Vietnam, like many fast growing emerging economies, especially ones that have begun a shift from planned to market oriented economic systems, has encountered shifts in expectations and unexpected illusions that affect its management education.

In the latest research paper “Business Education in the Emerging Economy of Vietnam: 20 Years of Expectations, Illusions, and Lessons”, the four co-authors:  Quan Hoang Vuong (Centre Emile Bernheim, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium); Dung Tran, DHVP Research & Consultancy (49 Nguyen Hong Street, Hanoi, Vietnam); Nancy K. Napier (College of Business and Economics, Boise State University, Idaho, USA) and Thuy Ha Dau, Organizational Capacity Development (Hanoi, Vietnam)  review briefly key trends and transition points in the country’s history, how they may have affected business education, and consider their implications and directions and needs for the future of education.  

The paper discusses some of the key points in the last quarter century of Vietnam’s transition, key pitfalls or problems that have emerged, and finally, selected implications for management education.  Given the “organized chaos” in countries like Vietnam, much of the grounding and framing for this discussion comes from examples of events and actions that have occurred and how they relate to education – either a lack of or in some cases outright ignoring of business principles and ideas.  

This paper is published in the “Journal of International Business Education” (http://www.neilsonjournals.com/JIBE/) and presented by lead author Quan Hoang Vuong at the Symposium on Business and Management Education Innovation in Emerging and Developing Countries, held on February 10, 2012 at the College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA, USA). The Symposium is actively supported by the AACSB and the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) , the Office of the Provost for International Initiatives of Georgia Tech,  Rollins College’s China Center and international business programs, Georgia Tech national CIBER Center,  as well as a number of corporate sponsors.

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