Mechanization and automation constitute an essential stage in the production and operation of any company, as one of the determinants of increase in labor productivity and decrease in product price, while significantly contributing to shortening of the lead time. Businesses are, therefore, able to quickly put projects into operation, improving economic efficiency, quality, and aesthetics, which speeds up the national economic growth. For the construction industry to be the most effective, modern construction equipment is a necessity. It is one of the five main resources of a construction project. Thus, effective construction equipment management contributes to the success of a project and benefits the relevant construction companies economically. This paper presents the critical risk factors affecting equipment management and proposes suitable solutions. The questionnaire-based survey with experienced experts in the construction sector on the management of the likelihood and consequence of risk factors revealed thirty-two risks for equipment management in construction companies. These factors fell into six groups: (i) site organization-related risks; (ii) management-related risks; (iii) owner-related risks; (iv) supplier-related risks; (v) legal risks, and (vi) site condition-related and external risks. The results showed that management-related factors contributed to the most significant risks and problems for equipment management in construction companies.

Education policy is a dynamic process featuring social development trends. The world countries have focused their education program on empowering the learners for future life and work. This paper aims to assess the higher education curriculum based on a survey of 280 students, employers, alumni, and lecturers in both social sciences and natural sciences in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The fuzzy decisionmaking method, namely the Fuzzy Extent Analysis Method (F-EAM), was applied to measure the relative weight of each parameter. Seven factors under the curriculum development have been put in the ranking. Input with emphasis on foreign language was the highest priority in curriculum development, given the expected demand of the labor market. Objective and learning outcome and teaching activities ranked second and third, respectively. The traditional triangle of teaching content, methodology, and evaluation and assessment are still proven their roles, but certain modifications have been defined in the advanced curriculum. Teaching facilities had the least weight among the seven dimensions of curriculum development. The findings are helpful for education managers to efficiently allocate scarce resources to reform the curriculum to bridge the undergraduate quality gap between labor supply and demand, meeting the dynamic trends of social development.

A construction project is a designed product made up of labors, materials, and installations in the project positioned on the ground and may include the underground and ground section, and the section in water or on the water surface. It is a civil, industrial, transport, agricultural and rural development, infrastructure, or some other. A key phase in the life cycle of these construction projects is the implementation when building products are made directly with workers, equipment, materials, and managers. If there is a lack of management experience, information, and problem-solving solutions to tackle the risks faced by contractors, especially foreign ones, will fail in controlling the project’s cost. This study was conducted with investigations, discussions, and evaluation of the factors that lead to cost overruns in the construction projects of international contractors in Vietnam. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed that those factors that influence cost overruns these construction projects fall into five general groups, including factors related to (i) the owners, (ii) the foreign contractors, (iii) the subcontractors and suppliers, (iv) state management, and (v) the project itself. Besides, the study proposes solutions to limit cost overruns in construction projects and improve the profitability of international contractors in Vietnam.

The construction industry in developing countries like Vietnam, which incorporates small and medium construction enterprises, is typically more prone to disputes and contract dispute-related lawsuits. A dispute may occur at any time in the life cycle of the project. It is sometimes solved with the intermediation of a lawyer or directly by stakeholders. Understanding the causes of disputes in a construction project not only improves the efficiency of a company but also increases the success of projects. This study was carried out using a questionnaire survey at construction projects in Ho Chi Minh City. Sample data with 117 observations were analyzed to find the disputing factors in construction projects: diversity of working style among the parties; reluctance to work; and poor teamwork. Correlation coefficient on a rank of factors between design consultant and contractor; Design consultant and project owners are positively correlated. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) analysis identified six groups of factors in construction disputes: cooperation, technology, economics, productivity, information, and behavior. The findings are useful for enterprise practice and provide participants with an overview of sources of dispute. Thus, a more complete risk management plan can be formulated, which will accelerate project progress and improve the likelihood of success.

Nowadays, many construction engineering and technology enterprises are evolving to find that prosperity is driven and inspired by an open economy with dynamic markets and fierce multifaceted competition. Besides brand and product uniqueness, the ability to quickly provide customers with quotes are matters of concern. Such a requirement for prompt cost estimation of construction investment projects with the use of a construction price index poses a significant challenge to contractors. This is because the nature of the construction industry is shaped by changes in domestic and foreign economic factors, socio-financial issues, and is under the influence of various micro and macro factors. This paper presents a fuzzy decision-making approach for calculating critical factors that affect the construction price index. A qualitative approach was implemented based on in-depth interviews of experts in the construction industry in Vietnam. A synthetic comparison matrix was calculated using Buckley approach. The CoA approach was applied to defuzzified the fuzzy weights of factors that affect the construction price index. The research results show that the top five critical factors affecting the construction price index in Vietnam are (1) consumer price index, (2) gross domestic product, (3) basic interest rate, (4) foreign exchange rate, and (5) total export and import.

The research has been conducted to explore the combination of three intangible resources, including social capital, entrepreneurship, and resilience capability on the performance of State Capital Enterprises (SCEs) in Vietnam. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are applied in the study. An in-depth interview of ten CEOs at SCEs in Vietnam was made to explore new indicators for the contextual latent variables in the research models. By employing the data from the authors’ survey of 568 SCEs in Vietnam in 2019, using Cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis (SEM), the mechanism that social capital impacts on SCE performance has been analyzed. In addition to the direct role, social capital indirectly affects corporate performance through entrepreneurship and resilience capability. It was found that social capital has a larger impact on entrepreneurship than resilience capacity. However, the contribution of resilience capacity to the firm performance is much more than the entrepreneurship’s in Vietnamese context. This study enriches the theory by proposing a measurement scale of the contextual latent variables as a result of in-depth interviews with experts using a qualitative analysis technique. In addition, the path analysis findings suggest practical implications for managers to effectively use their resources in SCEs.

The study aims to identify the factors affecting employee loyalty in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tra Vinh province, Viet Nam and to find out critical factors affecting the loyalty of employees in SMEs. This is implemented with the method of collecting primary data of 320 employees working at SMEs in 5 districts including: Cau Ngang, Tra Cu, Chau Thanh, Cang Long, Tieu Can) and Tra Vinh City, Viet Nam. Using the multivariate regression method, the researchers have found 6 factors affecting employee loyalty: colleagues, leaders, job characteristics, remuneration policies, organizational culture, and working environment. Particularly, learning opportunities may not be not statistically significant for employees' loyalty towards small and medium-sized enterprises in Tra Vinh province. From the above research results, the authors have proposed implicational piolicies such as: focusing on colleague relationships, improving leadership of business owners, attaching importance to appropriate work arrangement, having appropriate remuneration policies for laborers, building effective organizational culture and working environment to improve employee loyalty at SMEs. From the above policy implications, helping business owners realize the aspirations of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises more closely in the future, in order to sustainably develop the business system in Vietnam.