Da Nang is situated in central Vietnam and at convenient cross-roads of the railway and road systems as well as the airport. Moreover, the city has a deep-seaport system and well-invested infrastructure in connection with other transportation modes. It is a favorable condition for the city to move towards a Logistics Center for seaports serving the central region in particular and the whole region in general. This paper presents the current operating status in Danang seaports and analyses the necessary conditions to build a Logistics Center. Based on the experience of the other countries and the actual conditions, the article points out that it is necessary to strongly develop hinterland’s logistics services to create added value by building a Logistics Center and Dry ports system to effectively serve the operation of the seaports.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of kinematic taping therapy on menstrual distress, pain, and prostaglandinF2α. The experimental subject was a 24 years old woman with the pain of over 5 points on the dysmenorrhea measurement test and no unusual reactions on the taping test. The menstrual distress was measured by the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ), and the dysmenorrhea was measured by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) before and after the intervention. The prostaglandin F2α(PGF2α) was measured on the first day of menstruation before the intervention and 24 hours after the taping therapy by the blood test. The intervention of kinematic taping was conducted by the instructor of the International Kinematic Taping Academy, and the taping was applied to the lower abdomen and the waist. According to the difference of menstrual distress before and after the intervention, the menstrual distress turned out to be decreased to 96 points after the intervention from the 115 points before the intervention. The dysmenorrhea also reduced 3 points on the VAS from 7 points to 4 points before and after the intervention. The PGF2α decreased from 26pg/㎖ to 20pg/㎖ before and after the intervention. Besides, the PGF2α decreased from 26pg/㎖ to 20pg/㎖ before and after the intervention. Results suggest that kinematic taping therapy could be useful to reduce the menstrual distress, pain, and PGF2α.

This conceptual paper discusses the influence of brand knowledge through various components of personal luxury products’ towards the purchase intention. Rapid shifts in luxury consumers’ behaviours is one of the predominant drivers contributing to the growth of the modern luxury market. In response to this, luxury consumers’ characteristics and profiles need to be reexamined. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in global luxury consumption with the rise in number of luxury consumers from 140 million to 350 million globally (Bain & Company, 2015). Such a phenomenal growth in the luxury market leads to a widely increased interests among researchers across all disciplines (Truong et al., 2008; 2009, Tynan et al., 2010; Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). In particular, personal luxury goods market is forecast to continue to grow between 2-3 percent through 2020 (Bain & Company, 2016). Despite the fact that personal luxury goods is a major driver of the entire market, there is a limited research in this product category. Two factors of this fast-growing trend stimulate the need for additional research into consumers’ behaviours. First, there has been a shift in luxury consumers’ profile (Hanna, 2004; Fionda & Moore, 2009) and purchasing patterns (Bain & Company, 2015; 2016) where social influences (Dubois et al., 2001; Berthon et al., 2009; Cheah et al., 2015; Yang and Mattila, 2014; Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016) and people’s needs for materialism, appearances to enhance their ego and self-concept (Phau & Prendergast, 2000; Kapferer, 2006) are having greater impact on how consumers make their luxury purchase decisions. Second, it appears that the characteristics of the traditional luxury consumers as well as old marketing models from many decades ago need to be redefined (Bain & Company, 2015). Danziger (2005) indicates that the changes in luxury consumers’ purchase decision has created a dramatic shift in the purchase behaviour as a whole, making it difficult for luxury marketers to recognise the trend. To date, existing literature on luxury purchase intention focuses mainly from the cultural, economic, psychological perspectives (Leibenstein, 1950; Veblen, 1899; Bian & Forsythe, 2012; Liu et al., 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004; Shukla, 2012; Cheah et al., 2015) but remains limited on investigating luxury consumers’ behaviours through the integration of brand knowledge domain. Major works from marketing scholars on luxury value perceptions (Wiedmann et al., 2007 and 2009; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004; Shukla, 2012; Shukla & Purani, 2013; De Barnier et al., 2006; Hennigs et al., 2012 and 2013) suggest that they are important in explaining the whole picture of luxury consumption but insufficient in explaining purchase intentions (Shukla, 2012). Kapferer (2006) discusses that it is typical for consumers to identify which brand belongs to the luxury category, however, it could be more complex for the precise definition of luxury to be identified and understood. Therefore, this study seeks to incorporate the branding aspects into the investigation on the significance of brand knowledge towards the intention to purchase personal luxury products. Literature Review The concept of luxury is first explained by Veblen (1899) that the consumption of luxury goods is primarily considered by the affluent consumers with the desire to display their wealth to the relevant significant others. Even though the concept of luxury remains obscure, the clearer definition of luxury is given by Nueno & Quelch (1998) as the “ratio of functional utility to price is low while the ratio of intangible and situational utility to price is high” and that luxury products are beyond an ordinary expensive goods but “an ephemeral status symbol”. Shukla (2010) also defines luxury as the consumption that is not for just oneself but a socially-oriented type of consumption that fulfils the consumers’ own indulgence as well as to serve the “socially directed motives”. The aforementioned definitions of luxury show it is an “elusive concept” (Kapferer, 1998) with “fuzzy frontiers” (Kapferer, 2006). The luxury concept is describes as “incredibly fluid, and changes dramatically” over time and varied among different cultures (Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie 2006). As consumers become richer (Fionda & Moore, 2009) and are able to afford more luxury brands (Nueno & Quelch, 1998), luxury is no longer reserved for the rich but also includes the rising number of aspiring middle-class consumers (Shukla, 2012) who enjoy material comfort (Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2006; Yeoman, 2011: Granot et al., 2013). This change makes the term luxury even more difficult to define (Shukla, 2010) and will continue as an ongoing debate among research scholars (Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). Dubois & Paternault (1995) mention that “luxury items are bought for what they mean, beyond what they are”, this statement defines the nature of luxury brands where consumers often purchase luxury products not merely because of their outstanding quality but because of the name and the symbolic identity the brand provides. Kapferer (1998) recognises the importance in exploring the perception of luxury brands from the end-users themselves because they know best. This also adds to the ongoing complexity and difficulties in giving luxury a discreet definition (Kapferer, 1997 and 1998). The work of Grotts & Johnson (2013) investigates the status consumption of millennial consumers and indicates that it is highly possible that the consumers may not express any interest on the quality of the products but are placing greater emphasis on the ability of the handbags to be recognised and generate attention from their reference groups. With regard to marketing strategy, luxury marketers react to the rapid increase in demand to maintain their position of exclusivity by increasing the price every year in order to secure their clientele (Kapferer, 2015b). Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Christian Dior increase the price of their products every year to sustain the dream value of the consumers (Kapferer, 2015a; 2015b). It is apparent that most luxury companies are managing the dilemma of maintaining the exclusivity of its products while increasing brand awareness as well as focusing on securing more market share and revenue (Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012; Berthon et al., 2009). Despite the recognisable shifts in luxury consumption pattern, the sector will continue to grow with the majority of affluent consumers as discussed by Steve Kraus of Ipsos (King, 2015). The most recognisable shift in luxury marketing strategy is on the increasing number of luxury companies offering lower-price products in response to the rising level of demand for luxury consumption by the enthusiastic middle class consumers (Truong et al., 2008; Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012). Luxury was once reserved for the “happy few” (Veblen, 1899) but this notion is no longer practical for today’s luxury environment where luxury products are “consumed by a larger aspirational segment” (Granot et al., 2013). Democratisation of luxury refers to when luxury brands create a lower-priced accessory items in order to appeal to the broader market, making luxury accessible to those “who could never afford to purchase the principal items in the line” (Nueno & Quelch, 1998) or the new luxury consumers who seeks recognition from luxury purchase. Han et al. (2010) discusses that different classes of consumers can now be distinguished by the brands of purses, watches, or shoes that they own. They let the brands speak for them, whether they prefer the loud Gucci logo or displaying the consumption of a “‘no logo’ strategy” by carrying a Bottega Veneta bag (Han et al., 2010). As Husic & Cicic (2009) state, an important question on today’s luxury consumption that if it is possible for everyone to obtain luxury items, are the brands still considered luxury? This is one of the important agendas concerning luxury consumption that prompts researchers to investigate this changing behaviours and perceptions of luxury consumers. It is also significance to note that the increase in global demand in luxury market is not necessarily positive but could be negative if the demand is not being managed efficiently (Hennigs et al., 2015). Despite frequent changes in luxury consumption patterns, Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) argues that it is vital to understand how consumers behave in order for the brands to create and maintain trust and reputation among its consumers. Danziger (2005) argues that the notion of “past behaviour predicts future behavior” may not be applicable to the luxury market. However, the foundation remains where the marketers need to understand the basics about the past and present behaviours in order to offer the products and services at the price that luxury consumers are willing to pay. It is partly due to the minimisation of the possible risks that might occur in purchasing luxury products as stated by Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) that “in luxury, no one wants to buy the wrong brand”. In light of these changes in the demand and strategies, a new framework of luxury purchase intention will be presented. This framework integrates brand knowledge in order to accommodate the traditional consumer, who appreciates the brand and its exclusivity, as well as the new buyer who wants recognition. This attempt in merging the two groups of luxury consumers together will highlights how traditional and new luxury consumers make their purchase decisions based on different components of luxury product characteristics as well as different value perception, or that is to say, based on a different levels of brand knowledge. Conceptual Framework Over several decades scholars attempted to agree on a single comprehensive definition for the term ‘luxury’ but have not yet reached that goal because the concept of luxury is highly individual and the market itself is heterogeneous (Hennigs et al., 2013). The definition of luxury, therefore, is very complex to define (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999; Dubois & Duquesne, 1993) due to its “subjective character” (De Barnier et al., 2012) with many diverse facets (Phau & Prendergast, 2000). This study provides a new perspective by looking at the factors that influence luxury purchase intention. Based on the original work of Keller (1993), it is important to understand the structure and content of brand knowledge because these dictate what comes into the consumer’s mind when they think about a brand and what they know about the brand (Keller, 2003). Consumer brand knowledge is defined as the “personal meaning about a brand stored in consumer memory, that is, all descriptive and evaluative brand-related information” (Keller, 2003). Strong, unique, and favorable brand associations must be created with consumers (Kotler & Keller, 2012 and 2016). In luxury consumption, different consumers seek different emotional and functional benefits from luxury brands (Kapferer, 1998), which makes it relevant and significant to investigate the level of influences of brand knowledge and value perceptions on the intention to purchase luxury products. The proposed conceptual framework for this study is presented in Figure 1 in the Appendix section. Managerial Implications This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications. On theoretical grounds, this study provides an enhanced model in investigating the influence of luxury brand knowledge towards luxury purchase intention considering luxury brand characteristics and luxury value perceptions. On managerial perspective, this study provides an update in the modern luxury consumers consumption pattern in terms of what specific characteristics of luxury products they would consider when they intend to purchase. At the same time, this study analyses the types of luxury value perceptions acknowledge by modern luxury consumers towards their purchase decision. In addition, the proposed conceptual framework will take into account the behaviours of traditional luxury consumers, who seems to have been lost due to the increased demand among the new luxury consumers. According to Keller et al. (2012), the marketers of the brand needs to acknowledge the insights to how brand knowledge exists in consumer memory. From the model, marketers can plan and execute efficient marketing and communication strategies for modern luxury consumers given their fast-changing preference in luxury consumption. Following the suggestion from Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) which indicates that “luxury is made by brands” and apart from selling luxurious products, the dream is what is attached to the brand logo and name. Therefore, by investigating the relationship between luxury products characteristics along with luxury value perceptions, this study aims to provide a refreshing analysis of today’s luxury consumers and what stimulates them to buy personal luxury products. Further Research A questionnaire will be developed by the integration of the established measurements and scales from the existing luxury consumption and branding literature. A draft of the questionnaire will be reviewed against the literature and the practical insights obtained from the sales associates and experts in the luxury industry for the suitability and clarity of the questions. The final draft of the questionnaire will be pre-test on a small number of respondents from the target audience. The target population for the study is among general luxury consumers. The data collected from the survey will be analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach to model decision process and validate the proposed conceptual framework. Cluster analysis will be used to identify segments of consumers as recommended by Aaker et al. (2013). The anticipated research findings will expand on the degree of influences of the brand knowledge towards the willingness to purchase of personal luxury goods. It is also expected that the research findings will be useful in redefining the existing types of luxury consumers to represent today’s luxury consumers.

For several years, keyboard and mouse have been used as the main interacting devices between users and computer games, but they are becoming outdated. Gesture-based human-computer interaction systems are becoming more popular owing to the emergence of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. Therefore research on these systems has attracted a significant attention. The researches focus on designing the interactive interfaces between users and computers. Human-computer interaction is an important factor in computer games because it affects not only the experience of the users, but also the design of the entire game. In this research, we develop an particle filter-based face tracking method using color distributions as features, for the purpose of applying to gesture-based human-computer interaction systems for computer games. The experimental results proved the efficiency of particle filter and color features in face tracking, showing its potential in designing human-computer interactive games.

Based on the reference achievement scholars before, combined with the actual survey results on Nom Tay documents currently stored in Institute of Sino-Nom Studies, conducted article comparing other cases face each other and are similar in structure between the written word: Nom of the Kinh and Tay ethnic group in Vietnam with the letter of the Zhuang ethnic blocks (Guangxi, China). This indicates that, basically 3 types of this writing there are a lot of similarities in terms of composition, the differences are very small and specific characteristics. This sector should be studied in depth and hopefully more will have interesting results in the future.

This study is a cross-sectional study for conscripts with chronic low back pain, where it is designed to investigate general characteristics that conscripts with chronic low back pain carry, and it is also aimed to analyze the correlation as well as discrepancy within pain, depression and body mass index depending on their ranks. In this study, 90 Korean conscripts with chronic low back pain participated. And in order to analyze general characteristics as well as pain, depression and body mass index of the subjects, this study adopted a survey questionnaire upon general characteristics, and it also employed Visual Analogue Scacle(VAS) and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression(CES-D) Scale which have proven their credibility, where BMI values for the subjects were calculated based on 'Asian Pacific standard' Body Mass Index(BMI). From the general characteristics exhibited by the subjects through this study, average age and average height of the subjects were 20.78±1.41 and 175.97±5.34 respectively; and corporals displayed the highest ratio of 42% with the chronic low back pain while 40% of the total subjects experienced the duration of the illness less than 6 to 9 months. Moreover, 57.8% of all subjects were reportedly suffering moderate pain, and 48% exhibited depression while 49% carried BMI value between 18.5 and 22.9kg/m2(normal range). Based on the analysis of correlation among pain, depression, discrepancy of BMI depending on the ranks and each independent variable, it appears that there is no significant difference amongst the ranks, and there is no correlation between independent variables; however, it was obvious that all groups divided by the ranks had a moderate pain(45-74mm), depression(≥16) and BMI value in normal range(18.5-22.9).

The purpose of this study is to determine the correlations between problematic behaviors and activities of daily living(ADL) targeting 106 demented elderly people hospitalized in a geriatric hospital. To examine the cognitive function of the subjects, the study used Korean Mini Mental State Examination(K-MMSE). For problematic behaviors and ADL, the study collected data based on Patient Assessment Forms in the geriatric hospital. Among problematic behaviors, apathy/indifference had the highest correlation with the items of ADL. Irritability/lability, agitation/aggression, depression/ dysphoria, night-time behavior and wandering also showed to be correlated to items of ADL(p<.05). This study demonstrated that cognitive function, problematic behaviors and ADL of the demented elderly hospitalized in the geriatric hospital are correlated to each other.

This study aims to address the effect of interferential current therapy and thereby to provide basic resources to physical therapies for internal medicine by identifying symptoms for functional dyspepsia and serum gastrin level that shows gastric motility. Following results were obtained by performing interferential current therapy to 16 subjects composed of 8 for functional dyspepsia group and 8 for control group for 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week, for 6 weeks. In control group, serum gastrin level was significantly( p<.01), lowered after the therapy whereas there was no significant difference observed in all questions from questionnaire for symptoms of functional dyspepsia between before and after the therapy. In functional dyspepsia group, serum gastrin level was significantly(p<.01), lowered after the therapy and there was also significant(p<.01) reduction in every question from questionnaire for symptoms of functional dyspepsia between before and after the therapy. There was more significant decrease in serum gastrin level and reduction in questionnaire for symptoms of functional dyspepsia in the functional dyspepsia group compared to the control group(p<.01). This study confirms the interferential current therapy as an effective therapeutic method for internal diseases including functional dyspepsia since it not only improves the symptoms of functional dyspepsia but also allows the gastric motility close to normal.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the Operational Self-Sustainability (OSS) of Vietnamese microfinance institutions (MFIs). This research uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods: (i) qualitative research was via in-depth interviews with ten microfinance practitioners, policymakers and researchers; (ii) quantitative research was conducted by using panel data of 34 MFIs in the period 2011-2015 with binary logistics and OLS regressions. Results are as follows: (i) MFIs’ OSS in Vietnam are mainly determined by five key factors: portfolio at risk (PAR>30), capital structure, gross loan portfolio, scope of activities and legal form; (ii) OSS are most affected by legal status (social organizations have better OSS than formal MFIs or programs/projects), location (MFIs focus in one province have higher OSS than working nationwide or just in one district), capital structure (MFIs with more equity proportion have higher OSS); (iii) surprisingly, average loan size per borrower and age of MFIs do not have statistically significant correlation with OSS. The key recommendations are: (i) MFIs should focus on its professionality and increase its equity; (ii) related stakeholders such as State Bank of Vietnam should promote the enabling ecosystem for microfinance development to enhance poverty reduction and economic development.

The study aims to investigate factors affecting enterprise’s satisfaction and loyalty toward the Social Security’s online public services, looking at the case of Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam. This study employs samples with 216 enterprises that use online public system of Thanh Hoa province’s Social Security. The research model is closely linked to the SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988). We propose 23 scales that constitute the quality of service, three scales that constitute Customer Satisfaction and three components that constitute Customer Loyalty. This study use the tool of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Cronbach’s Alpha test, Confirm Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in order to address the question of satisfaction and loyalty. The result shows that the factor with the most impact is Reliability, next is Capacity of staffs, Tangibles, Attitude of staffs, and the least impacting factor is Empathy; moreover, the results also show that Satisfaction has a strong impact on Customer Loyalty. The findings of this study suggest that Thanh Hoa province’s Social Security should: (i) strengthen the reliability of online service system; (ii) build capacity for staffs; (iii) develop the responsiveness of electronic transactions systems; and (iv) improve the empathy of staffs.

This paper provides the practical application of a linear shrinkage framework on Vietnam stock market. The cumulative data points observed in this analysis are 468 weeks from January 2011 to December 2019. All the companies listed on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), except the companies under two years period from Initial Public Offering (IPO), are considered. The cumulative number of stocks picked is therefore 350 companies. The VNINDEX, which is the Vietnam Stock Index, is used as a reference index for shrinking to a single-index model. The empirical results show that the shrinkage of covariance matrix for portfolio optimization gives the promising results for the investors on Vietnam stock market. The shrinkage method helps the investors to produce the optimal portfolio in the sense of having higher profit with lower levels of risk compared to the portfolio of the traditional SCM method. Moreover, the portfolio turnover of shrinkage method is always kept at low magnitudes, and this makes the shrinkage portfolios save much transaction costs and reduce the liquidity risks in the trading process. In addition, the ability of shrinkage method in making profit is once again confirmed by the Alpha coefficient that achieves a high positive value.

This study develops a mediating model to explore the relationships between organizational characteristics, manager’s knowledge, management commitment, user involvement, information quality, and management information system effectiveness in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam. Adapting scales from previous research, the authors designed questionnaires, which they distributed to respondents in Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises. Also, by employing a meta-analytic path analysis throughout structural equation modelling (SEM) with sample of 356 respondents, authors indicate that organizational characteristics are directly related to management information systems effectiveness. Moreover, manager’s knowledge, user involvement, and information quality show their important roles in the increase of management information system effectiveness, yet management commitment does not indicate a similar role in the growth of management information system effectiveness. Bootstrapping is utilized to discover the meditating role of information quality, illustrating that quality information mediates the linkages between user involvement, organizational characteristics, and management information systems. However, the mediating role of information quality in the relationship between management commitment, manager’s knowledge, and management information systems is not significant. This study contributes to the management information system literature as well as to enhance MIS effects in small and medium-sized enterprises.

The study examines direct and indirect impacts of organizational commitment on employee motivation through two mediating factors – opportunistic behavior and knowledge sharing – in Vietnamese enterprises. The samples were selected by the non-probability sampling method followed convenient sampling, relatively stratified by localities in Vietnam. The sample size was 636 employees in Vietnamese enterprises. The number of collected online questionnaires was 379, while the number of valid questionnaires was 329. In the direct survey, the number of distributed questionnaires was 750, while the number of collected questionnaires was 421 and the number of valid questionnaires was 307. The total number of valid questionnaires used for analysis was 636. The study used quantitative methods with structural equation modeling analysis. The results indicate that among the components of organizational commitment, normative commitment has both direct and indirect impacts on employee motivation through two mediating factors: opportunistic behavior and knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, affective commitment has only an indirect impact on employee motivation through these mediating factors. Continuance commitment has both direct and indirect impacts; however, it has only an indirect impact on employee motivation through opportunistic behavior. In addition, the results show opportunistic behavior has a negative impact on the knowledge sharing of employees in enterprises.

This study uses the moderating model to explore the relationships between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) associations, brand awareness and consumer purchase intention. Besides investigating the direct effects of CSR associations on brand awareness and consumer purchase intention, this study also focuses on discovering the moderating role of CSR associations on the relationship between brand awareness and consumer purchase intention among Vietnamese students. Adapting scales from previous research, the authors distribute questionnaires to consumers across the country. Then, the validity and reliability are tested via Cronbach’s alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Moreover, by employing a meta-analytical path analysis with a sample of 686 consumers, the authors show that CSR associations play an important role in shaping purchase intention among Vietnamese consumers regarding the consumption of organic milk products. Also, CSR associations have a strong effect on brand awareness. However, our study shows that purchase intention is not directly affected by brand awareness. In other words, brand awareness does not mediate the relationship between CSR associations and purchase intention. Interestingly, authors show that CSR associations moderate the link between brand awareness and consumer purchase intention. Based on the research, some recommendations are made to companies that produce organic milk products.

The study seeks to evaluate the impacts of three types of credit – formal, semi-formal, and informal credits – on the well-being of households in Vietnam’s rural areas. Based on data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys in 2014 and 2016, the research uses the instrumental variable fixed-effect models to estimate the effects of three kinds of credit on household’s per capita income and expenditure. There are some significant findings. First, in rural areas, formal credit is the most popular source with stable and cheap borrowing costs. Informal credit is a complement to formal credit to meet urgent needs. Funding agriculture activities is the most commonly cited purpose of borrowing, followed by purchasing assets. The highest misuse rate belongs to the group of loans for agriculture production. Second, the results show that credit helps smoothen consumption rather than generate income for rural households. Three types of credit have insignificant or negative effects on household’s per capita income. Formal loans significantly improve total expenditure and spending on healthcare and education. Informal and semi-formal credits show a little influence on consumption. Informal loans have a significantly positive effect on healthcare expenditure. In contrast, having semi-formal loans tends to decrease spending on foods.

The research aims to investigate the impact levels of determinants on the conversion of financial statements from Vietnamese accounting standards (VAS) to International financial reporting standards (IFRS) in the multinational firms in Vietnam. The method of data collection was done through the survey and subjects are accountants in Multinational Firms doing business in Hanoi and ten neighboring provinces. After checking the information on the votes, there are 170 questionnaires with full information for data entry and analysis. We use Cronbach’s Alpha, EFA analysis and run regression model to investigate the impact levels of each independent variable on dependent variable of the conversion of VAS financial statements to IFRS. The results show that five determinants including Economic, Politics, Law, Culture, and Conditions for implementation have positive relationships with the conversion of VAS financial statements to IFRS. In particular, Economic determinant is the most strongest. Based on the findings, some recommendations are given for improving the conversion of VAS financial statements to IFRS of multinational firms doing business in the context of Vietnam. The results are considered a useful reference for firms when making financial statements to transparently change the financial statement information and improve the quality of financial statement information.

This study was conducted to examine how independent audit firms in Vietnam understand and use risk based audit approach (RBAA) in audit practice. To answer the research questions, the researchers used primary and secondary data collected from 2018 to 2019. The results from the interview survey showed that audit firms were aware of the advantages of adopting RBAA. However, RBAA is practiced to a moderate extent by audit firms in Vietnam. Big 4 audit firms use RBAA more popularly than Non-Big 4 audit firms. The causes of the difference are the disadvantages of adopting RBAA and client’s characteristics such as relevant guideline, audit fees, auditors’ knowledge and experience. Besides, the study investigated factors impacting on the RBAA adoption by distributing a questionnaire to 246 auditors of 126 audit firms in Vietnam. A set of statistical appropriate methods where used through SPSS software version 22.0. The results indicated that there were six factors influencing RBAA adoption including: Auditor’s ability, Technological development, Audit fees, auditors’ motivation, Audit time and client’s risk. Of which, auditor’s ability and technological development are factors that have the most significant and positive impacts on the adoption of RBAA. Additional implications were argued in the final section of this study.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of trade cost on export: A Case Study Vietnam. The study conducts a static linear panel data analysis on annual data covering bilateral export between Vietnam and 70 major importers of Vietnam from 2001 to 2013. The gravity model has been one of the most successful applications in empirical trade. In this paper we apply the gravity model to estimate the impact of trade cost on Vietnamese bilateral export value. The paper uses gravity model to estimate the impact of trade cost on Vietnamese bilateral export value. The empirical results derive from a static linear panel data analysis (fixed effects model) indicates that trade cost plays a crucial role in determining the export value that occurs between Vietnam and trading partners. Besides, population of importing country, trade openness of importing country, gross domestic product of importing country and gross domestic product of Vietnam are also significant determinants of Vietnamese bilateral export value. The main findings indicates that trade cost plays a very important role in the Vietnamese bilateral export performance. This suggests that the Vietnamese government should attempt to improve domestic trade costs to enhance competitiveness and increase export growth sustainably.