Anthocyanins are naturally occuring phytochemicals and the main components of the coloring of plants, flowers and fruits. They are known to elicit antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and cancer preventive activity. In this study, we investigated anthocyanins in black / yellow soybean seedcoats using different methods of detection - thin layer chromatography (TLC), capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and HPLC analysis. The anthocyanins in soybean seedcoats were extracted by five independent methods of extraction and the aglycons (anthocyanidins) of the corresponding anthocyanins were prepared by acid mediated hydrolysis. The anthocyanin / anthocyanidin in black soybean seedcoat showed characteristic TLC mobility, CZE electrophoretic retention and HPLC migration time while little of anthocyanins were detected from yellow soybean seedcoat. The extracted anthocyanins showed pH dependent retention time in CZE and spectral change in UV-Vis spectrum. HPLC analysis of the hydrolyzed extract of black soybean seedcoat identified the presence of four anthocyanidins. The major anthocyanin in black soybean seedcoat was cyanin (cyanidin-3-O-glucoside), with the relative order of anthocyanidin in cyanidin > delphinidin > petunidin > pelargonidin.

Nowadays, Tra catfish fat is given attention as an appropriate material for biodiesel production in Vietnam. The aim of this work is to investigate the optimal conditions of refining biodiesel and recovering glycerin by the transesterification from Tra catfish fat using KOH catalyst. As our results, the yield of transesterification was achieved to 94.17% at 50℃ for 45 min with 6:1 molar ratio of methanol to fat in the presence of 0.8% KOH catalyst, and wherein the biodiesel was refined by washing with distilled water at 70℃ and dried in a microwave oven. The yield of raw glycerin recoveries from the transesterification process was 78.58%. The purity of raw glycerin was 84.14% by the conditions of neutralization state with H3PO4 solution (pH = 5), 70℃, and 60 min. Activated carbon (3.0 wt.%) was used for the bleaching process at 80℃ for 20 min. The biodiesel was obtained in accordance with for ASTM D 6751 (biodiesel standard). The ash and water of raw glycerins were 7.32 and 8.01%, respectively, and implied that the raw glycerin is very promising candidate to be used as a raw material for textile and cosmetic industries.

Transesterification of fat of Tra catfish with methanol in the presence of the KOH catalyst yields fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and glycerol (GL). The effects of the reaction temperature and reaction time on rate constants and kinetic order were investigated. Three regions were observed. In the initial stage, the immiscibility of the Tra fat and methanol limited the reaction rate, hence this region was controlled by the mass transfer. Subsequent to this region, produced FAME like a co-solvent made the reaction mixture homogeneous, therefore the conversion rate increased rapidly so it was controlled by the kinetic parameters of the reaction until the equilibrium was approached in the final slow region. A second-order kinetic mechanism was proposed involving second regions for the forward reaction. The rate determining step for the overall KOH catalyzed-methanolysis of Tra fat was the conversion of triglycerides (TG) to diglycerides (DG). This rate constant was increased from 0.003 to 0.019min-1 when the reaction temperature was increased from 35 to 60℃. Its calculated activation energy was 14.379 (kcal.mol-1).

The fat of Tra and Basa catfish (Mekong Delta, Viet Nam) was evaluated for the first time as the potential feedstock for biodiesel production, due to its abundance, availability and cheap cost. The unsaturated fatty acid contents of Tra and Basa fat were 57.97% and 64.17%, respectively. Biodiesel was prepared from Tra and Basa fat by methanolysis reaction using alkali catalysts like sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. Effects of various process parameters on biodiesel production, such as molar ratio of methanol to fat, catalyst concentration, temperature and time were investigated. As those results, the transesterification can be performed under moderate conditions, and the biodiesel yields were shown more than 90%. KOH catalyst was the best catalyst for biodiesel production from both Basa and Tra fat. As the feedstock aspect, Basa fat was indicated more efficiency than that of Tra fat. The maximum yield could be achieved by the transesterification from Basa fat with 5:1 molar ratio of methanol to fat, 0.8% KOH catalyst, 50℃, and 50 min. For Tra fat, the optimal condition were at 6:1 molar ratio of methanol to fat, 0.8% KOH catalyst, 50℃, and 45 min. Nowadays, due to cheaper cost and abundance, Tra fat is a promised resource for cheap biodiesel production in Viet Nam.

Tourism is not only a cultural service but also a resource consuming industry. Landscape function framework is a powerful tool to show the relationship between nature and people. This study collects 50 documents around the world to analyze the relationship between the 4 functional groups of the landscape (regulatory functions, production and supply functions, resident functions, information and entertainment functions) and the tourism industry. On that basis, we created an establishment for practical contact analysis of the goods and services of the landscape for tourism development in Moc Chau plateau, Vietnam. Research results show that tourism is an economic sector that benefits from the landscape and has a clear resource orientation. Moc Chau plateau has rich tourism resources and has the conditions to develop various types of tourism, especially cultural tourism based on community and resort tourism. The two cultural functions and the providing functions are the two most important functional groups for the tourism development of Moc Chau district, bringing the two most important tourism icons for Moc Chau, a green steppe, cool milk benevolent and also a district rich in national culture. From these conclusions, the authors give recommendations and notable points about landscapes in the tourism industry, especially in places with topography like Moc Chau.

Project manager plays a very important role in the success of any project. The primary duty of the project manager is to combine the outcomes or results of the various processes and activities of project management into a systematic project management strategy or plan for the project. In the construction industry, a lack of motivation is an urgent problem for many project managers in construction and engineering projects. Lack of motivation affects the quality and productivity of jobs, reducing profits and growth for companies, businesses, contractors or organizations that rely on human resources. The reasons for this lack of motivation are diverse ranging from salary to culture to life and working environment, among others. Through surveys and data analysis using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability and EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis), our research scaled the factors affecting work motivation of project managers in the construction industry in Vietnam. The research results identified six major groups of relevant factors including (i) salary and benefits, (ii) work environment, (iii) promotion opportunities, (iv) organizational culture, (v) interest in the job, and (vi) relationship with the organization. From there, this paper contributed useful information as well as measures for businesses, companies, contractors or organizations in the construction industry.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the driving motivations of contributing social word of mouth on social networking sites (sWOM) toward both tangible and intangible products. In order to develop a research model, this study adopts the motivation theory and TAM model. Data was collected from 904 members of the cosmetic and restaurant communities by using the snowball method. After assessing the validity of all constructs, the structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the proposed hypotheses. Results show that personal motivations (satisfaction, opinion leadership, self-enhancement, and economic incentives) and characteristics of sWOM (Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use) have positive effect on exposure and engagement behaviors. Here are our specific findings, (1) customer satisfaction positively affects online interactions on SNSs such as Like or Sharing a content; (2) sWOM contribution behavior exists in two structures (Exposure and Engagement) and affects each other; (3) This study combines two groups of personal motivation and TAM to conceptualize a research model; and (4) The motivations of contributing sWOM between a specified service and product are rather similar. These findings help digital managers to understand consumers’ behavioral contributions on SNSs and also provide interesting insights for marketers.

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.

The study investigates the factors influencing the innovation activities in the enterprises in the Binh Dinh Province, Vietnam. By employing the dataset from a survey in 200 typical enterprises in Binh Dinh and using the Exploratory Factor Analysis and regression analysis, we found that there are eight factor groups affecting the innovation activities of enterprises. They include management of innovation promotion; market research capacity; leadership inspiring innovation; culture of innovation; human resources for implementing innovation; network connection; disseminating/sharing knowledge; and impact of producing/serving technology. All these factors strongly affect the innovation activities, which plays an important role in promoting the sustainable development of the Vietnamese enterprises, with the statistical significance level at 1%. Moreover, findings also show that, among these factors, the market research capacity is the strongest determinant of the innovation activity in the enterprise. An increase of 1 point of capacity of market research will increase the innovation activities in the enterprise by 0.114 point. It is followed by the management of promoting innovation, leadership inspiring innovation, and disseminating and sharing knowledge, with 0.104, 0.103 and 0.102 score, respectively. On the other hand, network connection is the weakest factor, with the score of 0.07 point.

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.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a very important role in developing countries. In Vietnam, SMEs operating in the field of handicrafts, besides contributing to the economy, also tasked to maintain and develop traditional handicrafts. However, accessing loans from banks of SMEs faces many difficulties. This study explores the determinants of bank lending decision for SMEs, particular, in traditional handicrafts business. Using dataset based on a survey conducted in Binh Duong province, Vietnam, we investigated to what determinant effects for loan approval. The analytical methods used include descriptive statistics for overall assessment, principal component analysis and regression to examine determinants of lending decisions. The results indicate that company’s collateral was the most positive determinant to bank lending decision, follow by company’s business plan. The role of company’s leader is very important for banks considers to approve credit because company’s leaders experience and relationship with stakeholders as well as banks have positive relations with bank’s lending decision. Agreed with previous studies, the company’s financial statement and company’s credit history with banks are also significant determinants for lending decision. Whereas, the business environment seam unaffected lending decision as their relations is not significant..

Environmental pollution and climate change in Vietnam are now becoming a major concern. This situation is increasing the pressure on the companies to improve their social responsibility in production and business activities and disclose the environmental information to meet the requirements of stakeholders. This study investigates the internal and external factors of the company that affects the environmental information disclosure of listed companies on the Vietnam stock market as business sector, firm size, corporate manager perceptions, profitability, financial leverage, community pressure, pressures from stakeholders, government pressure influencing environmental information disclosure. Analytical data collected through the survey of 120 listed companies on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE). By testing Cronbach's Alpha, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and logistic regression analysis, the results of the study show that the level of environmental information disclosure of listed companies on the stock market in Vietnam depends heavily on government regulations, followed by the pressure from stakeholders, community pressure, views of business managers, companies size, business sector, and particularly profitability and financial leverage factors that have a negative relationship with environmental information disclosure.

The study aims to contribute to the improvement of project management in Vietnam. It focuses on developing new critical success factors (CSFs) which can be used to assess the success of project management in the country. This is a promising issue considering the rapid changes occurring within the business environment. The reason is because CSFs carry great consequences on project management issues, particularly in the context of Vietnam, which is currently experiencing many big scale projects involving both local and foreign investors. Two applications are utilised. One is to adapt the business model of Belassi and Tukel (1996) to observe the transitional and emerging economy of Vietnam. The other is to examine the data collected from a survey to examine the new CSFs which can then be used to assess the success of its projects and project management in Vietnam. The research results showed some remarkable differences between CSFs of Vietnam and foreign countries in both number of success factors and its impact levels which should be paid attention by foreign project managers/owners when doing investment and project management in Vietnam. The outcome generated can be useful to project owners/managers as well as policy makers in Vietnam’s business environment.