The paper determines motivational factors affecting employees? organizational commitment in HCMC Trade Union Tourism Joint Stock Company. The research model and scales are constructed on findings of Kovach (1987) and qualitative research results. The paper figures out four important motivational factors, that is: (1) company trade mark and image, (2) good wages, (3) leadership, and (4) interesting work.

In past years, even though the world and local economies have encountered numerous difficulties, the gross retail revenue of Vietnam has been retained at a high level, reaching the annual average growth rate of 28%. Yet, the retail market of Vietnam in general and that of HCMC in particular is not attractive enough to tempt the world?s big retailers into it. This paper looks into the real situation of modern retail channels in HCMC and its ability to attract customers. With the descriptive statistics based on secondary data and a survey of 267 customers, the paper tries to evaluate the customer attraction ability of HCMC-based modern retail channels by examining such factors as product type and quality, the role and status of modern retail channels, display, price, sales promotion campaigns, and service quality of modern retail channels. The paper also recommends several measures to promote modern retail channels.

The paper aims to investigate impacts of the business size on the profit through primary data collated from 495 enterprises randomly chosen in the Mekong Delta. As the results indicate, the profit depends on the business size in the form of a cubic function. Additionally, the ratio of current assets to sales, the sales growth rate, the human resource quality, and the manager?s attitude towards risks have positive relations with the profit. By contrast, the competitiveness responds negatively to the profit. Especially, impacts of unofficial costs on the profit are the ?-shape of the square function. Based on estimates, some recommendations to enhance the profit are also provided.

This paper investigates the determinants of human capital investment in the form of formal training (off-the-job training) and estimates effects of this investment on productivity using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method. We use data from a survey of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam (completed in 2010) with detailed information about training and several firm characteristics. Our estimates reveal that investment in human capital currently does not have the considerable contribution to the improvement in productivity of SMEs. This result does not support the universalistic perspective in strategic human resource management (SHRM) theoretical model

Coconut has long played an important role in B?n Tre economy. Understanding and estimating exactly contribution from the value chain of coconut are still limited. This paper tries to analyze the structure and operation of the value chain of coconut and estimate its contributions in financial aspects. The paper employs value chain approach and analyzes the added value, and applies both quantitative and qualitative analyzing methods for entities engaging in growing, processing and commercializing products from coconut. The results confirm financial benefits generated by the coconut.

Inventory turnover varies broadly across many companies and over time. This variation is useful for analyzing an inventory turnover performance and working capital management. By conducting a panel data of 179 Vietnamese companies listed in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) during the period of 2006-2011, we perform an empirical study with the fixed effect methodology to investigate the correlation of inventory turnover with capital intensity and sales growth. We find that both capital intensity and sales growth have a positive impact on inventory turnover. We also split two datasets based on firms in the real estate industry and in other industries. We only find that both gross margin and firm size are negatively correlated with inventory turnover in the dataset of firms in other industries. In general, our results are consistent with the previous studies of United State retailers. We also consider the time-trend to examine impacts of these factors. The results show that on average, firms with bigger investment in capital assets have achieved higher inventory turnover, but inventory turnover becomes worse as the time goes on.

This research aims at analyzing aspects determining supporting industries (SIs) to serve the task of planning and developing such industries. Analyses show that Vietnamese SIs are very small and unable to help the manufacturing sector increase its added value and join the global value chain. The results find the following culprits: the plan and policies on SI development are not compatible with main trends of market specialization and global value chain; chain of domestic industrial production is till lacking; and inter-industry cooperation is poor. Policy recommendations, therefore, are as follows: establishing the exact list of SIs that help increase the added value of local industrial production and integrate into the global value chain; and planning space, time, track, and methods needed for carrying out such policies. Besides the development plan, the paper also offers suggestions about policies to promote SIs, such as legal infrastructure for SI development, design of a value chain for SIs, building of clusters of SIs, and mechanism for promoting SI development.

This paper provides a simple theoretical framework on the restriction of short-term investments such as stocks, bonds, and other indirect investments while encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) as a long-term investment. The theoretical results show that a developing country like Vietnam should maintain certain level of capital controls on short-term investments. The paper then provides an empirical study of the five ASEAN countries that are either in the negotiating process or willing to join the Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership with an emphasis on Vietnam. The empirical results show that FDI has positive effect on GDP per capita in these five countries as a group and as individual economies. In contrast, short-term investment has negative effect on GDP per capita in four economies with Singapore as the only exception.

Despite its continuous improvements in the past 25 years, Vietnam?s economic institutions failed to act as a dynamic of economic restructuring and changes in economic growth model in the coming period. When the state fails to identify its functions and duties at all levels in economic management, it cannot control effectively all operations in the market. The state will be slow to change its habits of intervening in the market with its administrative decisions instead of indirect regulatory instruments used for dealing with market defects. In this paper, the author analyzes, interprets and make suggestions about two major issues: (1) Changes in concepts of economic functions of the state in the market economy; and (2) Effective use of macroeconomic regulatory instruments.

The Vietnam?s government, in its socioeconomic development plan for 2013, confirms the following overall targets: macroeconomic stability, a lower inflation rate, a higher growth rate, promotion of three strategic breakthroughs associated with restructuring of the economy, and a new economic growth model to ensure social security and welfare, higher efficiency in diplomatic activities and international integration, national defense, and sociopolitical stability at the service of sustainable economic development in upcoming years. Accordingly, GDP is expected to rise by 5.5%; export turnover goes up by some 10%; the trade gap is pegged at the 8% level, budget overspend is kept at 4.8% of GDP at most, CPI increases by 8%, the gross investment equals 30% of GDP; the ratio of poor households reduces by 2% and the ratio of poor localities decreases by 4%. The government also indicates a need to coordinate fiscal and monetary policies to curb inflation, enhance the macroeconomic stability, settle setbacks, enable enterprises to access sources of capital, cool down the interest rate in conformity with reduction in inflation rate, and encourage commercial banks to extend low-interest loans to the fields of agriculture and export production. The present paper is based on the theories of relationship between fiscal and monetary policies to indicate aspects that need coordination when implementing these two policies in Vietnam at present to carry out effectively Governmental Resolution concerning the 2013 socioeconomic development.

In 2012, Vietnam?s economy faced great challenges. The world economy experienced more difficulties and complicated upheavals. International trade fell drastically while global growth rate was lower than predicted target, which affected badly the Vietnamese economy because of its full integration into the world economy and large openness. In this context, principal targets set for 2013 are macroeconomic stability, lower inflation rate, higher growth rate, three strategic breakthroughs associated with restructuring of the economy, and a new economic growth model. This paper analyzes obstacles to Vietnam?s economic growth, and offers short-term solutions to bottlenecks and long-term ones to the economic restructuring.