In this study, bottom-up type powder processing and top-down type SPD (severe plastic deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve full density of Carbon nanotube (CNT)/metal matrix composites with superior mechanical properties by improved particle bonding and least grain growth, which were considered as a bottle neck of the bottom-up method using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. ECAP (equal channel angular pressing), the most promising method in SPD, was used for the CNT/Cu powder consolidation. The powder ECAP processing with 1, 2, 4 and 8 route C passes was conducted at room temperature.

Information transparency ensures that market players all have the opportunity to access the same information to come up with their assessment of the banks’ financial situation, performance and risks to reach effective investment decisions. This research is conducted to investigate the levels of impact of determinants on information transparency by examining the case studies of Vietnamese commercial banks. This study combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods, based on interviews of 32 specialists in banking, accounting and auditing fields, which were conducted to explore determinants influencing information transparency and to develop measurement scales. Then, a survey of 160 managers of commercial banks, audit firms, and accounting managers of firms who frequently had transactions with banks was carried out to investigate the statistical significance of these determinants. The results show that, out of seven determinants that have significant impacts on the banks’ information transparency, commitment from banks’ senior management regarding transparency in information disclosure has the highest impact, followed by state governance, auditing, information infrastructure, credit rating agencies, personnel and bank performance. Accordingly, we provide some recommendations for improving information transparency in the Vietnamese banking industry context as a case study and in emerging countries context in general.

Independence is a factor which has a significant impact on auditing quality, especially in the recent times where the marketplace is increasingly demanding transparency. The independence of auditors is assessed based on the main criteria such as the reliability of the audit opinions, the accuracy, truthfulness of financial reports, and the objectivity in the opinions of the auditor. The study investigates the effects of non-audit services (NAS) on auditor independence in emerging economies such as Vietnam. Non-audit services include taxation services, management advisory services and outsourcing internal audit services. Based on previously relevant researches, the authors develop hypotheses and a regression model about non-audit services (independent variables) and audit independence (dependent variable). The research collects data by 5-scale Likert questionnaire. The findings indicate the relationship between NAS and auditor independence. Specifically, the results reveal two main factors that have influence on auditor independence, namely, taxation services and management advisory services. The results of our research can be considered as new findings and can be compared to previous researches in Vietnam, which establishes a new viewpoint about the relationship between the NAS and the independence of the auditor. This result can be implemented for countries or jurisdictions which are similar to Vietnam.

In the global trend toward economic integration, Vietnamese enterprises desire to attract investment and increase competitiveness in the global market, so they have been required to provide transparent, high-quality financial reports following the International Financial Reports Standards (IFRS). Based on the roadmap drawn by the Vietnam Ministry of Finance, the foreign-invested enterprises, listed enterprises and state-owned enterprises will be applying IFRS in 2030. However, some enterprises in Vietnam have applied IFRS in the presentation of financial statements at the request of related parties for a while. The main research objective of this paper focused on examining the factors affecting the implementation of IFRS in Vietnamese enterprises through descriptive statistics tools, Cronbach’s Alpha testing, EFA and logistics regression analysis with the sample collected from 254 Vietnamese enterprises. The methodology in this research was the mixed qualitative and quantitative method. The results show that the higher the profitability, debt ratio and firm size of the enterprise, the more likely it is to apply IFRS. From the results of this study, the appropriate recommendations have been made to promote the implementation of IFRS by Vietnamese enterprises effectively and following the IFRS application roadmap of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam.

The study aims to investigate the dual effects of corruption control on economic growth in relationship with the stock market and trade openness in developing countries. The study used difference S-GMM method on the dynamic panel data model in the period (2002-2017) with data collected from the World Bank. The study discovers the dominant impacts of corruption control in the relationship with the stock market on economic growth. At the same time, the study also confirms the overwhelming impact of corruption control in the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in the developing countries. In addition, the study shows that inefficient stock markets in developing countries will not promote economic growth. Meanwhile, the long-standing credit market has a positive impact on economic growth. With the strong development of stock market and trade openness in the period (2002-2017), control on corruption in developing countries does not get better in time with the increase in demand. The findings of this study suggest a number of solutions to strengthen corruption control, leading to the increased efficiency on the stock market and as well as encouraging the positive effects of trade openness to contribute to promoting economic growth in developing countries.

The main purpose of this study is to find the factors affecting the consumer goods buyers’ choice on e-commerce sites in Vietnam. By using the quantitative method, the paper examines the theoretical research model and tests four hypotheses. The sample was drawn from the population of e-commerce sites in Vietnam comprising about 1,000 respondents. This study used the questionnaire method to collect primary data to test the hypotheses. Data analysis of the questionnaire was done using SPSS. The results show that there is a correlation between personal preferences of consumers on colors and brands and their actual final choice on e-commerce sites in Vietnam. The most important factor affecting the consumer goods buyers’ choice on e-commerce in Vietnam is the brand of E-commerce site, following by the color and position. Among all educational groups, respondents with a Master degree pay the biggest attention to the site’s color attribute, and those with a Bachelor degree pay more attention to the brand attribute. Women pay much more attention to the location of the products on the screen than men, as do consumers with a PhD degree, over respondents with a Bachelor or Master degree, and foreigners over Vietnamese consumers.

The paper investigates the antecedents of Organic Food (OF) produce in Vietnam and the intentions and behavior of OF purchasers. A theoretical framework is developed and evaluated by simulation of the structural model. Data was collected from a convenient sample of 222 consumers from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The selection included 159 (72%) women, who were identified as being the primary buyers of organic food for their family (73%). Findings suggest food hygiene issues and conscientious self-identity as the much beneficial determinants of organic production perceptions. Because of the results in this report, the consideration for food security has gained little research consideration throughout the field of organic produce. Food safety concerns are also related to academics exploring consumer confidence as they might be regarded as one of their aspects in selecting standard, natural or health food products. Findings suggest food security as one of the essential determinants of motivation, while health awareness purports to become the least significant motivation, contrary to observations from certain previous studies. However, it is observed that moral personality-identity influences both perceptions and willingness to buy organic food, stressing that the association of participants with ethical concerns influences their perceptions and eventual choices of consumption.

This research focuses on the analysis of factors affecting the market share of retailers in Vietnam. This research uses Smith and Chaffey’s (2005) 5Ss e-marketing model for analysis, which include Sell, Serve, Speak, Save, and Sizzle. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to conduct the study. The researchers collected information from customers, managers, and directors in 25 retailers in Vietnam. A survey questionnaire was delivered to 15 people in each of the retailers who are customers, managers and directors. The researcher used the SPSS 16.0 software to analyze the data collected and in-depth interviews were carried out with the purpose of testing the hypothesis as well as the overall framework of the research. Out of the 375 questionnaires delivered, 360 were returned. The means of 23 items in the survey questionnaire ranged from 3.3733 to 4.3533 representing the outcome of the descriptive analysis. Research results showed that Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of five factors affecting the market share of the retailers is sizzle, save, sell, serve and speak. This research has proposed some implications for the market share of retailers, including technology enhancement for full message delivery, ways to approach target customers, and improving product diversity.

This study examines the relationship between the attributes of board structure and the likelihood of financial distress for the non-financial sector of an emerging market characterized by concentrated ownership and family-controlled business. The present study utilized panel logistic regression to estimate the relationship between board structure attributes and the likelihood of financial distress. We used Altman Z-Score as a proxy for firm financial distress, as this tool measures the financial distress inversely. The study finds a significant relationship between board size and the likelihood of financial distress. The results show that a one-unit increase in board size would decrease the probability of financial distress by 3.4%. Further, we observe that a greater level of board independence is associated with a lower likelihood of financial distress. A one-unit increase in board independence would decrease the probability of financial distress by 20.4%. We also find a significant positive impact of leverage on the likelihood of financial distress. The present study contributes to the body of literature on board structure attributes and likelihood of financial distress in emerging markets, like Pakistan. Furthermore, the findings would be beneficial for corporate policymakers and investors in formulating corporate financial strategy and predicting business failure.

The present study aims to analyze factors of brand equity in the retail stores in Vietnam; to recognize sub-dimensions connected with the forms of brand equity and thereby study the extent of the relationship among bases of market segmentation and brand equity. The present research made a collection of data by conducting a preliminary study. Responses were collected from the customers through a structured questionnaire to buy goods and services from the retail store in Vietnam. The sample size selected for the study was 196. The study applied various statistical tools, namely, Cronbach’s Alpha for reliability checking, correlation and regression statistics with the support of SPSS Software. The brand association is treated as a vital determinant of brand equity that significantly influences the bases of market segmentation. Further, the study also recognized the fact that the majority of consumers who prefer to buy from retail stores are young and in the age-group of 18-24 years. The present study made an initial attempt to study the relationship among bases of market segmentation with the factors related to brand equity; thereby to offer a novel conceptual framework designed for retail stores in Vietnam for brand positioning.

This study aims to explore a new approach of relationship assessment by partially employing attitudinal commitment to measure the influence on perception of cooperation within the Vietnamese rice supply chains, which begins from commercial enterprises up to the retailers in the Vietnamese market. The quantitative research is first built around the measurement instruments for the constructs of relationship quality (RQ) and its dimensions; next, a questionnaire is designed; finally, we deal with sample issues and analyze the data to answer the research questions. The truncated sampling technique and Likert-scale survey is a suitable method for analyzing Vietnamese rice retailers and data collection. The preliminary test was conducted using SPSS Statistics; the main test was, then, carried out to evaluate the proposed model and test the hypotheses. Appropriately, the results point to a significant influence of attitudinal factors on trust and satisfaction. In addition, with the involvement of perceived trust and satisfaction, that combination showed the mediating effect between the attitudinal factors and the relationship quality. The ad-hoc analysis indicated the significant role of the two mediators. To be more specific, the high degree of trust and satisfaction has a positive impact on the formation of the relationship between participants in the sector.

With the strong growth of social networking sites such as Facebook in recent years, the potential of exploiting customers on Facebook is increasing. Presently, trading activities on Facebook is rapidly developing. Therefore, businesses have become increasingly competitive when selling products on Facebook, so as to retain customers as well as to satisfy customer, which is of paramount importance. This study was conducted to assess the factors affecting the satisfaction of individual customers in Vietnam when buying goods on Facebook. This study uses multivariate analysis techniques (Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling) to determine the factors affecting customer satisfaction when buying goods on Facebook. Research results from 268 individual customers in Vietnam indicated trust and convenience are the two important factors related to customer satisfaction when buying goods on Facebook. Customer satisfaction is the result of consumer experience throughout the different stages of purchase. The more the shopping experience, the more the customers are satisfied when buying products. The price and products do not affect customer satisfaction (prices are easy to compare and products are easily understood on the Internet; hence, these two factors are not considered as determinants of customer satisfaction). Furthermore, this study provides recommendations to improve customer satisfaction.

Selecting an investment location is one of the most crucial decisions of investors as it has a great influence on the operation and development of the business in the future. At the same time, the attraction of localities will bring advantages for socio-economic development for the localities invested. Investors are interested in localities that have the potential to invest. The study focused on analyzing and testing the influence of place brand equity on the choice of investment locations of domestic investors through a regression analysis using 425 survey samples of investors in Phu Tho province, one of the northern industrial zones in Vietnam. Research results showed that 56.5% of investment decisions depended on factors from place brands. In addition, in the decision-making process for choosing investment locations, brand awareness factor had the greatest impact on investor’s decisions, followed by brand image and brand personality, and finally brand confidence had the smallest impact. Therefore, in the coming time, in order to retain and attract domestic investors to choose Phu Tho as an investment and business destination, it is necessary to increase the value of place brand equity and implement solutions to promote place brands to investors.

This study investigates the effect of capital structure on the financial performance of pharmaceutical enterprises which are listing on Vietnam’s stock market. The study builds the regression using ROE as dependent variable and four independent variables, including selffinancing, financial leverage, long-term asset and debt to assets ratios. In addition, we use other variables as controlling ones, such as firm size, fixed asset rate and growth. We collect data for the period from 2015 to 2019 of all 30 pharmaceutical enterprises which are currently listing on Vietnam’s stock market. The least square regression (OLS) is used to test the effect of capital structure to the firms’ financial performance. The analysis results show that the financial leverage ratio (LR), long-term asset ratio (LAR) and debt-to-assets ratio (DR) have positive relationship with firm performance, meanwhile the self-financing (E/C) affects negatively to the return on equity (ROE). Upon the findings we suggest that the Vietnamese government should focus on stabilizing macro environment to create favorable environment for enterprises. And the pharmaceutical enterprises should build more reasonable capital structure with higher debt proportion than equity, diversifying loan mobilization channels such as issuing long-term bonds. Additionally, the firms should expand the scale appropriately to maintain development and ability to pay debts.

The paper examines the determinants of employee engagement in the not-for-profit organization (NFPO) sector. A structured questionnaire survey of 205 NFPO employees in Vietnam was employed, preceded by in-depth interviews with NFPO associates and managers. After a multiple regression analysis to study the impact of five independent variables on one dependent variable, the study reveals that Work design and Work-life balance are positively and significantly associated with employee engagement. Of which, Work design is measured by the level of job fit, job autonomy, job challenge, and job meaningfulness. On the other hand, Work-life balance involves measurement aspects consisting of how reasonable the workload is and organizational support. Meanwhile, different from the business world, Leadership, Learning and Development, and Recognition do not show statistically positive impacts on employee engagement in NFPOs. Still, they are crucial back-supporting factors to ensure employee experience at work. Further, the study finds that personal growth contributes a great part to keep employees in the sector motivated. This paper brings the area of study to the forefront in an effort to benefit the practice of human resources management in NFPOs as well as support employees in the sector with a higher quality working experience.

This study examines the relationships and the impacts of service quality, customer satisfaction and switching costs on customer loyalty of e-banking in commercial banks. This study uses questionnaires with 7-point Likert scale to collect data from 227 e-banking users, who are mainly students and paid employees in Hanoi City, Vietnam. The collected data are analyzed by using multivariate linear regression method. The results show that all five factors of service quality in e-banking – reliability, responsiveness, service capacity, empathy and tangibility – have positive correlations with customer satisfaction. Among these determinants, service capacity and tangibility have the strongest impact. It means that, by increasing the quality of their services through five above factors, especially through improving capacity and tangibility, commercial banks can satisfy their customer better. In addition, customer satisfaction is strongly and positively correlated to customer loyalty. It means that, if customers are satisfied with e-banking services of one bank, they not only continue to do more businesses with this bank, but also recommend this bank to other people. Lastly, customer loyalty also has a strong and positive correlation with switching costs, which means customers tend to be loyal to one bank if the barriers to switching banks increase.

This study explores the effect of trade of Information Communications Technology (ICT) products and government’s role, measured by three factors: Control of corruption, Government effectiveness, and Administrative tax level, on raising the economy across the East Asia- Pacific region. Secondary data were collected from the World Bank database of 21 countries over 12 years from 2006 to 2017. Applying the Panel corrected standard error model and running a robustness check based on the Dynamic panel data method, this research found that the exported ICT products, control of corruption, and government effectiveness could increase the economic income of a country in the region. The paper also provided the evidence indicating that the imported ICT products and the Administrative tax level are two harmful factors for economic growth. The major finding confirmed the useful contribution on improving government quality and its economy. First, improving the economy of a country always poses various challenges to its government. During the past decades, although much of the literature confirmed that exporting ICT products could promote an economy, very few studies investigated the role of Administrative tax level and the Government effectiveness. Second, there are only a few studies exploring the capability of government and the economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.