This study aims to examine the effect of political connection on operational efficiencies in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to discover the channel through…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of political connection on operational efficiencies in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to discover the channel through which political ties affect a firm's decision-making process.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the scope of the study, panel fixed effect has been adopted to explore the impact of political connection on a firm's operational efficiencies. The data were collected every two years from 2005 to 2015 from SMEs in Vietnam under the collaboration of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) and the Development Economics Research Group (DERG) of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark).
Findings
The results suggest that political connection has a significantly negative effect on both investment efficiencies and employee productivity. Significantly, the impact of political connections on employment decisions is more significant than it is on investment decisions. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that high-growth firms experience the interference of political connection in the decision-making process less often than their low-growth peers.
Originality/value
This paper provides some empirical evidence of the negative impact of political connections on a firm's operational efficiencies. It analyzes the channels through which political connection influences a firm's operational efficiencies. Providing empirical evidence demonstrates a dimension to capture the negative side of the political link to small and medium enterprises in developing economies.
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Thi Phuong Linh Nguyen, Thu Thuy Nguyen, Cong Doanh Duong and Xuan Hau Doan
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of transformational leadership on employee creativity through psychological empowerment, creative process engagement and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of transformational leadership on employee creativity through psychological empowerment, creative process engagement and intrinsic motivation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 420 employees at 21 telecommunications enterprises in Vietnam directly by questionnaire survey. Statistical methods, such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM), were used to analyze the data.
Findings
This paper shows that transformational leadership indirectly affects employee creativity through the mediating variables. Transformational leadership has a positive relationship with psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment has a proportional relationship with both creative process engagement and intrinsic motivation. Creative process engagement and intrinsic motivation have been shown to have positive effects with the employee creativity.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this paper is that the study only explores the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity through a number of the mediating variables.
Practical implications
The telecommunications industry is an industry that requires constant innovation, so managers need to aim for a leadership style that promotes employee creativity. Therefore, transformational leadership is a style that should be considered during the appointing and recruiting.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the existing literature by focusing on understanding the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity in telecommunications enterprises in an Asian country with an emerging economy like Vietnam.
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While the current anti-globalisation wave is considered as a regional and cyclical relapse among Western countries, the new era of globalisation has shifted away from stagnant…
Abstract
Purpose
While the current anti-globalisation wave is considered as a regional and cyclical relapse among Western countries, the new era of globalisation has shifted away from stagnant developed economies towards the rising prosperity of emerging Asia, where it is attracting substantial global inward foreign direct investment (FDI). Focussing on Vietnam, the country that is seen as Asia’s next economic tiger, the question of how important intellectual properties (IP) protection is in the international competition for FDI inflows is still unsettled, especially on the under-researched topic of trademarks.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes on the business history approach, which allows rich evidence from the dynamic and evolving natures of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to drive the research process, so that international business scholars can test models rigorously. The evidence provided in this paper is essentially qualitative and combines trademark registrations data, with trade and FDI statistics between 1986 and 2016, also draws on companies’ archives, industry reports and related newspaper articles.
Findings
This paper provides the chronology of intellectual property right (IPR) legal landscapes and the dynamic co-evolution of trademarks and FDI inflows in Vietnam. Three trademark protection strategies for MNEs and their patterns here are addressed. The paper also argues that trademarks bring new insights and IP protection strategy for pharmaceutical MNEs for the case of Vietnam is as important in trademarks as it is in patents. In emerging markets with strong incentives for FDI such as Vietnam, MNEs are not necessarily put off by weak IPR, but rather create alternative strategies for dealing with the lack of IP protection in these emerging market settings.
Originality/value
This study challenges the stream of thoughts that view trademarks as a “neglected intangible asset” among different IPRs, while in fact, trademarks advance MNEs’ knowledge by ensuring competitiveness and long-run survival in emerging markets. This paper is among the first few attempts to look at pharmaceutical industry through the lens of trademarks, moving away from the traditional patent-focussed approach. It extends the understanding of OLI paradigm and highlights that MNEs need to possess Oa and Op advantages not only at the beginning of internationalisation process but rather evolving through the time to cope with imitation risks in the host country.
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For its sustainable growth, an organization should drive customers from the role of consumers of products or services to value co-creators. Logistics performance, which produces…
Abstract
Purpose
For its sustainable growth, an organization should drive customers from the role of consumers of products or services to value co-creators. Logistics performance, which produces value for customers, may activate value co-creation behavior among them. The purpose of this paper is to investigate entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as the determinant and customer value co-creation behavior as the outcome of logistics performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this research came from 328 dyads of logistics managers of chemical manufacturers and purchase managers of their customer companies in Vietnam context. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling approach.
Findings
The research results confirmed the role of EO in predicting logistics performance. Logistics performance was also found to positively influence customer-organization identification, which, in turn promoted customer value co-creation behavior.
Originality/value
Entrepreneurship, logistics, and marketing research streams converge through the research model of the relationship between EO, logistics performance, and customer value co-creation behavior.
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Dat Nguyen, Anh Le Hoang, Minh Anh Nguyen Vu, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Tram Anh Pham
Shipping is a major source of air pollution, causing severe impacts on the environment and human health, greatly contributing to the creation of greenhouse gases and influencing…
Abstract
Purpose
Shipping is a major source of air pollution, causing severe impacts on the environment and human health, greatly contributing to the creation of greenhouse gases and influencing climate change. The research was investigated to provide a better insight into the emission inventories in the Red River in Hanoi (Vietnam) that is often heavily occupied as the primary route for inner-city waterway traffic.
Design/methodology/approach
The total emissions of seven different pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SOx, CO, CO2, NOx and HC) were estimated using the SPD-GIZ emission calculation model.
Findings
The results show that CO2 has the most significant contribution to the gas volume emitted: 103.21 tons/day. Remarkably, bulk carriers are the largest emission vehicle, accounting for more than 97% of total emissions, due to their superior number and large capacity.
Social implications
The result to have a roadmap for making efforts to fulfil its commitment so that it could achieve its net-zero climate target by 2050 in Vietnam as committed at COP26.
Originality/value
In this research, the number of vehicles and types of vessels travelling on the Red River flowing within Hanoi territory and other activity data are reported. The tally data will be used to estimate emissions of seven different pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SOx, CO, CO2, NOx and HC) using a method combining both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
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Thuy Thanh Tran, Roger Leonard Burritt, Christian Herzig and Katherine Leanne Christ
Of critical concern to the world is the need to reduce consumption and waste of natural resources. This study provides a multi-level exploration of the ways situational and…
Abstract
Purpose
Of critical concern to the world is the need to reduce consumption and waste of natural resources. This study provides a multi-level exploration of the ways situational and transformational links between levels and challenges are related to the adoption and utilization of material flow cost accounting in Vietnam, to encourage green productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on triangulation of public documents at different institutional levels and a set of semi-structured interviews, situational and transformational links and challenges for material flow cost accounting in Vietnam are examined using purposive and snowball sampling of key actors.
Findings
Using a multi-level framework the research identifies six situational and transformational barriers to implementation of material flow cost accounting and suggests opportunities to overcome these. The weakest links identified involve macro-to meso-situational and micro-to macro-transformational links. The paper highlights the dominance of meso-level institutions and lack of focus on micro transformation to cut waste and enable improvements in green productivity.
Practical implications
The paper identifies ways for companies in Vietnam to reduce unsustainability and enable transformation towards sustainable management and waste reduction.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to develop and use a multi-level/multi-time period framework to examine the take-up of material flow cost accounting to encourage transformation towards green productivity. Consideration of the Vietnamese case builds understanding of the challenges for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 12, to help enable sustainable production and consumption patterns.
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Tran Thuc, Tran Thanh Thuy and Huynh Thi Lan Huong
This paper aims to develop a multi-hazard risk assessment method based on probability theory and a set of economic, social and environmental indicators, which considers the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a multi-hazard risk assessment method based on probability theory and a set of economic, social and environmental indicators, which considers the increase in hazards when they occur concurrently or consecutively.
Design/methodology/approach
Disaster risk assessment generally considers the impact and vulnerability of a single hazard to the affected location/object without considering the combination of multiple hazards occurring concurrently or consecutively. However, disasters are often closely related, occurring in combination or at the same time. Probability theory was used to assess multi-hazard, and a matrix method was used to assess the interaction of hazard vulnerabilities.
Findings
The results of the case study for the Mid-Central Coastal Region show that the proportions of districts at a very high class of multi-hazard, multi-vulnerabilities and multi-hazard risk are 81%, 89% and 82%, respectively. Multi-hazard risk level tends to decrease from North to South and from East to West. A total of 100% of coastal districts are at high to very high multi-hazard risk classes. The research results could assist in the development of disaster risk reduction programs towards sustainable development and support the management to reduce risks caused by multi-hazard.
Originality/value
The multi-risk assessment method developed in this study is based on published literature, allowing to compare quantitatively multiple risk caused by multi-hazard occurring concurrently or consecutively, in which, a relative increase in hazard and vulnerability is considered. The method includes the assessment of three components of disaster risk including multi-hazard, exposure and multi-vulnerability. Probability and Copula theories were used to assess multi-hazard, and a matrix method was used to assess the interaction intensity of multi-vulnerabilities in the system.
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Nguyen Quynh Phuong and Sundar Venkatesh
Limited previous studies about Vietnamese returned migrant workers reviewed that a relatively high rate of migrants returned home before their contract ended. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Limited previous studies about Vietnamese returned migrant workers reviewed that a relatively high rate of migrants returned home before their contract ended. This paper aims to explore how the decisions to return were made under social lenses.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses data obtained through in-depth interviews of contract workers who had worked in Taiwan with a focus on Phu Tho province in Vietnam.
Findings
The authors followed O’Reilly’s (2012) adaption of Practice theory in migration research to examine a group of Vietnamese labour migrants returning from Taiwan. Under this theory, external and internal structures are the two divisions of the social environment. The authors identified external structures that might enable or constraint migrant’s mobility. When negotiating internal structures, Vietnamese women might end their contract early in response to family obligations.
Originality/value
The findings provide insights into how women make their decisions when to return, which may contribute to a better understanding of how to assist women engaged in transnational labour migration.
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Nam Hoang Vu, Nguyen Thi Khanh Chi and Hai Hong Nguyen
This study explores the effects of gender and participation in agricultural cooperatives on biodiversity conservation farming practices in vegetable production.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the effects of gender and participation in agricultural cooperatives on biodiversity conservation farming practices in vegetable production.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used data collected from a survey of 627 vegetable farmers in Viet Nam and employed the Ordered Probit regression model to examine the effects of gender and participation in agricultural cooperatives on biodiversity conservation farming practices.
Findings
We find that female vegetable farmers are more likely to conduct biodiversity conservation farming practices than male farmers. This gender difference is, however, removed when participation in agricultural cooperatives is controlled, suggesting that agricultural cooperatives effectively facilitate biodiversity conservation farming practices.
Research limitations/implications
It is noted that our study is not free from some limitations. First, we conducted our study on vegetable farmers only. The biodiversity conservation practices in vegetable cultivation might be different from other types of farming. Future studies should be conducted with other types of agricultural cultivation. Second, we do not have enough data to explain why female farmers are more likely to adopt biodiversity conservation practices than male farmers. Future studies should capture biological and social aspects of gender differences to address this limitation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on biodiversity conservation by presenting empirical evidence on the effects of gender and agricultural cooperatives. Participation in agricultural cooperatives is revealed to facilitate the adoption of biodiversity conservation practices. In addition, we find that the education of farmers, the number of years that farmers have been living in the local area and the quality of land and water are positively related to the adoption of biodiversity conservation practices in vegetable production.