The study examines the effect of environmental factors on the international harmonization process of accounting on small and medium enterprises in Vietnam. These factors include legal environment, business environment, and cultural environment. The data is collected by a survey of 100 accountants and 100 auditors on the factors that affects the international harmonization process of accounting. The T-Tests indicate differences between the answers of the accountants and auditors. First, for the accountants, legal environment has the biggest effect on the harmonization process of accounting; while on the auditors, business environment has the biggest influence. Second, while the accountants consider costs higher than benefits in the harmonization process of accounting, the auditors assume that benefits are superior to costs that businesses spend. Third, both the accountants and the auditors indicate that the harmonization process of accounting should not be applied for all small and medium enterprises. From the study results, the author has given a different evaluation method that Vietnam should implement for international harmonization with the required adjustments as per the suitability with the status of businesses in Vietnam. The process of harmonization in accounting practices should not be indiscriminately applied to all the small and medium enterprises either.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of budgetary goal on profit growth directly and indirectly through managerial performance. Two main characteristics of budgetary goal mentioning in the study are the clarity of budget goal and the difficult of budget goal. Data of the research collected from survey with 197 department managers and supervisors of 80 SMEs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City who have budgeting responsible. Firstly, by using quantitative research method Cronbach’s Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis, the research show that characteristic of budgetary goal has significant and positive impact on profit growth directly. Secondly, the regression analysis among variables show that budget goal clarity was positively and significantly related to growth of sale revenue, growth of profit and managerial performance. Therefore, the empirical findings show that that managerial performance has mediating role in the relationship between budgetary goal characteristic and financial performance. The findings of this study suggest that that managers need focus on setting clearer and more difficult but attainable budget goals to increase firm performance. This paper also provides a new insight the relationship between managerial performance and financial performance. Budgetary goal characteristics still have positive but insignificant impact on growth of sales revenue.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of presenting statements of cash flow using the direct method and the indirect method on loan decision by credit officers at Vietnamese banks. The data was collected from 150 credit officers of commercial banks in Vietnam based on the questionnaire about making loan decision when the cash flow statement is presented in different methods, namely, direct and indirect methods. This research uses T-tests to check whether using the direct or indirect method affects the accurate calculation of loan criteria, affects the loan decision by credit officers, and compare these two methods in the aspects of information provision. The research has pointed out that: 1) the direct method helps the calculation of indicators related to loans more accurately; 2) credit officers say that, while the direct method of presenting cash flow statement provides clearer information, the use of either the direct method or the indirect method does not affect the banks’ loan decision. Since then, the author recommends that cash flow statements should be provided with information in a direct method to present the information needed for loan decision more accurately so as to improve the quality of cash flow statement.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the quality of the audit and the level of stock return co-movement in the context of the Vietnamese emerging market. The empirical study is designed based on the quatitative method and deductive approach. The panel datasetincludes 256listed firmsfrom different industries,with 1115 firm-year observations on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange for the period from 2014 to 2018. In the research, we built the econometric regression model, using stock return synchronicity and audit quality as the dependent and independent variable, respectively. Some control variables are also added to the econometric regression models as they are well-documented in prior research to have an effect on stock price synchronicity. To improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients, besidetheOrdinary Least Squares, we employ theRandom Effects Modeland theFixed Effects Model for better statistical analysis of panel data set. The resultsshow that the quality of the audit is positively correlated to stock price synchronicity. This finding suggests that stock returns of companies with higher quality of the audit are more synchronous with the market. Results for other control variables also support our reasoning for the main findings.

The paper investigates the impact of the statement of cash flows of listed companies on lending decisions of commercial banks in the context of Vietnam. Survey data for the research were collected from 160 credit officers of Vietnamese commercial banks for short-term and long-term lending decisions, whether the cash flow statement includes complete information or has a lack of information. The cash flow statement, in which the information on the cash flow is completely contrary to the profit information on the income statement is examined. This paper employed T-tests to address the research issues in a market considered to be ineffective, like Vietnam. The research results show: (1) the information on the cash flow statement affects both the short-term and long-term lending decisions of credit officers, and (2) the lack of information on the cash flow statement in both cases of positive and negative profits affects the comfort and confidence of credit officers in making decisions. The research findings also indicate that cash flow statements are important for lending decisions of credit institutions in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper provides a new insight to managers on how to improve the quality of cash flow statement to meet the needs of lenders.

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.