Science & Technology Development Journal - Economics - Law and Management

Life’s quality of immigrant workers in Ho Chi Minh City

2020-09-22T16:58:12+00:00

Migration is an indispensable trend in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), and immigrant workers have become an important resource contributing to economic growth. This study aims to clarify the quality of life of immigrant workers and offer a scientific basis for policies that promote the positive contributions of immigrant workers. A linear structural equation model is used to analyze data of 394 observations, including 253 migrant workers and 141 local workers. Quality of life is first assessed by whether immigrant workers can meet or satisfy a variety of their needs. Then the relationship between the needs and outcomes such as income, education, and effort-to-stay is analyzed using a mediator named assimilation. Finally, a comparison between groups such as migrant and local workers, migrants living in HCMC under and over ten years is conducted. The results indicated that employment, settlement, and social support have a direct impact on their assimilation and the strongest indirect impact on effort-to-stay, income, and education. Besides, effort-to-stay and income have a mutual impact. The results also proved that there are differences between migrant workers and local workers but no difference between under 10-year migrants and over 10-year migrants.

The relationship between working capital and profitability – Evidence from listed food & beverage companies in Viet Nam

2020-09-22T16:56:22+00:00

The study explores the relationship between working capital and profitability using data collected from the financial statements of 17 food and beverage companies listed on HOSE and HNX from 2008 to 2017. The three models used in this research are Pooled Ordinary Least Squares, Fixed Effects Model (FEM), Random Effects Model (REM). The results of the model tests show that REM is the most suitable. To enhance the reliability and efficiency of the model, we conduct robustness tests. The findings indicate the presence of heteroskedasticity in the model. Therefore, the adjusted REM with the GLS method is used to handle this issue. The results of the regression analysis reveal that when the average collection period increases, gross operating profit (GOP) decreases and return on assets (ROA) increases; the average payment period has a negative influence on ROA; cash conversion cycle has a negative influence on GOP and when the inventory period increases, ROA and GOP decrease.

Factors affecting organizational engagement of office workers in Binh Duong province

2020-09-22T16:56:02+00:00

In recent decades, there have been many authors who researched about the topic of employee engagement with a variety of approaches and significant findings. This research aims to study factors determining the organizational engagement of office workers. Samples were collected from 253 office workers in Binh Duong Province. The results from this study indicate that five factors that have a positive influence on employee engagement, in descending order, include job characteristics, job fit, rewards and recognition, employee voice, perceived organizational support. Especially, Justice factor is not statistically significant. Besides, testing the difference in the level of employee engagement by individual characteristics suggests that there is no difference in engagement by gender and seniority, yet there is a difference by age, in particular, the group under 25 years has a lower level of engagement than other groups (25 - 34 years, 45 - 54 years old, 55 years and older). Based on the findings, some implications are suggested to improve the human resources management of companies in Binh Duong Province through strengthening the organizational engagement level of office workers.

Factors affecting consumer loyalty at retail stores in Ho Chi Minh City

2020-09-22T16:57:37+00:00

The paper aims to analyze and quantify the factors affecting consumer loyalty to retail stores in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in the lens of the Theory of Reason Action (TRA). The paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The former was conducted through focus group discussions with 15 consumers using services at retail stores in HCMC while the latter was conducted by a direct survey on 465 customers using the service of retail stores in HCMC. The results show that (i) preferential treatment from retail stores, (ii) consumer commitment, (iii) consumer gratitude, and (iv) perceived service quality affect consumer loyalty. The research has limitations such as (i) consumer loyalty is influenced by many other factors. Therefore, it is necessary to include additional determinants in future research (ii) the research is only conducted in HCMC, and (iii) the sample size is relatively small with only 465 consumers.

The relation between academics’ research motivation and research productivity

2020-09-22T16:57:48+00:00

In recent years, higher education institutions in Vietnam expect their academics to have more publications in prestigious journals to improve their ranking. Research motivation, both in the forms of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, is viewed as an important factor driving academics to strive to do research. Examining the relation between academics’ research motivation and research productivity which is measured by the number of publications on international and local journals can offer an understanding of the impact of research motivation on research productivity. This relation is examined by a quantitative analysis of data obtained from a survey of 96 academics at the University of Economics and Law. The results show that intrinsic motivation exerts a stronger influence on the academics’ research productivity than extrinsic motivation. Another finding is that the academics with a doctoral degree are more productive in research than those with a master’s degree. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance both intrinsic motivation and sustain extrinsic motivation to promote the academics’ research productivity. As qualifications play an important role in enhancing the number of publications, providing academics with favorable conditions and encouraging them to achieve higher degrees is expected to boost their research productivity.

Efficiency and productivity of Vietnamese pangasius processing and exporting firms

2020-09-22T16:57:12+00:00

This study aims to measure the efficiency and productivity of Vietnamese pangasius processing and exporting firms, using variables of assets and liabilities in 2009-2014. The results show that the average resource use efficiency of the firms in this period is about 67.7% with a constant returns-to-scale, 79.4% with a variable returns-to-scale, and a scale efficiency (SE) of 85.5%. Firms need to increase their efficiency by 14.5% to achieve the optimal SE. More than half of the firms have efficiency lower than the industry average, suggesting that they were wasting their asset and liability resources, especially the long-term debt. The improvement of technical efficiency and technological advancement on average help increase total factor productivity by 14.1%. About 40% of firms experienced a decline in average productivity and 60% experienced an increase. This research, therefore, recommends firms to use there resources economically or efficiently, especially the long-term debt. In addition, firms also need to improve their technology to boost productivity, thereby enhancing their competitiveness.

Factors affecting customers' satisfaction on service quality – the case of Duong Vy service trading limited company

2020-09-22T16:55:40+00:00

This study analyzes the factors affecting customer satisfaction about the service quality of businesses operating in the field of logistics, using the case study conducted at Duong Vy company. From the SERVQUAL model of Parasuraman, this study develops a model to measure the satisfaction of logistics service quality which consists of five factors, including (1) reliability, (2) responsiveness, (3) assurance, (4) empathy, and (5) tangibles. The study used quantitative methods (linear regression) to analyze data sets collected from 256 customers of Duong Vy to test the research hypotheses. The results show that responsiveness, assurances, and empathy have a positive impact on customer satisfaction. This comes from the characteristics of logistics industries that require assurance and accurate responsiveness. Therefore, the study offers some solutions for Duong Vy as well as the logistics industry to improve the quality of logistics services, such as (1) invest to improve the assessment of tangible value and customer trust; and (2) promote assurance, responsiveness, and empathy to increase customer satisfaction and enhance business efficiency.

Customer’s satisfaction on service quality at Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank – An Giang Branch

2020-09-22T16:55:20+00:00

This study applied SERVQUAL scale of Parasuraman et al to measure factors affecting customer satisfaction on service quality at Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank - An Giang Branch (Techcombank An Giang). The study was conducted to survey 207 customers who have been using the service at Techcombank An Giang. The survey results were analyzed by the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability test method, then used Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to verify and evaluate the scale of service quality. The results of the regression analysis show that customer’s satisfaction about service quality at Techcombank An Giang includes four factors: The factor with the highest level is the Empathy with Beta = 0.253, the second of factor is the Responsibility with Beta = 0.248, ranked third in the influence level is the Tangible with Beta = 0.235, and the lowest impact level is the Reliability with Beta = 0.144. The research also uses statistical methods to describe and test the differences of demographic factors with customer’s satisfaction on service quality. The analysis results show that there is no difference between customer’s satisfaction on service quality and factors such as gender, age, income, number of transaction banks, regular transaction banks, and time to use the service at Techcombank An Giang. Through the research results, the author would like to propose some ideas to improve the quality of services, thereby attracting new customers and importantly, keeping traditional customers because the development orientation of Techcombank is to take care of old customers to cross sell other products of the bank. The Stud results offer a basis for the branch to identify the factors influencing customer satisfaction on their service quality, thereby having an appropriate strategy to improve customer satisfaction.

The impact of social capital on the market access of coffee farmer house holds in Lam Dong province

2020-09-22T16:55:16+00:00

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of social capital and other factors that affect the market access of coffee farmer households. The study synthesized theories, as well as previous studies, to provide criteria for measuring social capital of coffee farmers' households: including formal social networks, informal social networks, and trust. Besides, the study uses descriptive statistics, logistic regression, two t-average tests to analyze and assess the difference in social capital between poor and non-poor households of 235 coffee farmer households in Lam Dong Province. The results show that Agricultural Extension Associations, Association Organizations (proxy for official social networks), Agents at all levels, Colleagues - Friends (informal social networks), age, years of living in the locality, and labor have an impact on the market access of coffee farmer households. Some recommendations to improve market access of coffee farmers in the province have been proposed, based on the previous theories as well as the results of the research model The research, however, is yet to clarify the impact of social capital on each market of finance, land, labor, extension services, material, and output markets.

The factors affect financial performance of companies listed on Hanoi stock exchange

2020-09-22T16:55:00+00:00

Profit maximization is an important goal of any business entities, lead to big concern about how to improve financial performance so as to run businesses in a stability and sustainability. Furthermore, in measuring financial performance, several profitability indicators are widely in use as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE)... We did conduct literature reviews and conclude: evaluating the impact of factors on entity financial performance is such an essential topic which has drawn the attention of researchers all over the world and yet Vietnam. However, many studies gave dissimilar results, which indicates there might be differences in nature of the relationship, or factors affiliation in enterprises of different sectors or different countries. This study aims to determine the effect of factors on the financial performance of companies listed on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) from 2013-2017. The factors include corporate income tax, firms’size, growth of the firm, age of the firm and liquidity. The study used panel data methodology, the FEM model was found to be consistent with data. In this study, variables of return on assets (ROA) used to measure the financial performance of companies. The research revealed that corporate income tax, firms’size and growth of the firm show a significant negative relationship with financial performance. On the other hand, there is a significant positive relationship between liquidity and financial performance. But, the relationship between ROA with the firm age is not significant. Firms’ size and corporate income tax have the greatest influence on financial of companies. The findings of the study will improve the financial performance of companies listed on the HNX.

Book building and its application in offering shares of equitized State-owned enterprises in Viet Nam

2020-09-22T16:58:04+00:00

Equitization and divestment continue to be one of the crucial pillars of the economic development strategy over the period 2020-2030. The Vietnamese Government has been completing the legal framework to speed up the process of privatization and divestment over the past 3 years. One of the highlights is the regulation on the application of Book Building (BB) Method to offer state shares in 2018. BB, an effective mechanism to determine the price on the primary market, is encouraged to apply on most markets. However, according to Hanoi Stock Exchange, for four months since Circular 21/2019/BTC-TT was released, 17 announcements of IPOs or divesture of state capital were whole lot sale auction or competitive offering. This implies the popularity of fixed price and discriminatory auction in Vietnam. Moreover, applying BB in Vietnam requires certain adjustments to theories. This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of BB over fixed price and auction, reviews BB experiences of some economies, and make recommendations on the application of BB in offering state shares in Vietnam. Given that BB is expected to create a transparent and effective pricing mechanism and enhance the success of state share offering, this study indicates some points that need clarifying or adjusting to the current regulation, including (i) initial price and price range; (ii) time for disclosing information and opening order books; (iii) objectives of BB; (iv) cancel the results of BB; (v) selection of underwriters.

Corporate social responsibility and firm financial performance: A literature review

2020-09-22T16:57:04+00:00

This paper aims to investigate the literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to provide a comprehensive overview of whether CSR would make a difference to organisational financial outcomes. The paper also provides a closer focus on CSR research in Vietnam. Through an extensive analysis of 86 most recent empirical studies from 2015 to 2020, we found that the contribution of CSR to firm financial performance has received significant support from the literature. Yet the overall findings are still inconsistent, and the majority of evidence is mainly from developed countries. The current literature on CSR and firm performance highlights some important issues, ranging from theoretical background, CSR measures, methodological issues, the need to consider intervening factors in CSR-firm performance relationship, and the need to extend this literature further in developing and emerging countries. The literature on CSR-firm performance research in Vietnam closely resembles these problems. Research in this country domain is still scarce in both quantity and quality, reflecting in a number of issues including the limited number of international publications, the absence of theory-driven research, and the less rigorous research design. Building on these findings, we recommend future research to (i) adopt the multi-theoretical approach for a more extensive view on whether and how CSR contributes to firm performance; (ii) obtain more rigorous methodological approaches to measure a wide range of CSR dimensions and address the issue of endogeneity in CSR-firm performance causal relationship; (iii) open the Pandora box to explore why and through which channels CSR can improve firm financial performance with the presence of situational factors; and (iv) build the literature with more evidence from different country contexts and from developing and emerging countries.

Declining returns to investment in tertiary education in Vietnam

2020-09-22T16:56:38+00:00

The human capital theory in economics argues that education is an investment in human capital and that the acquisition of knowledge and skills would enable individuals to increase their productivity and earnings, and thereby contributing to economic growth. As an investment, education incurs costs and benefits at various points in time. To measure economic benefits of education investment by individuals, economists use the rate of return to investment in education. This rate of return should be positive and higher than that of alternative options to ensure economic benefits of education investment and motivate education decisions. Given that tertiary education attainment is costly to individuals and the society at large, highly positive returns to tertiary education matter for individual and social human capital investments being economically justified. In the present age of mass access to tertiary education, the pattern of declining returns to investment in tertiary education was observed in a growing number of countries that include Vietnam. This trend may avert individual investment in human capital formation, and thereby negatively affecting national economic growth and development. To contribute to addressing this problem, the current paper aims to analyse the factors that drive the decay in returns to investment in tertiary education in Vietnam. Based on the descriptive research method using descriptive statistics, we summarize key trends in tertiary education in Vietnam. We identify that the abatement in returns to tertiary education investment in Vietnam may be attributed to three main factors: (i) the expansion of education supply, in particular tertiary education; (ii) the economic downturn after the global financial crisis; and (iii) the mismatched quality of tertiary education. These findings are foundations for our suggestions on possible solutions to inform the tertiary education development strategy.

The legal aspect of security over future receivables in Japan and suggestions for Vietnam

2020-09-22T16:55:52+00:00

Enabling the use of future receivables as collateral to access to credit is highly economically meaningful, as its development is for one thing to assist businesses and individuals to access the capital easily with movable assets to be accrued in the future, and for another thing to encourage lending by reducing the financial vulnerability of lenders. In Vietnam, the recognition of future objects as a form of property eligible to be used as collateral since the 2005 Civil Code has had positive impacts on business financing. However, the term “future objects” does not explicitly cover all types of assets to be formed in the future such as future property rights not categorized as eligible collaterals. This shortcoming later has been revised and supplemented under Decree 163/2006/ND-CP, amended by Decree 11/2012/ ND-CP (Collectively Decree 163) which permits the creation of security over both existing and future receivables. The 2005 Civil Code has been replaced by the 2015 Civil Code, and it is necessary to revise or replace Decree 163 to reflect the changes in the Civil Code and the new practice. Vietnamese Government has been collecting comments for a draft decree on security measures to replace Decree 163, and this article aims to analyze the legal schemes in the former and current Civil Code regarding the use of future receivables as security for performance obligations, and compare with Japanese laws on securitization of future receivables in Japan. The author will try to provide suggestions drawing from Japanese lawmaking for reforming Vietnamese statutory.

Student holistic development through short-term student mobility activities

2020-09-22T16:57:24+00:00

Many studies have proven the positive impacts of student mobility on learner development. In general, student mobility may take place in two main forms: (1) learning abroad for a degree; (2) short-term mobility with a duration from some days to some weeks under different activities such as credit transfer, faculty-led study tour, and internship. In reality, the number of short-term mobility programs has dramatically increased globally to meet the needs of those who cannot afford overseas degree programs for financial, medical, family reasons, or the like. While learning abroad for degrees is relatively suitable to some specific learners, the above-mentioned mobility activities are generally easier for schools to organize, more accessible to learners as well as contribute significantly to student holistic development. Students of the University of Economics and Law, especially those in high-quality programs, are expected and encouraged to participate in different kinds of short-term student mobility programs. This paper focuses on presenting the impacts of short-term student mobility on student holistic development, illustrating the best practices from the University of Economics and Law and suggests some implications to foster short-term mobility in higher education institutions.