• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.187-196
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• 2021

Vietnam has become one of the largest markets in Southeast Asia, with huge demand for many kinds of consumer goods, including dairy products. Although the domestic industry of producing and distributing milk has flourished dramatically in recent years, Vietnam still heavily hinges on dairy imports. The total value of milk products in 2020 exceeded 1 billion USD, leading to Vietnam being one of the 20 biggest importers of dairy milk globally. To explore this potential industry, we applied a multivariate linear regression model to investigate the milk consumption behaviors of Vietnamese adults. 2000 participants took part in our survey in which the products evaluated were Dielac Alpha - the most famous national powdered milk introduced in 2007 by Vinamilk. This product was designed for all ages, from children aged 0-6 to pregnant women or adults. The results indicate that the decision to purchase milk could be attributed to a host of factors. While price represents the most strongly influential factor, there might be variations according to consumer characteristics, namely age, marriage status, gender, and particular shopping behavior. From these findings, we propose some managerial implications for regulatory bodies and relevant enterprises to prepare appropriate policies and strategies for their business development.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.197-205
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• 2021

This study aims to investigate factors influencing customer behavior towards nylon bags and single-use plastics. These factors are environmental protection awareness, health protection awareness, sense of responsibility, expectations, and green marketing. A quantitative method with the use of surveys is deployed to collect data of young people under 30, generating 1650 valid responses. The collected data is then analyzed with SPSS 22, using Cronbach's Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis to test the reliability of the model before validating the hypotheses by regression analysis. The study found that the majority of respondents are inclined to use plastic bags, despite their environmental awareness. The results also demonstrate that health consciousness, environmental concerns, self-driven responsibility for the sustainability of young people have a significant impact on their behaviors in using nylon bags and plastic products, whereas expectation and green marketing are confirmed not to be the factors. The study suggests that if green marketing is to gain higher influence, an increase in research and development to support other environmentally friendly packaging would be the right path. Finally, this research proposes some feasible recommendations for the government, which include imposing bolder and more targeted environmental policies on consumers and introducing educational campaigns to raise awareness about minimizing plastic consumption.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.11-19
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• 2021

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock prices of the companies traded on the UAE financial markets (Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market). The time series regressions have been applied to estimate the impact of COVID-19 data on the companies' stock prices movements. The data cover the period between January 29^th, 2020, and January 5^th, 2021. The data was collected from the website of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre of the UAE. The empirical results of this study show that the stock prices are negatively and significantly affected by the number of COVID-19 positive cases and the number of death while they are positively and significantly affected by the number of recoveries. The results vary from one industry to another. These results would be important to the policymakers and financial regulators in developing the needed policies to improve the stock markets' resilience and maintain financial and economic stability. In addition, the findings would be useful to the investors and portfolio managers in taking the most appropriate investment decisions and managing more efficiently their portfolios. This paper will shed light on the responsiveness of the UAE financial market to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.107-115
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• 2021

Currently, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are accounting for about 98% of the total number of enterprises in Vietnam. Each year, SMEs create over one million new jobs, utilize up to 51% of the labor force in the society, and contribute more than 40% of GDP to the country. The study aims to analyze factors affecting the management competency of directors in small and medium enterprises in Vietnam. To achieve these research objectives, quantitative and qualitative methods were used concurrently. 300 questionnaires were sent out, but only 276 were collected and used for the quantitative analysis through SPSS 20.0 software. Cronbach's Alpha, EFA, and regression were used to further confirm the research findings. The research findings show that all four proposed factors have impacts on the management competency of SME directors, among which enterprise features and specific policies for entrepreneur development in the locality have the strongest impacts, followed by personal features and business environment. The findings of this study suggest that managers need to focus on factors affecting the management competency of directors. This paper also provides new insight into the management competency of directors. Based on the findings, some recommendations are given for SMEs to improve management competency.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.375-380
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• 2021

Internal control is important for monitoring operations of organizations. In order to achieve the quality of internal control, organizations need to recognize different perspectives in which the components of internal control play a decisive role. Internal control is a process designed by the manager and it is applied within the organization to provide reasonable assurance of the reliability of financial information and to comply with policies, procedures, rules, regulations and laws. The article uses the ordinary least squares method and the seven-point Likert scale to test the variables affecting the quality of internal control in 18 Vietnamese listed banks. The article surveyed 179 leaders of listed banks. The results show that there are three variables out of a total of five variables that positively affect the quality of internal control, including the control environment, control activities, and monitoring. Accordingly, the managers of Vietnamese listed banks need to pay attention to building a corporate culture environment, improve the quality of control activities, and periodically and regularly conduct the monitoring. It contributes to improving the quality of internal control and is also an opportunity to increase economic benefits for Vietnamese listed banks in the context of international economic integration.

• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2018

China evaluates corporate management activities based on the policies and assessment criteria of corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on the national development plan goals. This assessment should be understood in advance as a key issue for Korean companies into the Chinese market. Therefore, this research was presented to analyze the process, trends and related systems of CSR based on Chinese political specialties. Through this is aimed at utilizing this study as a CSR implementation strategy and CSR training frame for companies considering to China in order to understand the reality of CSR in China and applying it to business strategy.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.643-655
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• 2021

This study investigated the effect of the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) microfinancing on the economic, social, and household empowerment of women borrowers in Malaysia. The study used a quantitative approach based on primary data. For this study, the participants comprised 384 AIM borrowers from Terengganu, Kelantan, and Pahang in the east coast region of Malaysia. Purposive stratified random sampling was used as well as the Krejcie and Morgan method to count the number of samples. Descriptive statistics and the Women Empowerment Index (WEI) were used in the analysis. The study findings reveal that AIM microfinancing affects the economic, social, and household empowerment of women borrowers in Malaysia. However, in comparing the three categories, women enjoyed more freedom in social and household decision-making than in economic decision-making. The present study recommends policies for the successful and effective operation of microfinance programs by providing the necessary guidelines for the control of AIM loan for women borrowers; increasing income-generating activities, sufficient access of credit, and proper education for the borrowers; and giving economic freedom of choice with necessary skill training policymaking options for the government and NGOs with the aim to improve the total household income and empowerment of the microcredit borrowers in Malaysia.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.225-235
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• 2021

The objective of this study is to identify the effects of ethical values reflected on zakat and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the financial performance of sharia banking in Indonesia. This study contributes to the Indonesia Financial Service Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) policies concerning the need for implementing ethical values in sharia banking and other sharia financial entities based on the philanthropic model, this study posits that firms undertaking zakat and charity are ethical firms. The population of this study is 8 sharia banks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2014-2018. The result of the study showed that zakat disclosure significantly affected financial performance. Moreover, ethical values that were proxied by CSR disclosure did not significantly affect financial performance. The limitation of the study is the limited number of the sample; therefore, it is expected that the future research adds other sharia financial entities and adds the dimension of management, sustainability, product, and the environment as benchmarks of ethical values. The originality of this study offers an additional explanation of the relationship between ethical values and performance by investigating zakat and CSR disclosure which is a unique factor in Indonesia.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-71
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• 2021

Many different approaches and databases have been developed for the evaluation of non-tariff measures (NTMs) and free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper is devoted to the EU-South Korea agreement, which is the first 'second-generation' FTA of the EU, addressing a wide array of non-tariff policies. We review the evolution of NTM types applicable to the EU-South Korea trade relationship and the role of NTMs in ex-ante and ex-post analyses of the agreement. Subsequently a structural gravity model is employed to assess the value added of information on different aspects of FTAs and types of NTMs by evaluating their ability to predict the trade effects of the EU-South Korea FTA. Our results show that, when accounting for information on the components common in modern deep trade agreements, no additional trade effect is attributable to the EU-South Korea FTA. The evolution of NTMs differs considerably across indicators used, but trade predictions are hardly affected. Most specifications point towards a negative effect of bilateral differences in the number of technical barriers to trade (TBT) applied and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) against which trading partners issued complaints at the WTO.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.510-521
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• 2020

Recently, transparency in accounting for medical institutions has been emphasized. However, due to the current system problems and structural limitations, there is a lack of diagnosis on the financial status of domestic hospitals. This study is based on the financial statements per 100 beds of 374 including domestic hospital level to tertiary hospital, and analyzed the Free Cash Flow(FCF) by hospital size from the perspective of Free Cash Flow Hypothesis. After deriving Operating Cash Flow(OCF) through the profit or loss statement of medical institutions, FCFs were analyzed through the prior and current financial statements and OCFs, and the correlation between financial variables was confirmed. According to the analysis, first, hospitals with 160 to 299 beds and 300 beds or more have relatively high FCFs. Second, certified tertiary hospitals, hospitals with less than 160 beds, and general hospitals have negative(-) FCFs. Thus, there's a need to narrow the FCF gap based on the size of the hospital, maintaining an appropriate level of FCF. This study is meaningful in that it was the first FCF analysis based on hospital size. This study is also expected to offer an informative resources in setting differentiated strategies according to the size of medical institutions when establishing new accounting policies in the future.