Journal of International Economics and Management

There are few rigorous empirical studies about the roles of human resource management practices (HRM) in performance of SMEs in transition economies. Based on a dataset from surveys of manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam, the study finds that SMEs’ owners/managers educational background has direct and indirect effects on HRM outcomes and SMEs performance and that HRM practices including provision of training and fringe benefits to workers raise labor productivity and improve performance of SMEs.

Although many prior studies show that oil price affects negatively macroeconomic environment and stock prices, there are few studies on the impact of oil price on firm profitability. This paper posits that oil price tends to affect firm profitability negatively via increases in production costs and negative changes in the macroeconomic environment. As a transition economy, Vietnam has been gradually integrated into the world economy and affected by international economic shocks. Therefore, Vietnam is a potential laboratory to investigate the effect of oil price as an exogenous factor on firm profitability. Using a sample of 6,960 observations from 951 firms listed in Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) and Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) between 2005 and 2016, we find supporting evidence for the negative impact of oil price on firm profitability.

The debate on the impact of state ownership on firm performance has drawn considerable interest from both scholars and professionals in the field of corporate finance. However, prior research has primarily focused on listed firms, whose characteristics differ from those of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Hence, this paper investigates how state ownership influences SMEs’ performance. The sample includes 5,092 firm-years from over 2,000 SMEs with state ownership in Vietnam from 2013 to 2019. The model was estimated using three regression methods, including fixed effects, random effects, and pooled ordinary least squares. The results show that state ownership is positively associated with SMEs’ performance. This finding implies that state ownership creates competitive advantages for SMEs rather than reducing their performance. Therefore, policymakers should consider the advantages and disadvantages of privatizing state-owned SMEs or reducing state ownership in these enterprises. Moreover, investors should divert their capital to state-owned SMEs and increase their value.

This study aims to determine factors affecting incomes of poor ethnic minority households in the Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province. Through survey data of ethnic minority households in Khanh Vinh district, this study used an econometric model to analyze the influence of factors on the incomes of ethnic minority households in the area. The research results found that the factors having the impact on the incomes of ethnic minority households in this area include: ethnic characteristics, household size, number of livelihood activities, leisure time during the year, and time to access productive land. The results of this study provide more empirical evidence in the study on factors affecting the income of ethnic minority households in Vietnam in general and in Khanh Hoa province in particular. By detailed analysis the factors affecting the income of ethnic minority households in Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province, the study enriches the literature on poverty and livelihoods in ethinic minority household’s community and provides useful information for policymakers and practitioners in designing effective programs to improve household incomes and develop sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minority households in this area.

The aim of this research is to discover leadership styles in some social enterprises and differentiate them from those of selected for-profit companies. Qualitative case study method is used through in-depth interview with a leader and a follower from 04 companies, including 02 social enterprises and 02 for-profit ones. The findings of the study show that 02 selected social enterprises have various things in common which do not exist in 02 for-profit companies including (i) many traits of the leaders such as responsibility, determination, self-confidence, high specialized knowledge and friendliness; (ii) the Team Management Leadership style and Theory Y style in terms of Behavioral theory; and (iii) the same position in the middle of transformational and transactional level from this perspective. This study offers an interesting view on leadership, supplementing the shortage in current literature on social enterprises, and provides basis and suggestions for further investigations.

Cultivating a strong presence, emotional intelligence is now firmly embedded within organizations. The emotional intelligence of managers is essential for building a motivated workforce. This study investigates the relationship between functional managers’ emotional intelligence and employees’ service recovery performance in the context of the hospitality industry. In this study, functional managers’ emotional intelligence includes four dimensions: self-emotion appraisal, other-emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. A mixed method was employed to explore the influence of functional managers’ emotional intelligence on employees’ service recovery performance. The data were collected from 238 functional managers at 33 four- and five-star hotels in five provinces and cities in Vietnam. Factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results show that functional hotel managers’ emotional intelligence has a positive and significant impact on employees’ service recovery performance, with others’ emotion appraisal having the strongest impact, followed by emotion regulation, use of emotion, and self-emotion appraisal. These findings deepen the understanding of service recovery and enrich the underlying literature. The study also provides managers with useful advice on managing customer service as a competitive advantage.

Although prior studies have investigated the effects of both internal and institutional factors on export performance of Vietnamese firms, we argue that Vietnamese institutional envionment has changed rapidly under the impact of economic integration and we need more research to understand export behavior of Vietnamese firms. In this paper, we examine how their internal factors and perceived obstacles of external factors affect their export intensity and propensity with an updated micro dataset collected form Enterprise Surveys of World Bank conducted in 2009 and 2015. The research findings show that internal factors including firm size and foreign ownership have positive effects on both export propensity and export intensity. Competition from the informal sector and perceived obstacles of customs and trade regulation have negative and positive impacts on export performance respectively. These findings confirm the role of firm size, foreign ownership, competition in firm export performance in a transition country pursuing export-led growth strategy.

Although Vietnamese society is above average level of masculinity orientation, number of womenled enterprises in the country is still now increasing. This has been the result of many changes related to gender and other supporting activities from the community. The main objective of the research was to unravel the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in some main cities and provinces in Vietnam. Results were derived through a survey with 171 respondents and qualitative in-depth interview based study of a sample of 15 women entrepreneurs operating in different districts in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City. These women are doing business in different fields and most of them are in sectors that are suitable with women such as hair and beauty, food, textile, education,… The research concluded that Vietnam women entrepreneurs face constraints mostly in matters related to access to finance, lack of information on market data, lack of access to resources and lack of digital distribution channels. Besides, nearly 30 percentages of them are still unable to control their income from the business which is one of the result of family’s influences to the business decision. 

This paper investigates the determinants of TFP at firm level using a sample of 370 firms located in 58 cities and provinces of Vietnam. These firms participated in the business census of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam in 2015 and reported R&D activities. The regression result indicates that for firms in Vietnam, factors have a significant and positive effect on TFP include absorptive capacity (proxied by R&D activities), spatial spillovers, export activities and financial constraints. Nevertheless, there is not enough evidence to conclude that political affiliation affects TFP for Vietnamese firms.

Section J, Chapter 18 of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement on Internet Service Providers (ISP), with the objectives of providing copyright holders with effective legal remedies against online copyright infringement whereas properly limit the scope of liability of ISPs for copyright infringements committed through their platforms that they do not control, initiate or direct. The later objective is to be achieved via the so-called Safe Harbours for ISPs. To prepare Vietnam for the implementation of ISP provisions of the TPP Agreement, this paper shall provide: (i) a overview of the evolution of ISP liability regimes and Safe Harbours (ii) an examination of the legal, technological and economic foundations for the development of ISP liability regimes and statutory Safe Harbours; (ii) A comparative comparison among Vietnam’s current limitations on copyright liability of ISP with the Safe Harbor provisions in TPP Agreement; and (iii) recommendations on a strategic approach to the implementation of TPP’s Safe Harbor provisions.