinants of entrepreneurial success
and business performance, especially in developing Asia, from where most of young
entrepreneurial spirits flock to the UK and US for the purpose of study, work and start-up
(Volchik and Maslyukova, 2017; Salamzadeh et al., 2013; Obrecht, 2016). Studies
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 3

suggest that their home-made spectacular success and high business performance is, to a
widest extent, determined by possession of a large portion of overseas entrepreneurial
and social capital comprising of formal knowledge in terms of completed prestigious
higher education, tacit knowledge (experience derived and developed from the acquired
knowledge); related formal and informal skills and capacity, multiple familial contacts
and social networks, professional and business connections (Kenney et al., 2013; Wang
et al., 2011; Boutillier and Ryckelynck, 2017). In the opposite direction, emerging
researches and development practices of spectacular success and high performance of
Vietnamese businesses recently point to other overseas sources of positive determinants –
the first generation of overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs returning home from Eastern
Europe and Russia. After the collapse of communism, all those countries comprehend the
volatility of current socio-economic context and so were decisively oriented toward a
market-based economy as the only way out. Obviously, due to the lack of market
competitiveness resulting from just very burgeoning state of the market economy there
are definitely much more opportunities for all to start entrepreneurial activities than in the
West at that time. The same was happening in Vietnam then but at a later stage and to a
lesser extent.
The question of whether the business context of developed countries creates strong
drivers for entrepreneurial success and business performance or not in a comparison to
that of the economies of collapsed socialist block of Eastern Europe and Soviet Union is
the main motivation of this study (Tien, 2015; Tien and Chi, 2018; Tien and Anh, 2018).
We focus on Vietnamese overseas entrepreneurs living, studying, doing business from
totally opposite parts of the world – perennially developed countries such as UK and US
and so-called market oriented transforming countries of Eastern Europe and Russia given
a very popular thought of the major socio-economic researchers and the belief of
Vietnamese society that studying, living and working in the West is a great advantage
and benefit serving as a strongest boost for anyone who would like to maximise their
success in professional career and/or entrepreneurially at home. Specifically, we compare
the entrepreneurial success of Western (mostly UK-US) returnees and entrepreneurial
success of Eastern (Eastern Europe and Russia) returnees in Vietnam and find the reasons
behind both the advantages and/or disadvantages of these two specific groups.
Additionally, we extend our research scope by adding one more group of entrepreneurs –
the local home-grown entrepreneurs who might, but not necessarily, migrate from the far-
off localities and remote areas to the biggest megacities in Vietnam to start their
entrepreneurial activities but never departed Vietnam to any destination in the world for
the purpose of living, studying or doing business.
Our empirical research focuses on the migration of founders of Vietnam’s most
successful and powerful firms regardless of being domestic, international or somewhere
else between. We analyse a dataset of biographical details of the founders of 100 privately
established Vietnamese companies who on their own feet had come to an asset volume of
at least USD100 million as of April 2022 (the moment when COVID-19 has been
formally declared as an endemic, not a pandemic disease). By doing so, we hope to
contribute to the development and enhancement of empirical research on
entrepreneurship still understudied in Vietnam. In terms of conceptual and theoretical
approach, we principally base on social capital theory (Putnam, 1993; Bourdieu, 1986), in
which social capital is often perceived as key determinants of entrepreneurial
performance (Granovetter, 1973). Studying social capital sources, we have focused on
entrepreneurs’ networks of friends, colleagues and farther and closer relatives and family
4 T.T.N. Lan et al.

members (Delmar and Davidsson, 2000), their collaboration, cooperation and

coordination patterns (Kenney et al., 2013; Batjargal, 2007), their place in social
stratifications as drivers of entrepreneurial performance.
Following this research approach, our paper offers additional contributions. In
addition to the above transnational level of entrepreneurial development, we also provide
an empirical insight into Vietnamese high-performing entrepreneurs by examining in
detail one more geographical source of entrepreneurship. In terms of inland
entrepreneurship, our departure point start from previous domestic studies on the specific
national patterns of entrepreneurial development, particularly the entrepreneurial
movement (migration, mobility) in both directions: from far-off, rural areas to megacities
and vice versa (Ferris and Voia, 2012; Fokkema et al., 2017; Dana, 1994; Von Friedrichs
and Wahlberg, 2016). In another direction, we also offer a time-bound study of the social
capital of entrepreneurship by focused on not only successful entrepreneurs themselves,
but also on the decade period of their success: 1990’s, 2000’s, 2010’s and 2020’s. Via
these contributions, based on the extensiveness and in-depth of previous studies that
examined the social capital of entrepreneurs we explain mobility patterns of
entrepreneurial activities in which competency, wage rise and development opportunity
advance not only in one location but also in localities nearby (Peredo et al., 2004).
Overall, this helps entrepreneurs advance the entrepreneurial performance enabled by
migratory patterns, especially those related to industrial clusters, support industries and
elite universities (Nazareno et al., 2019; Mayangsari et al., 2015).
In Section 2, we develop the social capital theoretical framework that guides the
whole theoretical and conceptual analysis, which is a combination of several
contemporary approaches to explaining the relationship between social capital,
geography, geopolitics and entrepreneurship. Section 3 provides an overview of the data
and methods, specifically the way we present the locations of education and work
experience, as well as the places of birth and residence of selected 100 business founders.
Then Section 4 presents the findings of empirical research. In Section 5, we discuss the
extent to which the proposed principal hypotheses are supported. We discuss whether the
hypothesis based on the UK and US like Western style of entrepreneurship is in fact a
common pattern, or whether the hypothesis based on Eastern European entrepreneurship
style is in fact a common pattern amongst high-performing entrepreneurs in Vietnam
today. The paper concludes with an extensive discussion on the significance of the
findings in this study for the scholarly knowledge on the issue of social capital as
determinants of high performance of entrepreneurs, outlining at the same time the
pathways forward for future research.

2 Theoretical framework overview

Social capital is determined by social networks including family, friends and colleagues
as well as education and professional experiences (Bourdieu, 1986; Audretsch, 2017).
Putnam (1993) defines social capital as social networks and trust that facilitate
entrepreneurial coordination and cooperation. Studies on the relation between social
capital and entrepreneurship highlight the role of social capital to determine
entrepreneurial performance (Delmar and Davidsson, 2000). Klingler -Vidra and Liu
(2020) claimed that without personal acquaintance and connections, without associations
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 5

in social networks, it may be hard to break into the extant entrepreneurial circle to find or
to be a business partner or a collaborator to setup or enter the joint-ventures.
Granovetter (1973) conceptualised strong ties (strong connections with colleagues,
friends and family) and weak ties (loose acquaintances, shallow relationships and
connections with people in society) in determining entrepreneurial success and business
performance. Engel (2014) has noted that social networks, amongst other things, shape
the relative advantages of entrepreneurs in determining their risk aversion/propensity in
entrepreneurial activities, because such soft assets could mitigate the risks associated and
can serve as safe space or certain kind of business insurance.
Scholars have also examined the relationship between social (entrepreneurial) capital
and social (entrepreneurial) mobility. Studies carried out by Nazareno et al. (2019),
Camara and Ferreira (2021) seek to find the explanation of why and how such national
or/and transnational mobility may lead to the initiation, extension and deepening of
entrepreneurial activities. These studies focus on social capital accumulation as a result of
living and attending universities at the new locations both domestic and overseas.
By studying and working in developed countries, returnees are to acquire
entrepreneurial capacity and are often seen as more competitive and innovative after
returning home (Zhou et al., 2016). In the context of entrepreneurship in developing
countries, this stems from a broadly understood subconscious tendency of employers to
hire and invest in people similar to themselves (Parker, 2020) – returnees from the US,
UK and other countries of developed world (Klingler-Vidra et al., 2021). The employers
believe that the experience of studying and working there leads to developing new
relevant skills enabling the exploration of potential market gaps (niche) at home.
As the next research point, the literature focuses on transnational migration as social
capital, with contacts and networks accumulated from overseas experiences (Brzozowski
et al., 2019). Notably, Kenney et al. (2013) find that many returnees, after obtaining
university degrees in the US and UK, went on to setup new companies, joining a second
wave of domestic entrepreneurial activities, following an initial group of highly-
successful domestically experienced entrepreneurs who first started up and achieved
grand success at home.
In the context of developing countries such Western study and work related social
capital is considered as very critical factor propelling entrepreneurial performance
through the creation a new link or update an old link between current actors in a social
network so that more of them are able to access valuable information, opportunities and
resources needed (Batjargal, 2007). However, according to Hao et al. (2017) there is often
a trade-off between new returnees and well-known domestic entrepreneurs with a vastly
accumulated social capital nationwide in forms of current and potential relationships,
contacts, networks. This is quite a real disadvantage for returnees who have lost their
domestic social capital which is not accumulated over time since they were away living,
studying, working and starting up business overseas. Thus, in terms of social capital
accumulation, there is debate as to whether overseas experience will or will not bring
about a really valuable asset in comparison with domestic entrepreneurs.
The reviewed literature also highlights the importance of domestic resources, social
infrastructures and governmental institutions associated with the entrepreneurial success
and business performance (Lang et al., 2014). While transnational mobility could boost
the accumulation of newly formed social capital conducive to the high-performance of
entrepreneurial activities, current research often delves deeply into the nature of domestic
6 T.T.N. Lan et al.

social capital including all types of ties across the national entrepreneurial ecosystem as a
determinant of those activities (Engel, 2014).
In the context of developing countries, research findings often highlight the
geographical advantages of pre-existing entrepreneurial networks and human capital with
pointing to the places and localities that are most likely associated with the largest circle
of entrepreneurs as there is a positive relationship between an agglomeration’s largeness
(and its concentration of universities and R&D institutions network) and its scale of
entrepreneurial activities (Zheng and Zhao, 2017). Such megacities and agglomerations
with inherited resources (the density of the same, similar and supportive industries) and
offered opportunities (a pre-existed network of technological and entrepreneurial talents)
are attractive and prospective for highly-skilled workers and ambitious entrepreneurs (Li
et al., 2020).
Summarising the presented above research streams of the reviewed literature, there
are two contradictory viewpoints of an ongoing discussion on the principle drivers of
entrepreneurial performance. We test two competing hypotheses about geographical
patterns of Vietnamese high-performing businesses. Firstly, developing from the logic of
local and regional advantages that entrepreneurship is boosted by locally-specific social
capital endowed in biggest megacities, our first hypothesis is that it is domestic
experiences and connections in specific megacities (with their industrial ecosystem,
universities and R&D network, governmental institutions) and regions (densely populated
agglomeration) are behind the high entrepreneurial performance nationwide (Giulietti
et al., 2012).
Hypothesis 1 Vietnam’s high-performing entrepreneurs are home-grown, they have
attended national universities, acquired locally formed social capital, found
and managed their venture continually since the day of graduation until
today.
In contrast, the following Hypotheses 2 and 3 are related with entrepreneurial mobility,
and the social capital endowments stemming from transnational know-how and overseas
experiences enabling high capacity of entrepreneurial activities (Batjargal, 2007; Kenney
et al., 2013). Hypothesis 2 and 3 are related to the Vietnamese’ mobility to the world’s
very opposite and contrastive geo-political entrepreneurial environments that offer unique
social capital endowment and experiences enabling different specific entrepreneurial
capacities.
Hypothesis 2 Vietnam’s high-performing entrepreneurs are those who have studied, and/
or worked in US and UK like countries, and then returned to Vietnam to
work and establish their own ventures.
Hypothesis 3 Vietnam’s high-performing entrepreneurs are those who have attended
(and not necessarily graduated) from universities in Eastern Europe and
Russia, then founded their ventures there and extended them at home after
returning.
In order to test the above three hypotheses competing and contradicting with each other
in different ways, identified during literature review on social capital and entrepreneurial
mobility at different geo-political level of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, we examine
entrepreneurial movement patterns both internally (at home) and externally (overseas) to
very different politically and socio-economically environment in different parts of the
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 7

world (Leitao et al., 2011). This helps us to determine the direction of movements to be
mostly associated with the elite cohort of successful, rich and influential entrepreneurs in
Vietnam.

3 Data and research method

In order to in-depth investigate the patterns of social capital accumulation among the high
performing entrepreneurs in Vietnam, we first identified the set of Vietnam’s most
successful, privately owned ventures in a consistency with the approach of Klingler-
Vidra et al. (2021) and Kenney et al. (2013). We set the search filters in the VNDirect
and Forbes database for Vietnamese entrepreneurs that had increased their assets to the
level of at least USD100 million as of April 2022. This filtering process has produced an
initial list of 30 wealthy entrepreneurs – multi-millionaires (according to national
VNDirect list) including seven individuals – billionaires with a total asset surpassing
USD1 billion (according to Forbes list released in March 2022). We collect the following
data for each firm they represent (each individual could represent more than one firm and
one firm could be represented by two or more individuals, especially the family firm):
the date of founding, headquarters’ city, organisational structure, and branch (sector or
industry). We supplemented the VNDirect and Forbes information with an extensive
search of press releases and website updates to gather more detailed information on these
multi-millionaires or billionaires representing their firms.
We applied the following multiple criteria of companies’ selection and their
representatives (billionaires or/and multi-millionaires) (Rubin and Rubin, 2005; Yin,
2009):
 Companies must be founded or acquired by them and operate actively and
continually in Vietnam. Hence, we excluded government-based companies
(established by government bodies and institutions).
 We have also excluded companies that cannot prove their Vietnamese ownership, so
these companies cannot be foreign-owned.
 To avoid double counting we have also filtered out companies that are not
independent and in fact are subsidiaries of Vietnamese parental companies.
As a set of carefully selected 77 companies was established, exactly 30 of their
representatives (entrepreneurs, owners, co-owners) with a possessed fortune of over
USD100 million were identified. It is not exceptional that some companies were founded
and owned by more than representatives and some representatives possess ownership in
more than one company.
Among those 30 representatives, we found out that seven individuals possess a
fortune worth more than USD1 billion. We classified them into a new separate category
that needs further deeper analysis. After identifying the 30 representatives with a fortune
fulfilling our wealthy and richness criterion (the possessed assets equalled or over
USD100 million) we started to collect information on their biographical data andpersonal
details (date of birth; gender; city of hometown; cities and countries of higher
8 T.T.N. Lan et al.

education: Bachelor, Master and PhD; names of graduated universities and their places in
leading world rankings; the date and the place of first business started up). The main
sources of our needed data are Wikipedia pages (in English and in Vietnamese) and
similar content website links such as the LinkedIn profiles of the 30 representatives who
are luckily very well-known in Vietnamese society. Particularly, the information on those
who possess over USD1 billion fortunes are very detailed and very easily to find on the
websites so we could take a deeper analysis of these billionaires group as a specific
additional category of richness. In case of representatives who are overseas returnees after
a period of studies, works, business and life (the only our criterion is the length of
overseas stay must be longer than one year accumulatively) we coded them according to
the following relation: the country and city of destination; the number of year; the purpose
of staying abroad (study, work, family reunion, business or multiple). This allows us to
comprehensively investigate the scale of phenomenon and the intensity of transnational
experience among these two levels of selected high-performing entrepreneurs, the super-
rich and most influential representatives of Vietnam largest companies, and thus, to test
our mentioned above research hypotheses.

4 Results and discussion

First, given our interest in the extent to which our research objects demonstrate particular
geographical mobility patterns vis-a-vis their higher education background, we examined
whether as rich and influential individuals and founders of largest companies in Vietnam
they completed their study at home or abroad and if so in which particular part of the
world they did. Through investigation of the country for university studies, we found that
almost half of these founders (14/30, 47%) completed undergraduate study (with
Bachelor title) in Vietnam, with only 3 (10%) having no experience at Vietnamese
universities across all levels (undergraduate – Bachelor title, graduate – Master title, and
postgraduate – PhD title), and also almost half of them (13/30, 43%) completed their
study overseas. In this study we will not examine those who did not complete at least
their first university Bachelor degree. Amongst individuals who have studied overseas,
27% (8/30) have studied in Eastern Europe (including Russia) throughout levels of
Bachelor and Master and 17% (5/30) have studied in the West (mainly US and UK) only
at level of Bachelor. Individuals who have studied in Eastern Europe are of an older
generation than individuals who have studied in the West and we will discuss this issue
later. The similarity of them is that no one has obtained or has tried to obtain the highest
PhD academic degree both in Eastern Europe and in the West. That means the highest
academic degree is unnecessary for their entrepreneurial careers. The fact that individuals
who have studied both undergraduate and graduate levels in Eastern Europe is due to
those two levels of education are integrated all-in-one as normally no Bachelor title is
conferred in this part of the world. The conclusion of analysis is that only first level of
higher education (with Bachelor title) is desired and no further formal education is needed
for entrepreneurial success later on.
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 9

Table 1 Higher education of researched entrepreneurs

No higher education completed in Vietnam 3/30 (10%)

Higher education completed Higher education completed at the national universities
in Vietnam (Bachelor only) situated in the megacities (10/14/30) (71%; 33%)

14/30 (47%) Higher education completed at the local universities

(4/14/30) (29%; 13%)
Higher education completed Higher education completed in Eastern Europe (Bachelor and
overseas 13/30 (43%) Master degree in STEM) (8/13/30) (62%; 27%)
Higher education completed in the West (UK, US) (Bachelor
degree in Business and Economics) (5/13/30) (38%; 17%)
Source: Own development

As the result of analysis in Table 1 shows, half of the successful entrepreneurs in our list
completed their Bachelor’s degree in Vietnam. A majority that means two thirds of them
(10 out of 14) has attended and completed their first Bachelor’s degrees at highly
reputable national universities located in central largest megacities (also wealthy urban
agglomerations) of Vietnam, such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City while the rest of them
completed their study at local universities. This proportion means that in Vietnam, people
with local higher education are not deprived of the chances to start up and bring about
entrepreneurial success. Paradoxically and in contrast to the popular thought in Vietnam
today, as mentioned also above, amongst those who studied overseas the proportion of
successful entrepreneurs is in favour of developing countries of Eastern Europe than of
developed countries of the West such as UK and US in a relation of almost 2 to 1. More
interestingly, most of the individuals who have studied in Eastern Europe were majored
in math and engineering and those who have studied in the West were majored in
Business and Economics. So we can conclude that at least in Vietnam, the Western
modern business and management knowledge or even experience practically was not a
guarantor for spectacular successes of entrepreneurial venture and there are certainly
other more important impact factors.
Table 2 The mobility of researched entrepreneurs for higher education purposes

No higher education completed in Vietnam 3/30 (10%)

Higher education Completed in the Born in the megacities (7/10/14) (70%; 50%)
completed in VN megacities (10/14/30) Born in the far-off localities (3/10/14)
14/30 (47%) (71%; 33%) (30%; 21%)
Completed at far-off Born in the megacities (0/4/14) (0%; 0%)
localities (4/14/30) Born in the far-off localities (4/4/14)
(29%; 13%) (100%; 29%)
Higher education Completed in Eastern Born in the megacities (5/8/13) (63; 38.5%)
completed Europe (8/13/30) Born in the far-off localities (3/8/13)
overseas (62%; 27%) (37%; 23.5%)
13/30 (43%)
Completed in the West Born in the megacities (5/5/13) (100%; 38%)

(5/13/30) (38%; 17%) Born in the far-off localities (0/5/13) (0%; 0%)
Source: Own development
10 T.T.N. Lan et al.

Table 3 The current age (as of 2022) against higher education of researched entrepreneurs

No higher education completed in Vietnam 3/30 (10%)

Higher education Completed in the megacities Under 55 y.o. (7/10/14) (70%; 50%)

completed in VN (10/14/30) (71%; 33%) Over 55 y.o. (3/10/14) (30%; 21%)

14/30 (47%)

Completed at far-off localities Under 55 y.o. (0/4/14) (0%; 0%)

(4/14/30) (29%; 13%) Over 55 y.o. (4/4/14) (100%; 29%)
Higher education Completed in Eastern Europe Under 55 y.o. (1/8/13) (12%; 8%)

completed overseas (8/13/30) (62%; 27%) Over 55 y.o. (7/8/13) (88%; 54%)
13/30 (43%)

Completed in the West Under 55 y.o. (5/5/13) (100%; 38%)

(5/13/30) (38%; 17%) Over 55 y.o. (0/5/13) (0%; 0%)
Source: Own development

The result of analysis in Table 2 shows that amongst those who completed their higher
education in Vietnam, a majority of them did it in megacities (10 out of 14, 71%) and
70% of them are born also in the megacities (7 out of 10). That serves as an argument
that most successful entrepreneurs have been born and studied in the megacities of
Vietnam. However, there are a smaller proportion of successful entrepreneurs born in the
far-off localities but were able to finish their studies both in the megacities (3 out of 14,
21%) and in the hometown (4 out of 14, 29%). So we conclude that in Vietnam people
who were born and/or studied in the far-off localities are not without chances for
spectacular entrepreneurial successes, but the typical success model is to be born and to
complete higher education in the megacities. Table 2 also shows that amongst those who
completed their higher education overseas, only megacities born individuals were able to
study in the West while people coming from far-off localities were able to complete their
studies in the Eastern Europe. The reason behind that fact is that only the rich people or
the off-springs of already rich entrepreneurs are afforded to fund these expensive studies
offered by Western higher education institutions, especially in the UK and US.
Additionally, studies in the Eastern Europe are partly funded by the State and
government, especially in the early stage of the ongoing period of Vietnam’s economic
opening up. That also explains the fact that individuals who have studied in Eastern
Europe are of an older generation than individuals who have studied in the West.
As the result of analysis in Table 3 shows, amongst home-grown entrepreneurs in
terms of completed higher education in Vietnam, those who were raised from universities
located in the far-off localities must strive for more to achieve spectacular success than
those who were raised from national universities located in the megacities. Given higher
education completed in local universities of the far-off localities, they needed to spend
more time and resort more efforts (no one is currently under 55 years old) than their
colleagues educated at national universities in the megacities (7, 70% of them are
currently under 55 years old) to come to such success as of becoming entrepreneurial
multi-millionaires. Amongst the overseas entrepreneurs in terms of their completed
higher education at foreign universities in different parts of the world, those who were
raised from Western universities are younger (all of them are currently under 55 years
old) than their colleagues raised from universities in Eastern Europe (almost all of them
are currently over 55 years old, 7 out of 8, 88%). That could imply that Western education
will significantly improve chances of entrepreneurs to become multi-millionaires. We will
return to this issue at the later part of analysis in this study.
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 11

Table 4 The length of continual entrepreneurial activity in Vietnam (as of 2022) against higher
education of researched entrepreneurs

No higher education completed in Vietnam 3/30 (10%)

Higher education Completed in the megacities Under 22 y.o. (4/10/14) (40%; 50%)

completed in VN (10/14/30) (71%; 33%)

Over 22 y.o. (6/10/14) (60%; 21%)
14/30 (47%)

Completed at far-off localities Under 22 y.o. (1/4/14) (25%; 7%)

(4/14/30) (29%; 13%)
Over 22 y.o. (3/4/14) (75%; 29%)
Higher education Completed in Eastern Europe Under 22 y.o. (2/8/13) (25%; 8%)

completed overseas (8/13/30) (62%; 27%) Over 22 y.o. (6/8/13) (75%; 54%)
13/30 (43%)

Completed in the West Under 22 y.o. (5/5/13) (100%; 38%)

(5/13/30) (38%; 17%) Over 22 y.o. (0/5/13) (0%; 0%)
Source: Own development

As the result of analysis in Table 4 shows, amongst the entrepreneurs who were educated
in Vietnam, the proportion of those who were raised from national universities in the
megacities are having long continual entrepreneurial activities (over 22 years) and those
with short continual entrepreneurial activities (under 22 years) are well balanced (60% to
40%). The same proportion for those who were raised from local universities in the far-
off localities are 75% to 25%. That means given higher education obtained in local
universities located in the far-off areas entrepreneurs thereof must spend more time in
terms of cumulative length of entrepreneurial activity than their colleagues educated in
megacities’ large universities in order to reach a current success and to be selected as an
object of research in this study. Amongst the entrepreneurs – returnees, those who have
completed study in the West have come to their current entrepreneurial success position
and accumulated their multi-million assets in a shorter time than their colleagues studying
in Eastern Europe. The result above shows that all of them have been continually attached
to their venture after 2000 (that means less than 22 years of entrepreneurial history), while
75% of their counterparts from Eastern Europe must have been through more than 22
years of entrepreneurial experience (they started their venture much earlier than 2020).
That again could imply that Western education will significantly improve chances of
entrepreneurs to become multi-millionaires in terms of time acceleration of the venture
career path. We will return to this issue at the later part of analysis in this study.
To sum up, the above analysis carried out for the selected group of multi-millionaires
has led us to some following interesting conclusions:
1 Highest academic degree (PhD as third level of higher education) is unnecessary for
their entrepreneurial careers in Vietnam.
2 The first level of higher education (Bachelor title) is desired and no further formal
education is needed for entrepreneurial success in Vietnam.
3 Western modern business and management knowledge or experience practically was
not a guarantor for spectacular successes in Vietnam.
4 Entrepreneurs born and/or studied in the far-off localities are not without chances for
spectacular entrepreneurial successes, but the typical success model is to be born and
to complete higher education in the megacities of Vietnam.
12 T.T.N. Lan et al.

5 Entrepreneurs graduated from universities in the far-off localities needed to spend

more time (in terms of moment in lifetime to reach success and in terms of
cumulative length of entrepreneurial activity) and resort more efforts than their
colleagues graduated from universities in the megacities to come to such amazing
successes as of becoming multi-millionaires.
6 Western education will significantly improve chances of entrepreneurs to become
multi-millionaires.
The result of analysis focusing only on those entrepreneurs within our sample of research
whose assets reached the value of at least USD1 billion (as of March 2022) displayed in
Table 5 shows that:
1 All the Vietnamese billionaires have their higher education background attained
almost equally at home or in the Eastern Europe, but not in the Western developed
countries like the UK and US.
2 Vietnamese billionaires are relatively young because they are almost equally both
under and over 55 years old. Nonetheless, in almost all cases (6 out of 7, 86%) their
length of continual entrepreneurial activities has significantly spanned across 20th
and 21st century (started before 2000).
3 Regardless of homeland or overseas higher education attained, all of them have
started up their venture in megacities despite their place of birth whether a megacity
(5 out of 7, 71%) or a far-off locality (2 out of 7, 29%)
Table 5 The profile (higher education, age, mobility and length of entrepreneurship) of
Vietnamese billionaires (as of 2022)

Higher education In Vietnam (largest cities) (4/7) (57%)

In Eastern Europe (3/7) (43%)
In the West (0/7) (0%)
Age Under 55 y.o. (3/7) (43%)
Over 55 y.o. (4/7) (57%)
Mobility Born in megacity, but start-up in megacity (5/7) (71%)
Born in far-off locality, but start-up in megacity (2/7) (29%)
Born in megacity, but start-up in far-off locality (0/7) (0%)
Born in far-off locality, but start-up in far-off locality (0/7) (0%)
Length of Under 22 y.o. (1/7) (14%)
entrepreneurship Over 22 y.o. (6/7) (86%)
Source: Own development

The above mentioned analyses conducted simultaneously for both the group of multi-
million entrepreneurs and the group of billion entrepreneurs are the bases for a discussion
and formulation of the following facts which could serve as evidence for verifying the
three hypotheses put forward in the ‘theoretical framework review’ section:
a Only the first level of higher education (Bachelor degree) is enough for an
entrepreneurial career regardless of whether it is a business or non-business oriented
major of study.
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 13

b Western business knowledge, experience and connection are not enough for
achieving spectacular entrepreneurial success in Vietnam. To a certain extent, it
significantly and positively impacts the chances of entrepreneurs to become
multi-millionaires. However, it seems to have no positive relation in terms of helping
them become billionaires.
c Typical Vietnamese entrepreneurial success model is that the entrepreneurs should
be educated by the largest national universities located in the megacities and also
should start their career there. However, entrepreneurs born and educated in far-off
areas are not without entrepreneurial chances if they start up in the megacities.
Additionally, they must start up earlier and exert more efforts for success. Their
ways towards success are a little bit lengthier and bumpy than that of their colleagues
from larger urban agglomerations.
d In contrast to the ways to become multi-millionaires, the ways to become billionaires
are much lengthier and bumpier spanning the periods of the end of 20th century and
the beginning of 21st century (so it takes much more than 22 years). However,
Vietnamese billionaires are hard-working and have started their entrepreneurial
career path at a much earlier stage, almost at a very young age as soon as they
finished the first level of higher education. As a result, we see that their current
average age is relatively younger in comparison to the world average.
At the beginning, this article has put forward three hypotheses to be verified in this
research, that is we could support or to reject each of them. Based on the above results of
analyses, those hypotheses and their verification are presented below as following:
Hypothesis 1 Vietnam’s high-performing entrepreneurs are home-grown, they have
attended national universities, acquired locally formed social capital, found
and managed their venture continually since the day of graduation until
today.
The main sources of successful high-performing and influential entrepreneurs who could
greatly contribute to the country’s national socio-economic development must be
domestic ones. This is also true in our analysis as Vietnam should rely on a home -made
cohort of entrepreneurs as its main driver of highly effective socio-economic
performance. The 100% made-in-Vietnam entrepreneurs have the deepest and best
knowledge on the Vietnamese market, specificity of all industries of its economy. Their
very early founded or co-founded ventures also are parts of a fast growing national
entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition to that, obviously they are in possession of and
continually develop strong and diversified networks of formal and informal business,
social, political contacts, connections and relations without that their entrepreneurial
ventures could not function well and compete with others to the full capacity. These are
their absolute advantages in comparison to entrepreneurs – returnees from overseas
regardless of the destinations selected a prior.
Hypothesis 2 Vietnam’s high-performing entrepreneurs are those who have studied, and/
or worked in US and UK like countries, and then returned to Vietnam to
work and establish their own ventures.
Western modern business knowledge, experiences and connections seem to be, at least at
the first stage of the entrepreneurial development, not quite suitable and relevant in
14 T.T.N. Lan et al.

Vietnam then business context. As a result, they played a lesser part in helping
entrepreneurs to come to their dreamed entrepreneurial success than specific business
knowledge, experiences and connections gained at home. That is certainly the main
disadvantage of entrepreneurs – returnees from the West in comparison to the home-
grown entrepreneurs, especially most of them who have left Vietnam for work andstudy
since a very young age. Since that time many significant changes, compound socio-
economic, political and technological transformations have taken place at home making
them unrecognisable for the returnees later on. They need time and effort to adjust to and
to take part in this new entrepreneurial environment. Of course, experiences, resilience and
determination, innovation, proactiveness and flexible attitude learned in the West will help
them quickly adapt to the new entrepreneurial reality and gain first entrepreneurial
success as the soonest.
Hypothesis 3 Vietnam’s high-performing entrepreneurs are those who have attended
(and not necessarily graduated) from universities in Eastern Europe and
Russia, then founded their ventures there and extended them at home after
returning.
While the political context of Eastern Europe and Vietnam remains the same (being all
transforming economies), the business environment and entrepreneurial condition there
are more or less similar to the situation at home. So, the business knowledge, experiences
gained, social capital related networks and connections created, entrepreneurial savoir-
vivre infiltrated by Vietnamese overseas in this part of the European continent could be
easily explored and applied with sustainable and spectacular success in Vietnam. Those
elements are major determinants of highly effective entrepreneurial activities of returnees
from the Eastern Europe which as their specific advantages could in some cases surpass
that of the colleagues, the home-grown entrepreneurs in Vietnam.

5 Conclusions

Besides theoretical development over the extent theory of social capital, the article
contributes to a deeper understanding of the sources of entrepreneurial processes taking
place in Vietnam from a few decades ago until now. Thanks to the political heritages,
strong economic ties with countries of the former socialist block in the Eastern Europe
and Russia, there were a lot of Vietnamese students, labour forces, research scientists,
and of course, business entrepreneurs living there. As the socio-economic situation at
home steadily improved, the percentage of them deciding to return home has been
increasing, creating a new source of overseas entrepreneurial human resource potential
for Vietnam. The second source of entrepreneurial human resources potential is created
by rich Vietnamese families who are affordable and willing to send their kids to the West
for diverse purposes of study, work and also that of entrepreneurial nature. After
graduation, some of them decide to stay there permanently due to better living quality
and condition. However, despite all life advantages and benefits offered typically by
developed countries, a majority of the proactive, experienced and business oriented
Vietnamese entrepreneurs saw a much better chance to start up or to continue their
venture if they return home than in case of stay. That just forms the second source of
entrepreneurial human resource potential for Vietnam. The third source of entrepreneurial
human resource potential is created at the home soil by the home-grown Vietnamese
 The entrepreneurial pathway of Vietnamese super-rich 15

entrepreneurs. This is the most numerous source of entrepreneurial human resource

potential. Thanks to the flat and interconnected world in the era of the fourth industrial
revolution, to some extent, in one way or another, they can acquire necessary
entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes typical for entrepreneurs in the West;
create mixed social capitals both typical for the West and specific due to the Vietnamese
business environment.
The Vietnamese government and policy makers should pay equal attention to all the
sources of entrepreneurial human resource potential and capital for the sake of sustainable
development of its economy and society. Due to the specificity of each of three sources,
all of them are important and should be interconnected, collaborated to create a better
synergy effect for the purpose of a better and faster entrepreneurial development in
Vietnam’s society and economy to catch up and even overtake this trend in the world, so
that more people will join the multi-millionaires and billionaires’ clubs analysed in this
articles, contributing to the higher level of prosperity and influential power of the nation.
The research in this article has some points of constraint and limitation. Firstly,
among the two sources of entrepreneurial human resource potential further research
should dig down further into more details in terms of the level of Vietnamese overseas
entrepreneurial spirit, the number and contribution of Vietnamese entrepreneurial
representatives in each of the countries regarding the Western bloc and Eastern Europe
bloc for the homeland’s entrepreneurial and socio-economic development. Secondly, the
same should be conducted domestically in order to differentiate the level of
entrepreneurship, quantitative and qualitative contribution of different parts of the
country for the general homeland’s entrepreneurial and socio-economic development.
Those research works should be done using preliminary data analysis. Thirdly, further
research should also compare this Vietnamese entrepreneurial panorama to that of other
neighbouring nations within the ASEAN blocs. A cross countries analysi s within the
region will reflect the true, overall and objective picture (landscape) of the Vietnamese
contemporary entrepreneurial development.

Acknowledgements

This research is partly funded by University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi
Minh City University of Food Industry (under Contract No. 149/HD-DCT), Ho Chi Minh
City University of Technology and Education, University of Phan Thiet.

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