Journal of International Economics and Management

Geographical Indications was conceptualized in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in 1995 (TRIPs Agreement) and become one of the most contentious intellectual property rights issues in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other multiple treaties. The establishment of a multilateral system for the notification and the registration of Geographical Indications has been widely debated across the world in the last decades. The TRIPs mandates for the establishment of a multilateral system of notification and registration of GIs for WTO members. However, this new evolution has not been brought into effect even though it has been a decade since the first discussions on this issue at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Meeting in Doha in November 2001. At WIPO, the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications signed in May 2015 enlarges the international registration system to GIs as defined by TRIPs, but the negotiations have not come to an end so far. After providing a brief background to the protection for Gis in WTO/TRIPs, the paper analyzes the multilateral notification and registration system mandated by TRIPs and the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement and its potential impacts for the further development of GI protection globally.

The article focuses on the formation of the trade cooperation system, investment and humanitarian contacts between Vietnam and Russia in the late XX and early XXI centuries. The author puts emphasis on the fact that relations between the two countries have always been characterized by mutual understanding, goodwill and positive development. In difficult times of its history Vietnam received political, economic, and military assistance from the USSR (and Russia since 1991) and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) of the socialist countries. In the XXI century, cooperation is becoming even more beneficial, while its traditionally good aspects remain. Thus the author states that the prospects for Russian-Vietnamese trade and economic relations can be considered as positive and promising.

This study aims to identify the role of exports in improving the productivity of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. By applying the propensity score matching method, we exploit the firm-level panel dataset from the Vietnam SME Survey between 2009 and 2014. This remarkable period occurred two years after Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Hence, for the first time, the learning-by-exporting hypothesis was tested for a case study of SMEs in developing countries in the context of international trade integration, such as Vietnam. This paper shows that SMEs in Vietnam could improve their productivity when exporting during the studied period. We also find that exports have a significant impact on the productivity of SMEs in non-municipal areas of Vietnam. Based on these findings, policy recommendations are withdrawn for stimulating the productivity of SMEs in developing countries. In particular, SMEs in non-municipal provinces might need more favorable policies to boost export activities.

This paper employs a new database containing the market and accounting data (from 2007 to 2013) of more than 100 Vietnamese listed construction companies to describe their capital structure characteristics. As a result, we found that business risk, tangibility and growth also considerably impact on debt-to-capital ratio while size and tax are insignificantly associated with the capital structure of Vietnamese construction firms. In addition, different from other researches in other countries, Vietnamese construction companies tend to have much lower long-term debt.

Network and firm performance is an interesting topic, attracting many scholars. There is a sizable body of research on the field. However, this paper is unique since (1) we approach firm performance under balanced scorecard framework, and (2) this is the first paper conducted in a developing context of Vietnam. Utilizing survey data from 158 firms operating in Vietnam, we found that network impacts positively on firm performance. The more network a firm has, the better financial performance, the more customer satisfies, and the more learning and growth of employees. The managerial implication is that firms should invest in building network with others at both individual level and organizational level.

The literature shows that the relationship between state ownership and corporate investment is debatable. This study examines this relationship in Vietnam as a transitional economy. Our sample consists of 4,680 observations from 2009 to 2020. Using fixed effects and random effects for panel data, random effects Tobit, and pooled OLS, we find that state ownership decreases investment expenditures. Moreover, this negative impact is stronger if the firms are financially unconstrained. Our results indicate that weak corporate governance and soft budget constraints arising from state ownership may fail to determine investment decisions. A government’s negative attitude toward risk and conservatism may effectively affect corporate investment.

Since the first law on foreign direct investment (FDI) in December 1987, the FDI sector has continuously played an important role in the economic growth of Vietnam. It is, therefore, important to find out what factors helps facilitate the FDI inflows into the country. By using the gravity model, the paper aims to identify determinants of FDI into Vietnam from 16 main FDI partners during the period from 2003 to 2014. The empirical results suggest that geographical distance, along with GDP, GDP per capita, trade openness and labor cost have significant impact on facilitating FDI inflows into Vietnam. The empirical results are then expected to provide useful insights for policy recommendations in area of macroeconomics, bilateral trade, logistics and transportation system and labour quality to attract larger volume of FDI into Vietnam in the future.

We examine the impact of leverage and state and foreign ownership structure on dividend payout policy of non-financial listed firms on both Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi Stock Exchange of Vietnam from 2010-2015. Our results suggest that firm with high level of debt tend to pay less dividend due to their financial constrain. Moreover, dividends are used as a signal of good performance to investors. Thus, firms tend to keep stable dividend policy over time. In addition, firms with higher portion of shares owned by the government are more likely to pay out more dividends. Meanwhile, foreign investors are found to have power in monitoring managers so they do not have to use dividend policy as the tool to reduce the free cash flow problem

The study evaluates the overall situation of Vietnam’s fisheries exports and uses the Global Simulation Analysis of Industry-Level Trade Policy model (the GSIM model) to predict the impact of the CPTPP agreement on Vietnam’s fisheries exports to the CPTPP members. It is forecasted that the CPTPP has positive effects on Vietnam’s fisheries exports. One of those is that it is promising for Vietnamese producers/exporters to access Mexico, which is a large market in the southern portion of North America. In addition, Vietnam has the advantage to continue increasing export earnings to the Japanese market after the CPTPP takes effect. By sub-sector, all sub-sectors have a positive impact on consumers/importers as well as producers/exporters. In terms of export value, all sub-sectors have increased export value, especially the Crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates, prepared or preserved (HS1605) export to Japan and the fish fillets and other fish meat (whether or not minced), fresh, chilled or frozen (HS0304) has significant export rise to Mexico. Nevertheless, the reduction of import tax revenues reduces the welfare of the fisheries sector.

This study aims to analyze the impact of human resource management practices on organizational commitment and job satisfaction of civil servants in Hanoi. The data for the study were collected from a survey of 384 civil servants. The structural equation modeling was applied to evaluate the impact of human resource management practices on job satisfaction and three components of organizational commitment, namely affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment, and the relationship between these components with job satisfaction. The results show a positive relationship between human resource management practices and job satisfaction and three components of organizational commitment. Furthermore, three components of organizational commitment are positively associated with the job satisfaction of civil servants in Hanoi. Based on the results of this study, some significant implications for organizations in the public sector are proposed to enhance their employees’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction.