Journal of International Economics and Management

This paper investigates the impact of governance characteristics on financial performance of companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. By employing the system generalized method of moments estimator and a panel dataset covering 152 firms over the period from 2011 to 2016, our results indicate that corporate governance characteristics namely the size of board and block-holder ownership, affect the financial performance of Vietnamese firms. Surprisingly, no statistically significant evidence is found concerning the impact of other characteristics such as board gender diversity, CEO duality and non-executive director representation on firm performance.

This paper analyses the effect of brand image, perceived quality, perceived uniqueness on loyalty of customers in the mobile telecom industry. The data for this study were gathered through face-to-face questionnaires that were distributed to target participants, who reported their consumption experience with mobile telecom services. The survey was conducted in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city with the sampling of 453 respondents. We used the Structured Equation Model to evaluate the suitability of the framework and examine the hypotheses. The results reveal that brand equity impacts directly customer satisfaction and has indirect effect on loyalty via customer satisfaction.

Household electricity consumption potentially offers economies of scale, since lighting, cooling or cooking can be shared among household members. This idea needs to be tested empirically. Under an increasing block tariff schedule the marginal and average price of electricity increases with total consumption. Does this effect offset economies of scale in the larger families? This paper uses data from Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) in 2010, 2012 and 2014 to investigate whether there are economies of scale for Vietnam household electricity consumption in that period. The data will be tested formally by an OLS model and checked robustness by visualization of local linear regressions. Estimated results and robustness check confirm that in general, economies of scale do exist for household electricity consumption in Vietnam from 2010-2014.

There are limited data on organizational commitment in education sector with student organizations as the target. The research adopts an empirical design by building a model of factors affecting organizational commitment of students in Foreign Trade University’s clubs based on existing models in the literature and testing the model with data from a survey with 237 club members in nearly 40 clubs in Foreign Trade University Hanoi. The collected data is analysed by SPSS and AMOS using structural equation modelling (SEM). Four factors are identified to positively influence organizational commitment of club members include social influence, supervisor support, teamwork and training. Practically, these findings are expected to provide beneficial suggestions for the management in Foreign Trade University’s clubs in particular and other Vietnamese universities clubs in general to improve organizational commitment among members by focusing on these factors.

The amazing proliferation of product choices as well as remarkable improvements in innovation activities during recent decades have become key driving forces of product differentiation, which is deemed as a sustainable competitive advantage of firms in technological-driven economy. The concept of product differentiation in this paper will be approached from innovation perspective, referring to capabilities of firms to enhance product quality, design, and unique features. In addition, firm performance is measured comprehensively through Balanced ScoreCard (BSC). Utilizing survey data from 158 JIEs operating in Vietnam, this study finds out the positive association between product differentiation and firm performance in both manufacturing and service industry. Unique product feature is examined to be the most important determinant of product differentiation affecting performance of JIEs, which should be prioritized in sustainable development of JIEs.

While investigating the financial implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is important for all kinds of enterprises, such an examination is crucial for firms operating in the banking industry given their essential role in boosting economic development in any nation. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between CSR and financial performance in a sample of banks in Australia and Vietnam. Content analysis was employed to evaluate CSR information and multivariate regressions were used to assess the financial effects of CSR practices. The research findings show a significantly positive association between CSR and financial performance. Moreover, this positive relationship is more pronounced among Vietnamese banks than among their Australian counterparts. Our empirical evidence remains unchanged in a battery of robustness tests. Consequently, these findings have practical implications for commercial bank managers, policymakers, and investors.

We investigate determinants of firms’ direction of trade by using panel data of Vietnam’s footwear firms for the 2006-2010 period. Since no variance was found between firms, a pooled multinomial logit model is consequently preferable. Notably, the economies of scale show positive and significant effects for footwear firms serving the USA and EU markets. Although Vietnamese footwear firms are less likely to export to the ASEAN countries, they tend to focus on the diversification of products in this market. Both private and FDI firms are less likely to export to the EU compared with their counter parts owned by the State (SOEs). However, private firms outperform SOES in the U.S market.

This paper presents the way to promote sustainable production and business through training by taking an example of Advanced Japanese Style International Business Program in Foreign Trade University. Based on the analysis of the Program’s determinants, SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman (1988) which is based on 05 dimensions namely curriculum framework, lecturers, infrastructure, learning environment, outcome result, as well as information related to the decision of enrolling in this program. Upon that, implications are drawn for other business management training programs in order to promote sustainable production in Vietnam.