This study investigates the determinants of total factor productivity in manufacturing firms in Vietnam using the cross-classified multilevel model. This model enables the study to provide a more proper estimation and to make clear distinctions between firms, region-specific effects, and sector-specific effects. This study combined a data set of Vietnamese manufacturing firms and sectoral variables gathered from the annual data of the Vietnam Enterprises Survey, Technology Competitiveness Survey, and some regional variables from the General Statistics Office’s Province Competitive Index during the period from 2011 to 2014. The study found that the main source of firm total factor productivity heterogeneity mostly originates at the firm level. In addition, the interaction between regional (provincial) and sectoral factors also contribute considerably to total factor productivity heterogeneity among firms. At the firm level, both firm size and expenses on technology have a significant positive effect on firm total factor productivity. In addition, firms with exporting activities seem to have higher total factor productivity. At the regional level, the provinces with a high ratio of well-trained employees may have a positive impact on firm total factor productivity in that province. At the sectoral level, the concentration of sectors in a province may benefit firms belonging to that sector in that province. More interestingly, the study also indicates that the concentration of sectors in a province may benefit firms located in the provinces with a ratio of better-trained employees. These findings could lead to policies not only at the firm level but also at the regional level and sectoral level to enhance total factor productivity.

This study seeks to analyze and enhance understanding of taxpayer compliance with tax obligations in a systematic way by using the cost-benefit approach. Data from a sample of 250 audited service tax payers are used to examine the compliance factors. The hypotheses are tested using Spearman’s rho for ordinal variables and biserial correlation for dichotomous data. A decision matrix is used to make a logical conclusion on the business firm reporting behavior based on the derived expected utility value and compliance level. The results show a positive significant correlation between taxable sales, return submission and taxpayer compliance, but taxpayer compliance has a negative relationship with deficiency amount, penalty, and three other variables. The study suggests that minor penalties are unlikely to deter non-compliant behavior and economic factors seem to exert more influence on compliance. The methodology and matrix diagram can be customized to the requirements of tax audit management for assisting in audit case selection and strategy program to detect under-declaration and minimize shortfall in tax revenue. The taxpayer compliance-Correlation-Expected utility matrix analyzes the taxpayer’s expected utility function and compliance behavior, and provides an insight to what the most likely decision of a taxpayer is under certain assumptions.

Supplier selection is a significant phase of procurement. However, a little systematic research on supplier selection criteria in the textile and apparel industry has been conducted in Vietnam. The purpose of this study is to identify criteria that constitute to the supplier selection decision of purchasers. An integrated approach involving purposeful sampling and theoretical sampling was used. Qualitative data were collected via expert interviews from 20 companies ranging from spinning to textiles to garments as well as ancillary industries in both southern and northern Vietnam. The data were analysed using NVIVO 8.0 software. The researchers assumed that exploring the extant supplier selection criteria used by Vietnamese textile and apparel companies will contribute to the literature concerning procurement in particular and supply chain management in general.

Formal economic institutions are incentive-motivated mechanisms under the control of the government and are widely accepted as an important factor shaping investment behavior. However, the relative significance of aspects of formal economic institutions has remained ambiguous, especially in a developing economy like Vietnam. This paper aims to fill this gap through the investigation of the influence of formal economic institutions such as market entry, property right protection, anti-corruption mechanisms, and informal charges on private investment across provinces in Vietnam. The empirical results suggest that the deregulation of market entry is essential for private investment. By contrast, both property right protection and anti-corruption mechanisms have unexpected outcomes as their improvements are detrimental to private investment. The effect of informal charges is consistent with the prediction of the rent-seeking hypothesis.

One of the effects of exchange rate fluctuations is cross-border shopping by consumers. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the effects of Malaysian ringgit depreciation on cross-border shopping of Bruneians. This has been done by using daily data from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2016 (total 1,096 observations) on traffic flows to Miri, a border town of Eastern Malaysia. We find that a 1 percent increase in the depreciation of Malaysian ringgit per Brunei dollar increases the number of Bruneian shoppers to Miri by 2.10 percent. We also estimated that the average spending per person per trip to Miri is B$155 and the total spending of Bruneian shoppers in Miri is $175 million a year. This total spending is 1.11 percent of gross domestic product of Brunei in 2016. The result from this study would be helpful in designing policies for cross-border shopping of Bruneians. This is because the number of visits and the total expenditure amount of Bruneians in Miri are related to high outflow of money which results in a loss to the local economy – which may deteriorate local business.

This study sets out to investigate the factors influencing Vietnam firms’ innovation in various sectors by using World Bank (2015) enterprise survey of 996 firms across the country. We employ ordinary least squares (OLS), probit model, and marginal effect to estimate the impact of firm characteristics, industry characteristics, and business climate on different facets of innovation, including technology and non- technology. Quantitatively, we find that direct exporters, firm size, state ownership, email using, and competition increase the probability of technology innovation. Meanwhile, foreign ownership impacts negatively on innovation in all aspects, technology and non-technology innovation. Firm age and bribery are not influential factors to innovation in all cases. From the findings of analysis, a few policy implications regarding the studied factors are drawn for better environment for firm innovation.

An investigation about the adaptive capacity of residents in Ho Chi Minh City when facing the flooding problems which have frequently happened in recent years. Although the government has spent a lot of money in the drainage system, and the situation has been reported to be better, a high proportion of surveyed people said that the improvement is just local; however, the whole city still needs more effort to control flooding. Households living closely to frequently flood-prone usually consider two main measures to protect themselves from the flood: Floor elevation or dry-proof investment. Since housing is a big money while their income is still low, moving to another place seems to be inapplicable. Doing almost nothing and leaning on the public projects are still the main strategy.

This study develops and empirically validates a Participation–Learning–Innovation–Performance chain by integrating employees’ budgetary participation, learning goal orientation, innovative behaviors, and job performance. In particular, this study evaluates the mediating effect of employees’ learning goal orientation on the relationship between their budgetary participation and innovative behaviors, and then examines the performance effect of these innovative behaviors on subsequent job performance. The hypotheses were empirically tested using a sample of 337 mid- and low-level managers from business organizations in Vietnam. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was performed to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that: (1) Employees’ learning goal orientation acts as a transmitting device that connects their budgetary participation and innovative behaviors, and (2) these behaviors in turn lead to enhanced job performance. From these findings, this study proposes theoretical and managerial implications regarding designing a favorable budgetary environment for positive employees’ performance outcomes.

The research aims to investigate retailer’s perceptions of impact of ASEAN Economic Community on the growth of Vietnam retail market. The research is conducted by qualitative and quantitative methods. A sample size is 271 retailers including the retail companies, grocery stores, supermarkets, trade center and convenience store chains. The Cronbach’s alpha, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regressions models are used to test the research hypotheses. The results reveal that retailer’s perception of the impact of ASEAN Economic Community which focuses on four factors such as: (1) Free trade, (2) investment attractiveness, (3) competitive pressure, and (4) competitiveness of small and medium enterprises have significantly positive relationship with the growth of retail sector. The results also suggest the managerial implications to develop Vietnam retail market.

This study investigates the ex-ante impact of the proposed European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement on Vietnam’s footwear industry using the partial equilibrium model called Software for Market Analysis and Restrictions on Trade. From the 2015 trade and tariff database between EU and Vietnam accessed through the World Integrated Trade Solutions, the authors construct different possible scenarios under three key policies of tariff elimination, rule of origin and trade defense. The results show that the EU’s tariff removal for the Vietnam’s footwear exports would increase Vietnam’s product export value, even under the anti-dumping policy. However, the EU’s trade defense still has a negative impact on Vietnam's most important export footwear group HS Code 6403. The simulation results also indicate that there would be a remarkable shift in the export structure of the groups of products which would enjoy high tariff preference.

The textile and apparel industries play an important role in Vietnam’s economy in general and the manufacturing sector in particular. As a matter of fact, Vietnam ranks as one of the leading suppliers of textile and apparel for major economies in the world, including the European Union. This paper attempts to examine the potential impacts of the European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement on the export of Vietnam’s apparel at three levels: 2, 4, 6–digit HS respectively, assuming full liberalization from Vietnam to European Union by 2026. An analysis is undertaken using WITS-SMART model to identify the variation of Vietnam’s apparel export as well as to predict some most affected products if European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement is in full application. As a result, Vietnam’s apparel exporting to European Union will increase significantly by 42% compared to the base year (2016) and is expected to reach US$4.220 billion in the next 8 years. Due to trade diversion dominates over trade creation effect, Vietnam’s apparels will get more gains than non - European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement members; however, this result is not because of an effective allocation of resources. Therefore, policy makers should implement some remedies to improve the competitivey of Vietnam’s apparels, to reduce the production price to bring advantages for both Vietnam and Europe.

The fierce competition among hardware companies is increasingly becoming a global competition. With a fast-paced innovative environment, international business is becoming a strategic plan that all hardware management teams have to follow. However, with unique characteristics of high-tech industry, the international business of hardware firm potentially has specific issues, which make this research worth to proceed. This study examines the relationship between international business and performance of hardware companies from 2008 to 2014. To evaluate this potentially significant relationship, different degrees of internationalization are accounted to examine whether each stage may influence dissimilarly to the performance. In order to study a greater scale of this relationship, innovative performance, as a key competitive factor of high-tech companies, is also measured as another indicator to evaluate the internationalization’s effects. A profound analysis is also provided to explain the findings based on unique characteristics of the hardware industry. The study finds out that companies who invest to diversify their markets likely achieve a higher profit during the internationalization process than their competitors.