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Topic 2
Find a company in the Gig economy operating in Vietnam, such as Grab,
Upwork, Jupviec, and analyze their activities from CSR perspectives. Students
will draw on the course materials (including concepts, theories, models) and
their own additional research to:
1. Describe CSR issues and challenges the selected organisation might be
facing;
2. What the organisation should do to address these issues and challenges; and
3. Why the organisation should take up these measures. (Justify your
recommendations with evidence.)

Requirement
The case study has the following parts:
1. Introduction
● Describe what the organisation does (the industry it is in)
● Describe its business operations
2. Identify issues and challenges
Discuss the potential issues and challenges the organisation might face in
relation to CSR
3. Recommended Organisational Response
In this section, discuss what the organisation can do to overcome the issues and
challenges identified in Part 2
4. Concluding remarks
5. References
6. Appendix (If any)

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1. Introduction
1.1. Gig economy

One of the current trends that can be easily observed among young
workers is that they are prone to job-hopping and have more than one source of
income. According to a survey on “The Future of Work”, more than 90% of Gen
Z said they would not work stably in one place for more than 3 years, a much
shorter number than 5 years of Gen Y or 10 years of Gen X. Switching
workplaces to have higher income or more comfortable environment is a
common story nowadays. Young people who are hardworking and multitasking
also have other income sources besides their full-time jobs.

These continuous shifts have led to the emergence of the Gig economy -
an economy that is not bound by labor contracts, where workers use their spare
time and energy to earn extra income. According to a survey by Edison
Research, up to 53% of workers aged 18 to 34 said that work from the Gig
economy is their main income. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “the
GIG economy is a way of working that is based on people having temporary
jobs or doing separate pieces of work, each paid separately, rather than working
for an employer”. The Gig economy also has many other names such as peer to
peer economy.

This is a free and flexible economy, where millions of people join every
year. Built on the principle of on-demand workforce for on-demand work. With
the development of science and technology, the needs are expressed through
platforms and Gig workers capture these short-term contracts. The Gig economy
reflects the characteristics of a world of science and technology, which is
constantly changing and updating, so there is no profession that is sustainable
and forever. Workers today, especially the younger generation, are quickly
absorbing and adapting to these changes. According to a report from Upwork,
84% of freelance workers are enjoying their lives and work, while this number
is only 54% on the traditional labor side. Worldwide, the free economy is
expected to dominate up to 80% of the market by 2030.

The Gig economy or contract economy started to boom in Vietnam,

especially after the Covid 19 years. There are no specific statistics in Vietnam
yet, but the explosion can be seen through industries such as taxi, technology
motorcycle, food delivery, hourly maid service… Some Gig companies
operating in Vietnam today can be mentioned as: Grab, Gojek, be, Jupviec,

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Upwork,… The three largest technology car companies in Vietnam today are
Grab, Gojek and Be with about 600,000 drivers. Statistics from the Center for
Population, Labor and Employment Research show that 82.2% of Gig workers
consider this their main job and they also have an average income higher than
other occupations.

However, due to its non-fixed and non-contract nature, the Gig economy
poses many risks for both workers and employers.

1.2. General introduction about Be Group

Joint Stock Company Be Group Joint Stock Company is a company that

provides multi-service consumption platform in Vietnam.

Vision: To become a digital consumption platform that serves all daily

needs of Vietnamese people.

Mission: To meet all daily consumption needs with a satisfying and

thoughtful experience, based on an open ecosystem with multiple partners.

History: Unlike other technology-based ride-hailing companies, Be

registered as a transportation company.
- June 1, 2018 Be was formed with the name VEEP Technology with a
charter capital of 200 million VND.

- October 25, 2018 Officially used the name Be Group. Along with the
appearance of the General Director (CEO) Tran Thanh Hai increased
capital to 100 billion VND.

- December 17, 2018 Be officially rolled out with both #beBike and
#beCar services in both cities: Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

- April and August, 2019 Be continued to increase its capital to 515.75

billion VND, continuously expanded its business fields, and opened a
series of branches in provinces.

- April 1, 2020 Expanded the operating area to 10 cities.

- January 12, 2021 Be launched Cake by VPBank Digital Bank.

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 - January 18, 2021 Launched the Air Ticket Booking feature.

- March 25, 2021 Be launched BeTaxi service in new provinces, expanded

the operating area to 21 provinces.

- August, 2022 Deutsche Bank invested 100 million USD in Be

Fields of operation:
- Transportation service: Move conveniently with beCar, beBike, beTaxi.
Available in many provinces and cities across the country.

+ be motorcycle: Book a 2-wheeled vehicle conveniently and

economically.

+ be car: Book a 4-seater and 7-seater car

+ be to the province: Rent a car for long trips one way and two ways
to neighboring provinces

+ be rent by the hour: Rent a car by the hour, flexible itinerary,

optional rent from 2 hours - 10 hours.

- Delivery service - beDelivery

- Food delivery service beFood

- beLoyal - A loyalty program for all customers using the service

- beCorporate - Manage the daily travel needs of businesses easily and

efficiently.

- beAds - provide online and offline advertising solutions

Be Group Joint Stock Company is a Gig company because it provides an

online platform that connects customers with service providers on demand, such
as drivers, delivery people, or freelancers. Service providers can make money
on their terms and schedule, and there is no long-term commitment. Be Group
charges customers a fee for using their platform and pays service providers a
portion of the money from each job.

Business situation: According to Be Group, the company’s services are

currently present in 28 provinces and cities across the country, reaching more

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than 20 million downloads, on average Be handles more than 10 million
transactions per month, of which the proportion of customers using more than
two services on the platform accounts for more than 50% and the number of
customers with transactions per month reaches more than 1.5 million.

In the field of technology-based ride-hailing, according to the company’s

own data, Be Group has achieved a market share of 30-40% in Hanoi and
25-35% in Ho Chi Minh City. With this number, Be Group’s market share is
behind Grab Vietnam and far ahead of the remaining competitor Gojek.

Be’s CSR activities:

- During the Covid 19 pandemic, Be provided financial support for drivers
in difficult circumstances, delivered thousands of free grocery orders for
people

- In 2023, Be cooperated with GSM to implement the green mobility goal

with the government, switching from gasoline vehicles to electric
vehicles.

- Be collaborated with the authorities to organize many training sessions to

improve the awareness and skills of ride-hailing drivers.

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2. Identify issues and challenges

2.1. Lack of resources for CSR

Although Be is the second largest ride-hailing app in Vietnam, Be has

only been established for 5 years and this is a very competitive field.

The ride-hailing market in Vietnam is still growing, estimated to grow 30

to 35% annually since its inception in 2015 and is a piece of cake for many
investors to aim for. From the giants Uber who once visited to Grab, Gojek and
recently the rise of XanhSM along with dozens of other ride-hailing apps. In
2021, Be did very well when it surpassed Gojek to become the second largest
app in the ride-hailing industry, but this also shows a fact that this is a very
fierce competition. The companies must always focus on investing in discount
codes, promotions, attracting drivers and improving technology to stand firm.

Finance: Compared to the two largest competitors, Grab and Gojek, Be

has the smallest asset size. While Grab and Gojek are both foreign companies
and have large corporations behind them, Be itself is a pure Vietnamese startup
that has just been established for 5 years. Although Be achieved an incredible
breakeven speed after only 2 years of operation, the app itself still needs to
focus resources to develop other segments.

It can be said that Be’s current orientation is to become a mobile service

provider MaaS that is linked with taxi companies, investing in mobility and
focusing on Cake digital bank. These linked jobs require a lot of money. Be is a
company that is developing and continuing to improve many aspects, unlike
Grab and Gojek who have developed into super apps, they have a lot of
experience in fighting in the markets and have large capital.

Meanwhile, the implementation of social responsibility activities requires

a large investment in finance. For CSR to have a spread and demonstrate the
responsibility of the business to society, it requires long-term and
well-organized activities, which requires the investment of the business, that is,
the business needs to share a part of the finance to implement CSR. For a
business like Be - on the path of development and expansion, this means having
to cut back on investment for other fields.

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 This is a difficult choice at this time because the Gig economy is a free
and unbound economy, if Be does not have timely updates and follow the trend,
it will be eliminated.

Be itself is not a business with a lot of idle capital, so CSR is not easy for
startups like Be.

In the board of directors of Be, there have been 3 changes of CEO in the
past 5 years, from Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai - the founder of Be, to Ms. Nguyen
Hoang Phuong - the co-founder and also the one who led Be through the
pandemic, and currently Ms. Vo Hoang Yen is the CEO of be. Each of them has
made great contributions to the success of Be today, but the frequent changes of
senior leadership have caused many changes in the direction of Be.

After the capital increases, Be also proceeded to dilute the shareholding

ratio. In the context of Be Group still developing fast, few early-stage investors
would accept to dilute their ownership so much and in such a short time.

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2.2. Facing many difficulties in the green mobility goal - CSR for the
environment

In March 2023, GSM and Be Group signed an investment agreement to

bring electric motorcycles and cars to the Vietnamese technology vehicle
market. This is a beneficial agreement for the Vietnamese environment,
especially built by two purely Vietnamese car manufacturers with a large market
share. However, this goal of Be faces many difficulties.

First, most of the drivers of Be are using gasoline-powered vehicles. Be

currently has about 300,000 car and motorcycle drivers across the country, most
of which are gasoline-powered. Although there is no specific statistic on the
number of gasoline-powered vehicles of Be, it can be seen that drivers often
choose gasoline vehicles because of their convenience, no need to charge
electricity, high speed and popularity. The Gig company is different from the
traditional company in that the motorcycle resource belongs to the workers, so
they need to persuade the workers to be willing to change their means of
transportation. Therefore, with the goal of converting to 100% electric vehicles
of Be, it will take a lot of time and resources to carry out.

Second, switching to electric vehicles requires high costs: an electric

vehicle capable of carrying passengers and performing other mobility tasks is
not cheap. Be was very smart to join hands with GSM - an electric vehicle
company that owns the most electric charging ports nationwide. Currently, Be
has cooperated with Vinfast and Cake digital bank of VPbank to provide credit
loans for partners, but after 6 months, these conversion activities have not yet
flourished. Drivers will find it hard to give up their fast gasoline vehicles to
borrow money and switch to electric vehicles. The problem of the number of
charging stations and waiting time for charging is also a barrier to this
transition, so until now, only GSM

Finally, there are not many policies and support from the government.
Implementing the transition to electric vehicles according to the Green Energy
Transition Program of the Government, the goal is that by 2050 Vietnam will
have 100% electric vehicles, but according to experts’ assessment, the policies
and support of the Government are not attractive enough for people and
businesses to switch together. Vietnam is still facing many difficulties to switch
to electric vehicles such as low average income, lack of infrastructure for
charging stations, electricity structure,…

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2.3. Gig contract and the issues of driver management

The nature of the Gig economy is that the employer connects with the
workers based on their abilities, without long-term contracts like the traditional
economy, and because of the flexibility, there are no constraints.

Be has spent a lot of money to invest in drivers, they do not chase

customers by burning money like other apps, but they believe that drivers are
the link directly with customers and the reason for customers to come back. The
risk of Be may occur when training drivers but then they go to work for
competitors. The Gig economy loses the safety and stability compared to the
traditional economy, so when Be has problems with transaction decline or
policies that are not competitive with other apps, affecting the income of
drivers, they may leave Be.

Unlike other companies, Be takes drivers and service quality as the core
of competition, so this is a valuable resource of Be. For example, Be has a
program to improve driver quality by training and testing programs that are
mandatory.

The drivers of Be are also constantly expanding and changing their

structure, making management and training important. From the beginning, as a
purely Vietnamese app, Be has determined to use Vietnamese drivers to serve
Vietnamese people, so it always creates conditions for drivers such as the
function to evaluate customers, training programs, support during the pandemic,
… With the increasingly open scale, Be has to improve its policies to suit the
market and budget better.

3. Recommended Organisational Response

3.1. Continue to perform basic CSR obligations

Among the 4 levels of CSR, Economic responsible and legal responsible

are the most basic responsibilities. According to current reports, Be is doing
well in complying with the law and doing profitable business. Therefore, Be
needs to promote this spirit. As the top 2 app in ride-hailing in Vietnam,
complying with legal regulations brings many benefits to society such as taxes,
jobs for workers, creating motivation for the market. For a company that is on
the path of development and expansion like Be, it is necessary to focus
resources on development and attracting customers. The higher obligations are

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Ethical responsible and philanthropic responsible, which are usually programs
for corporations with strong resources.

However, it can be said that Be is currently doing well in policies with

Gig workers, on the comparison pages between Be, Grab and Gojek drivers, Be
is often highly rated. The drivers said that the procedures of Be were quick and
the office staff had friendly interactions with the drivers. Through the pandemic,
Be showed its spirit with the drivers by supporting them with money from
500,000 to 3,000,000 VND. This shows the spirit of responsibility of the
business to the country and to the workers in difficult times. Be should continue
to promote these spirits and will surely receive support from the state and
customers.

3.2. Expand the support package for electric vehicle conversion, participate in
investing in charging stations

Vietnam’s goal is to use electric vehicles completely by 2050, according

to Dr. Khuong Quang Dong, this is slower than other countries in Southeast
Asia, with Thailand being 2035, Indonesia, Singapore also have very clear
policies for people. However, in Vietnam, it has not been implemented
specifically.

Vietnam certainly cannot stand outside the race to switch to electric

vehicles and Dr. Dong said, because this is a global trend, so businesses should
grasp this opportunity to invest.

Be has joined hands with GSM-Vingroup to switch to electric vehicles,

this is a strength because Vinfast has had platforms in this field. To encourage
the switch to electric vehicles, Be can invite drivers who use electric vehicles to
join them. The rate of buying electric vehicles in Vietnam is currently ranked
3rd in Southeast Asia and growing strongly, so it will Be easy to find drivers.

Many young drivers have to borrow vehicles, borrow money to buy

vehicles to run ship, Be can issue policies to support cheap electric vehicles,
lend to buy electric vehicles to attract more of this force to their side. Currently,
Cake bank and Vinfast are cooperating to implement the green conversion
campaign, these are also partners of Be so Be can take advantage of these
sources of support.

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 Switching to electric vehicles is a global trend and brings positive
meanings to the environment, so as a pioneering technology transport company,
Be will have many benefits in the future such as charging stations, preferential
treatment from the state, …

Competitors such as Grab, Gojek, XanhSM have also entered this race, so
Be needs to be active for the conversion, contributing to environmental
pollution prevention, climate change. Become a business with social
responsibility, environmental protection responsibility.

3.3. Building driver care policies - CSR for labor

With a model like Be, drivers are the ones who directly interact with
customers, affecting their satisfaction level. The Gig economy does not have
labor contract constraints, so the sense of responsibility of drivers to customers
is very difficult to manage.

Be is currently highly rated by drivers for things like: the initial

investment of drivers to run the Be app is 425,000 VND compared to Grab’s
500,000 to 1,000,000 VND, Be’s commission is 25%, Grab and Gojek are only
20%. The application also allows drivers to rate customers to be cautious with
difficult customers in the future. It can be said that Be is having an edge over
other apps in terms of employee care.

In the future, Be can invest in a technology system to help drivers find

convenient routes, less traffic jams to increase the number of orders. Currently,
most drivers still depend on Google map or their own experience, without any
specialized navigation technology. Be should support drivers who have
accidents at work such as asset depreciation costs, traffic accident support.

Create policies to expand labor for women, many women want to join
ride-hailing but this market prioritizes men more, so Be can filter transactions
suitable for women and recruit women with the ability to work.

4. Conclusion

Implementing CSR requires a high sense of responsibility in businesses

and society. For Gig companies, when workers do not have contracts with the
company, it is very difficult to convey the corporate culture and ensure the
interests of workers. At Be Group, the business has made great efforts to build a

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team of professional and dedicated drivers, which shows that Be is responsible
for protecting the rights of workers so that they are ready to serve with the best
spirit.

As a transport company, Be has been and is joining the country in the

transition to green energy. There are still many difficulties in terms of finance
and support policies, but this is a necessary and meaningful activity, especially
for the environment. Be needs to have clear programs to support the conversion
of electric vehicles for drivers and ensure the provision of charging stations to
carry out this environmental CSR activity.

The Gig economy brings freedom and flexibility, but also brings
difficulties in implementing comprehensive policies. But Gig companies often
have a large workforce, so if they implement CSR, they will have a high
spillover effect and contribute greatly to the community.

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 References

1. Ha Thanh, (2021), Tài xế công nghệ Be nhận hỗ trợ trong mùa dịch,
Vnexpress

2. Duc Huy, (2023), Be Group được công ty ông Phạm Nhật Vượng đầu tư:
Ứng dụng gọi xe đầu tiên có lãi ở Việt Nam, xử lý hơn 10 triệu giao dịch
mỗi tháng, VietnamBiz
3. MarketTimes, Mục tiêu chuyển sang dùng xe điện 100% của Việt Nam
vào năm 2050 là chậm, e-magazine Market Rhythm
4. be, (2023), Báo cáo KPMG 2023: Be là nền tảng vận tải công nghệ tiên
tiến nhất Việt Nam
5. Minh Tam, (2022), Deutsche Bank rót khoản vay 100 triệu USD cho ứng
dụng Be, Forbes Vietnam

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