The objective of this project was to improve business management teaching methods in Vietnam, by providing Vietnamese instructors with opportunities to learn from specialists from developed East Asian countries while developing business cases that take into account the realities of corporate management in Vietnam. When the project began in October 2006, it was given two components: a grant project involving the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City, and a self-operated project to support the grant project.
Under the grant project component, instructors from three Vietnamese universities compiled 30 business case studies reflecting the business management environment in Vietnam, and published them in English and Vietnamese for use as textbook material in a Masters of Business Administration course. In addition, instructors who had participated in compiling the business case studies went on study tours to China, Singapore, South Korea and Japan to deepen their understanding of case study pedagogy in Asia and typical corporate management practices.
In the self-operated component, SPF held workshops on the methodology of business case study in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The workshops were led by Dr. Kim Kee-Young of Yonsei University in South Korea (who also served as project advisor) and by business management specialists sent from business schools in Japan, Singapore and China. In addition, SPF sent Vietnamese business management instructors on study tours to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China to learn about the development of business cases, with program preparation being commissioned to Yonsei University, Singapore Management University, and Dongha University in China.
During the three years of the project, business cases for Vietnamese enterprises were developed in a systematic and organized manner. This made it possible to raise the expertise of participating Vietnamese instructors, and to establish a research network of business management specialists in East Asia.