The Impact of Training on Firm Performance in a Transitional Economy: Evidence from Vietnam‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Academics and professionals in human resource management (HRM) have identified that training policies are critical for improving employee skills, firm performance, and organisational survival (Schuler 2001) and essential for a firm is to remain competitive (Barney 1991, MacDuffie 1995, Salas & Cannon-Bowers 2001). Several authors have attempted to estimate the relationship between training programmes and productivity using firm level data (e.g., Bishop 1991, Bartel 1994, Tan & Batra 1995, Aragon-Sanchez, Barba-Aragon & Sanz-Valle 2003, Arthur, Bennett, Edens & Bell 2003, Garcia 2005, Zwick 2006). In particular, Bishop (1991) used the data from the Employment Opportunities Pilot Projects (EOPP) Survey and a subjective measure method to link training and productivity, whereas Bartel (1994) used a standard Cobb-Douglas production function and firm level data from several economic sectors to estimate the impact of training on firm productivity.