Purpose This study aims to analyse the consumption inequality between farm and non-farm households in rural Vietnam, using the data from the 2016 Vietnam household living standards survey. Design/methodology/approach The present paper applies the “recentered influence functions (RIF)” in “Oaxaca-Blinder (OB)” type decomposition as proposed by Firpo et al. (2018) to allow for the flexible distribution of the outcome variables and the non-randomness of non-farm employment that violates the classical linearity assumption. Findings Non-farm households have significantly higher per capita consumption expenditure than farm households for the entire distribution. The gap in expenditure is large at low percentiles and narrowing with higher percentiles. At 10th percentile, the gap is estimated at 27.1%, but it is decreasing to 11.1% at 90th percentile. Most of the gaps are explained by the differences in the observed characteristics between farm and non-farm households such as ethnicity, education, income, internal transmittances and household composition. Non-farm households are endowed with more productive factors that result in higher per capita consumption expenditure. Originality/value Gaps in ethnicity and education are found to be key predictors of the inequality in consumption expenditures between farm and non-farm households, then, government policies that are aimed at increasing access to non-farm employment and education for ethnic minorities and for rural poor households are pathways to improve rural household welfare and hence reduce inequality.

Purpose This research aims to develop a model built from the job demand-resource (JD-R) theory which explains the psychological mechanism that leads to academic work-related stress in an educational context. This study investigates the conditional effect of ambidextrous working hard through mediation paths and the moderating role of perceived support on these conditional effects. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional data from 334 academics at Vietnamese institutions. Data were analysed within a moderated mediation model integrated from hierarchical regression. Findings The results revealed that while work engagement (WE) partially mediates the indirect effect of person-job fit (PJF) on job-related stress, workaholism (WKH) – as an escalated stage of working hard – fully explains the psychological mechanism with moderated integration from social supports. Originality/value This paper hopes to contribute to the growing educational literature exploring the complex, multi-conditional influences of personal and social factors to measure academics’ psychological changes that lead to a negative reaction at work.

Purpose This study examines the relationship between exercise self-efficacy (ESE) and student commitment (SC) to address challenges in business school student engagement and retention. We aim to close the empirical gap between ESE and SC and explain the role of cultural values by exploring how individualism and collectivism (IC) shape the ESE–SC relationship within different cultural contexts. Design/methodology/approach Over 1,300 undergraduate students from the United States of America and Vietnam participated in three studies. Study 1 used regression analyses to examine ESE–SC in a USA university. Study 2 investigated potential moderating effects of IC in Vietnam. Study 3 tested the replicability of findings with a diverse USA sample, further analyzing the relationship between ESE, SC and IC. Findings Study 1 found a negative ESE–SC relationship. Study 2 observed a positive ESE–SC relationship in Vietnam. Study 3 confirmed the positive ESE–SC relationship and demonstrated significant IC moderation. Research limitations/implications We used self-reported measures and a cross-sectional design with undergraduate student samples. Findings contribute to the self-efficacy and commitment literature, underscoring the instrumental role of cultural dimensions in moderating the relationship between ESE and SC, while advancing scholarship on commitment and providing evidence that ESE can be a significant predictor of academic outcomes. Practical implications For business schools, promoting ESE among students could serve as a strategic tool for enhancing SC, which ultimately supports and enhances their retention and accreditation targets. Originality/value Empirical support for an ESE–SC relationship reveals that cultural values moderate the ESE–SC relationship.

Purpose This study examines the relationship of positive career shocks and career optimism. The mediating role of career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE) between positive career shocks and career optimism and the moderating role of consideration of future consequences – immediate (CFC-I) between CDSE and career optimism are checked. Design/methodology/approach Through cluster sampling, cross-sectional data from 192 professionals of electronic media industry were collected via an electronically administered questionnaire. For preliminary descriptive data analysis, SPSS version 21 was used. SmartPLS version 3.0 was used for testing the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results showed that positive career shocks have a relationship with career optimism via CDSE. Also, CFC-I moderated the relationship of CDSE and career optimism such that the relationship of CDSE and career optimism was stronger at higher level of CFC-I. Practical implications The study provides implications for the career consultants, human resource professionals and senior management of organizations. All these stakeholders can strive to build an inventory of positive career shocks. Also, shifting to a surprised business model of announcing compensations and promotions is another area to work on. The results of this study further suggest disengaging the fresh potential employees in the initial processes of recruitment. Interdepartmental coordination of health and safety department and human resource management department is also a very important implication for this study to highlight the positive aspects of being optimistic. Originality/value The study is among the few empirical studies which investigates the relationship between positive career shocks and career optimism via CDSE. Also, in light of the latest call of various empirical works in the domain, this study adds a moderating variable, i.e. CFC-I in predicting career optimism. Furthermore, contrary to the conventional approach of applying students' data on career models, this study tests the proposed career model on data collected from professionals.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the simultaneous relationships among transformational leadership (TFL), customer citizenship behavior (CCB), employee intrinsic motivation (IM) and employee creativity (EC). Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted in companies (hotels and tour operators) from the hospitality sector in Vietnam. The respondents were selected based on convenience sampling. A cross-sectional survey design and questionnaire method was used for data collection. Findings The results of the empirical analysis suggest that: employee IM is significantly associated with EC, both TFL and CCB are positively related to employee IM and EC and employee IM positively mediates the effects of both TFL and CCB on EC. Practical implications The results may help managers focus on TFL behavior, CCB and employee IM to achieve higher EC. Originality/value This investigation is expected to be new and valuable. Research on relationships of CCB, employee IM and EC is of significant importance but has not been examined to date. It is hoped that this study addresses this important gap in the marketing literature.