The paper explores the return migration choice of graduates, which takes place during the transition from higher education to the labor market. Graduate students, after a short time in temporary migration to cities for studying, have to make a decision of returning back home or staying in migration in urban areas for working. Drawing on the mechanism identified in the literature on internal migration, this empirical research tests the effects of two factors: place attractiveness and social supports factors on graduates’ decision to return migration to hometown. A binary logit regression analysis was conducted with data from 502 surveyed graduates in Hanoi, Vietnam. The analysis of the motives reported by graduates indicates that return migration decisions cannot be reduced to a single dimension. Perceived attractiveness of a region such as quality of living environment, job opportunities, and social context of individuals positively impact on student’ decision to return migration after graduation. The research results imply that, in a collectivistic country like Vietnam, students’ choice of future career is strongly influenced by their social context, and choosing a place to work is not simply a matter of earning a higher salary or enjoying better working conditions, but is also related to family issues.

This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the causal relationship between bribery and firm innovation. To this end, we use a micro-dataset of small and medium firms in Vietnam surveyed in 2015. Given the binary nature of the dependent variable, a simple probit regression model is employed. However, as bribery variable is potentially endogenous, a simple probit regression may give biased estimates. We deal with the potential endogeneity by making use of the bivariate probit model. A property of the bivariate probit model is that it can produce efficient estimates of a typical probit model with endogenous binary explanatory variable. A Hausman-like likelihood ratio test is implemented following the estimation to test the existence of endogeneity. We find that bribery significantly undermines firm innovation. Also, firms run by household appear less innovative. The probability of innovation diminishes significantly if firm owners or managers have previous experience in firm products. As expected, larger firms seem to be more innovative. Exporters tend to be more innovative compared to non-exporters. Our findings provide support to the hypothesis that bribery is detrimental to firm innovation and, thus, innovation may be a mediating channel, through which, bribery impedes firm long-term performance.

The paper examines the reaction of the Z-Vietnam generation to online TV advertising (TVC), which elements of online TV advertising has a positive influence, which factors do not affect or negatively affect their consumption decisions for the advertised goods. Data for the study was collected from 300 Vietnam’s Generation Z in Ho Chi Minh City through live interviews or questionnaires through Google Docs Forms, with over 30 questions. The six basic factors that influence the reactions of Generation Z consumers are information, entertainment, irritation, credibility, interaction, and advertising value. The research results show that, due to the influence of social media and generational characteristics, most consumers of the Generation Z in Vietnam have a favorable attitude towards online TV advertising, and they appreciate this form of advertising. Information element, irritation, credibility and entertainment have a strong and positive impact on TVC. The other two factors are advertising value and interaction, which does not significantly affect the reaction of this generation. This study needs to be checked and reviewed by subsequent studies on a larger scale and in a wider scope because the study only conducted random sampling on a small scale, did not meet the requirements for representation and generality.

The study investigates the impact of factors on environmental accounting implementation in mining enterprises in Binh Dinh province, Vietnam. The survey was carried out in three phases: 1) a draft survey form; 2) in-depth interviews with experts; 3) design questionnaire. The survey respondents were people who had knowledge of environmental information in mining enterprises in Binh Dinh province, including: accountant, chief accountant, financial deputy director or director. The questionnaire was is sent directly or through Google Form tool. The author received 162 responses votes from the survey respondent, out of which 13 were unusable due to missing data. Thus, 149 valid responses votes were used. This study employs Cronbach’s alpha analysis, exploratory factor analysis and multivariate regression analysis. The results showed the influence of five different factors on environmental accounting implementation in mining enterprises in Binh Dinh province: stakeholders pressure, corporate characteristics, coercive pressure of government agencies, environmental awareness of senior managers and accountant qualifications of environmental accounting. While the pressure of stakeholders has a negligible influence, the remaining four factors (coercive pressure of government agencies, environmental awareness of senior executives, business characteristics, accountant qualifications of environmental ac

This paper examines the impacts of credit on income inequality in Vietnam. Though it is one of the most common measures of financial development, there is a dearth of research in this area. Unlike previous studies, the paper disaggregates the impact of each type of credit on income inequality, looking at the Gini coefficient. We employ the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) to solve the endogenous problem. The primary data set contains a panel of 60 Provincial observations, from data collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam from 2002 to 2016. The empirical findings show that, while commercial credit increases income inequality, policy credit contributes to reducing income inequality in Vietnam. The results also confirm the important roles of education, institutional quality and foreign direct investment in fighting against income inequality in Vietnam. However, the paper does not provide adequate evidence to support the inverted U-shaped relationship between credit and income inequality. Based on the findings, we argue that the government should direct flows of credit to real economic activities rather than speculative investment; more bank credit should be allocated to rural areas and agriculture; and favorable credit programs should be designed to promote education, especially of those living in rural areas.

The paper examines the characteristics and causes of the expectation gap of audit and assurance services. The paper has conducted three surveys with three target groups. In the first survey, participants are auditors, users of audit reports are subject in the second survey and in the third survey, and students major in auditing are selected. The content of the survey aims to find out the differences in perception of the survey participants on two issues: (i) responsibilities of auditors for detection frauds, errors, protection of the enterprise’s assets and financial scandals, and (ii) the role of audit and auditors in making investment decisions and investor’s belief. The research carried out survey from March to September 2019 with 165 responds. The collected data was processed by statistical software SPSS, version 23, and Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the results of the audit expectation gap between the auditor group and the users of audit report group and between the student group and users of audit report group. The results showed that there exists an expectation gap in the responsibility of auditors for detection of all frauds, errors and protection enterprise’s assets. Recommendations include strengthening audit standards, penalizing bad practices and ensuring auditor’s independence.

The paper investigates the factors that affect the demand for a voluntary audit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. A structured questionnaire survey of 284 SMEs was employed, preceded by in-depth interviews with auditors and SMEs’ managers. The research used logistic regression estimator to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. The results show that the degree of director’s view on voluntary audit, related stakeholder, degree of recommendation, and firm size have a statistically significant positive effect on audit decisions of SMEs while degree of audit fee has a statistically significant negative effect, and degree of subjective norm does not affect. This indicated that SMEs are more likely to have an external audit if they have some typical features: it is becoming larger in terms of size, and the directors consider that the audit has a relative benefit outweighing its cost. The research results suggested that Vietnam Government should make a statutory audit of SMEs’ financial statements rather than make it an option for SMEs. The auditing firms were also recommended to actively take their audit services to SMEs rather than waiting for the SMEs’ managers to contact them for their services.

The paper examines the impact of information about cash flow from operating activities of firms listed on Vietnam’s stock market to the decision making of individual investors. Data were collected from interviews with 160 individual investors about their investment decisions based on information on profit growth and cash flow growth from operating activities. T-test was conducted to research on Vietnam’s stock market - a market considered as information that is not really public, transparent and ineffective. The research results show that: (1) investors do not care about cash flow from operating activities when making investment decisions if the company’s profits grow positively, (2) information about cash flow from operating activities only affects the decisions of individual investors once profit growth is negative, and (3) conflicting information between profit growth and cash flow growth from business activities significantly affects the confidence and comfort of investors in Vietnam’s stock market when they make investment decisions. Then, the study points out the mistake of investors when making investment decisions, and offers recommendations to investors when making investment decisions, not only concerned with profit growth, but also paying special attention to cash flow growth, especially cash flow from the company’s business operations.

This research aims to revisit the hypothesis that bribery hurts firm performance in the context of a perceptibly corrupt country. Specifically, we use micro-data from Vietnamese small and medium firm surveys in 2013 and 2015 to examine whether bribery impedes firm revenue growth and labor productivity growth. An issue arising in this type of research is the potential endogeneity between firm bribing behaviors and firm performance. To go around the issue, we follow the literature to instrument bribery variable with the average probability of bribery in other provinces. We further employ the Analysis of Variance technique (ANOVA) to unveil if the effect of bribery is dependent on bribing purposes. The regression results show that firm performance is significantly influenced by firm size, firm age and firm bribing behavior. Larger firms are more likely to grow faster while firm performance tends to be negatively related to firm age. Particularly, we find that bribery significantly impedes firm revenue growth and labor productivity growth. The analysis of variance shows that the effect of bribery on firm performance may vary across bribing purposes. Our findings, therefore, support the sand-the-wheels hypothesis that bribery hurts firm performance even in a highly corrupt business environment.

The study explores factors that affect the performance of responsibility accounting at public universities in Vietnam. The study conducted a survey of 130, out of 154 public universities in Vietnam and uses regression analysis methods. The results identify eight groups of factors affecting the performance of responsibility accounting at these establishments of higher education: Division of the organization into responsibility centers, Estimation and Reality, Cost and income allocation, University autonomy, Management decentralization, Estimation, Reward, and Report. Costs and income allocation for responsibility centers, university autonomy, and the division of universities into responsibility centers are shown to significantly affect the performance of public universities in Vietnam. The results show that the performance of responsibility accounting at public universities in Vietnam is influenced by decentralization of management, division of the organization into responsibility centers, reward, cost and income allocation, estimation, evaluation of the results achieved between the estimation compared with reality, release of reports and university autonomy. Among the factors, cost and income allocation, university autonomy, division of the organization into responsibility centers, reward and evaluation of results achieved between estimation and reality have strong impacts. The study findings also indicate that the school council does not affect responsibility accounting at these universities.

The study investigates the influences of different factors on revisit intention to Korea of Vietnamese tourists. A mixed-method including qualitative and quantitative methodologies were utilized. A focus group of 9 experts was carried out for reviewing and exploring different factors and the conceptual model. An in-depth interview with 19 participants was developed with an aim to develop and correct measurement items. The conceptual model was tested and developed using data collected by a questionnaire, from a sample of 473 respondents, who have visited Korea by both electronic and paper surveys with non-probability and convenience sampling techniques. The questionnaire in this research applied a 5-point Likert scale and was distributed both electronically using Google form and by questionnaire paper. The Bootstrap model was used for estimating the model parameters for retesting the reliability of the estimates. Factor analysis and Structural Equation Modelling are employed to analyze the data. Results showed that 427 tourists traveling by groups organized by travel companies and 46 tourists traveling on their own. The reliability, tangibility, empathy, and assurance had influences on tourists‟ intention to revisit a destination, especially through satisfaction mediating construct. Destination image, self-congruity, and the emergence of Hallyu had influences intension revisit through attitude and tourist motivation.

The paper aims to investigate the interactions between rule of law, economic growth and the shadow economy in 18 selected transition economies. This study uses annual data over the period 2002-2015 for 18 transition countries to estimate the effects of rule of law and other factors on the size of shadow economy. The transition country group is classified based on International Monetary Fund resources and is selected on the basis of the availability of data. The data examined in this research are derived from the World Bank, Worldwide Governance Indicators project and Working Paper from International Monetary Fund. This study employs GMM method. The results show that the economic growth indicators have negative and statistically significant impact on the shadow economy. Additionally, these results also reveal that in transition countries the size of shadow economy is negatively related to the quality of rule of law. However, the findings of this research also point out that there are positive relationships between inflation, public expenditure and the size of shadow economy. Hence the results from this study suggest that the size of shadow economy could be controlled by improving the effectiveness of rule of law and the growth of economy particularly in transition countries.

The paper investigates the factors affecting the profitability of commercial banks in Asian developing countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. We use panel data of four entities; ten banks in Vietnam, eight banks in Malaysia, nine banks in Thailand and all 27 commercial banks from the period 2012 to 2016. Particularly, Return on Asset, Return on Equity and TOBINQ are defined as profitability indicators, which are impacted by three main types of independent variables, namely bank-specifics, which include CAR, NPL, Cost to income, Liquidity ratio and Bank size, industry-specific variable-concentration HHI and macroeconomic-specific variables, which consist of GDP growth and Inflation. Using panel data regressions, the paper identifies several similarities and differences among empirical results on the models of four entities, each of three countries and the overall sample. The most outstanding similarity is that all entities record the significantly negative relationship between operational risk and banking profitability. Likewise, the significantly negative influence of bank size to profitability is found on models of Vietnam and Thailand and no significant effect on the model of Malaysia. Meanwhile, the most controversial result comes up with the negative relationship between CAR and profitability indicators as well as the positive association between credit risk and banking profitability.

This paper explores the impact of capital structure on firm performance in the context of Vietnam. The paper investigates the different effect of capital structure on firm performance in state-owned and non-state enterprises listed on the Vietnam stock market. The panel data of research sample includes 488 non-financial listed companies on the Vietnam stock market for a period of six years, from 2013 to 2018. The Generalized Least Square (GLS) is employed to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. In this research, firm performance is measured by return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and earnings per share (EPS). The ratios of short-term liabilities, long-term liabilities, and total liabilities to total assets are proxy for capital structure. Firm sizes, growth rate, liquidity, and ratio of fixed assets to total assets are control variables in the study. The empirical results show that capital structure has a statistically significant negative effect on the firm performance. The result also shows this effect is stronger in state-owned enterprises than non-state enterprises in Vietnam. These evidences provide a new insight to managers of both state-owned and non-state enterprises on how to improve the firm’s performance with capital structure.

The paper examines the influence of corporate governance (CG) and earning quality (EQ) on corporate value (FV) of Vietnamese enterprises. The study uses GLS regression and linear structure model using data collected from companies listing on the stock market in Vietnam during 2008- 2018, with a total of 2,937 observations. The research results indicate that EQ and CG represented by the Integrated Board of Directors and the Integrated Supervisory Board have a positive effect on FV directly and indirectly. The results show that the Integrated Board of Directors has a positive effect on EQ, whereas the Integrated Supervisory Board has a negative effect on EQ. Based on the research results, we suggest that companies need to strictly comply and implement GC, so to bring down the agency cost and consequently to increase performance. The companies also should establish the Board of Director of a proper size, with financial and accounting specialty, and including women board members. The government also needs to improve the management mechanism asking for firms to prepare and publish financial statements with reliable company information, which could be provided to users. These recommendations are a useful basis to help businesses improve FV via changes in the corporate governance factors in each enterprise.

The paper aims to investigate auditors, auditing firms and other external factors that affect quality of information technology audit in Vietnam. We conducted 2 types of data collections including direct and on survey. For direct survey, we sent directly to auditors at the training classes organized by State Securities Exchanges Commission. An online survey was established and Google doc link was provided to the Big4 and non-Big4 auditors. We received 138 survey responses in that 90 auditors came from Big4 and 48 auditors from non-Big4 firms. The data are analyzed using a factor analysis and compare means approaches to illustrate the potential IT audit quality factors and identify differences between two groups of auditors. The results show that independence and accounting knowledge and audit skills are the most important factors. And since external auditors perform many assurance services, the independence is critical. The result also shows that the auditors need to have enough competent and professional skills when conducting an audit, especially within an IT environment that requires high quality. The findings suggest a similar pattern of two groups in the context of Vietnam and some factors of auditors and auditing firms appear to have a statistically significant impact on quality of IT audit.

The study aims to assess the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade (export and import) on Vietnam's economic growth for the 2000-2018 period. Secondary data is taken from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Ordinary least-square method is used in analyzing the impact of FDI, export and import on economic growth of Vietnam. Empirical test results show that FDI and international trade are related to Vietnam's economic growth. However, each economic variable has a different impact. FDI has a positive and statistically significant influence on economic growth of Vietnam. Export also has positive and statistically significant impact to the economic growth, while import has a negative but not statistically significant effect. The result is useful for the policy makers of Vietnam on foreign economic relations. In order to improve the effect of FDI and international trade on growth of the economy, the government of Vietnam should: (1) continue applying preferential policies to attract FDI; (2) select foreign investors aiming to quality, efficiency, high technology and environmental protection; (3) continue pursuing export-oriented policy; (4) enhance the added value of exported goods and control the type of imported goods; (5) further liberalize trade through signing and implementation of international trade commitments.

The study aims to evaluate the factors affecting the intention to use digital banking in Vietnam. Multivariate data analysis techniques (Cronbach’s Alpha test, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Structure equation model) are used for the survey data collected from 201 customers who have access to digital banking. The analysis results show that: (1) attitude towards the service, perceived usefulness has a positive impacts on the intention to use; (2) convenience does not affect the intention to use digital banking services; (3) perceived usefulness factor has a positive effect on the attitude towards the service; (4) The perceived risk has a negative impact on attitude towards the service; (5) trust has no effect on the attitude towards the service; (6) ease of use has a positive impact on perceived usefulness; (7) trust has a positive effect on perceived risk. From the results of this study, perceived usefulness has a positive effect on attitude and intention to use the service. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the sense of the usefulness of customers through media advertising and consulting so that customers fully understand the benefits brought about by using digital banking services. Perceived risk has a negative impact on attitude towards the service.

The study of environmental pollution plays an important role in controlling emissions in the production activities of FDI enterprises as well as export goods. Vietnam is a country with a large proportion of FDI contribution and high export value. Therefore, there should be studies to assess the actual effects of FDI and the openness of the economy (trade) on the environment. Therefore, the authors conduct research on the role of FDI and trade on environmental quality in Vietnam. With data collected from 1990 to 2018 (from the period of Vietnam's economy opening up) through the ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) model, the results show that FDI has a positive impact on CO2 emissions in the short term but has no impact on the long-term (In this study, CO2 is considered to represent environmental quality). The trade has a positive impact on CO2 emissions in both the short term and long term. The results of the study show the actual shortcomings of FDI as well as production activities in the export enterprises in Vietnam. From the results of this research, the author also provides the causes and remedies to control of CO2 emissions from two activities of foreign direct investment and trade.

The study examines the impact of international integration on Vietnam's rural and urban income inequalities using the regression model. The data used for this study is based on the results of the Vietnam Household Living Standards survey from 2008 to 2016 of the General Statistics Office. These surveys conducted nationwide with a sample size of 46,995 households in 3,133 communes/wards which were representative at national, regional, urban, rural and provincial levels. The level of international economic integration used in the study is the proportion of import and export turnover of GDP, the proportion of FDI and GDP by province. Due to the heterogeneity and unobservableness of the single observant in the data set, we selected the models of random and fixed effects. The research results show that during the economic integration process, the Export/GDP factor is negatively related to income inequality. The remaining factors (GDP per capita, FDI/GDP, Educational level of households, Percentage of internet users, Aggregation of foreign cash inflow and GDP of the province) are all positively related to income inequality. The findings help assess the impact of international integration on rural-urban income inequality, but also provides a concrete basis to help policymakers address income inequality in the integration process.