• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.801-808
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• 2020

The purpose of the study is to find the factors that influence the financial leverage of Vietnam firms. The dependent variable is the financial leverage and the independent variables are firm size, asset structure, liquidity, growth opportunities, profitability, and firm age. The data are collected from Vietnam firms' annual financial reports in the period from 2010 to 2019. The study uses a sample of 448 Vietnam listed firms in the period. We also employ a panel regression model with pooled OLS and fixed effect to analyze the firms' financial data. The results of the model showed that financial leverage (FL) has a negative relationship with some factors such as asset structure (AS), liquidity (LQ), growth opportunities (GRW), profitability (ROA), and firm age (AGE) in the fixed effect regression. It means that when liquidity, profitability, and firm age increase, firms' financial leverage will decrease. While firms' financial leverage has still a positive relationship with the firm size (SIZE) in the model. As a result, when firm size increases, financial leverage will increase, too. The results showed that models are fit for the research and can be used to predict future findings. It is also useful for enterprises, financial advisors, investors, as well as the financial managers.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.9-15
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• 2020

This paper investigates how economic freedom affected firm investment in Vietnam. In the globalization decade, economic freedom has been an important policy to support economic development in Vietnam. Improvements in economic freedom, such as capital freedom and domestic credit freedom, allow firms to access external finance more easily, so that the firm's investment depends less on internal cash flow. In a developing country, on the drawbacks, many small and medium firms likely have more challenges if the government would not give any subsidies. The higher level of freedom may exacerbate the financing constraints of less competitive firms. We analyze unique firm-level data from 2006 to 2016, which includes listed firms on two major stock exchanges and unlisted firms in the Unlisted Public Company Market. The article also considers how economic freedom affects small firms and large firms differently. Our results show that capital freedom and domestic credit freedom played an important role in investments for Vietnamese firms. However, we cannot find evidence that overall economic freedom relaxed the financial constraints on firms. Additionally, we suggest that small firms likely gain more advantage in access to external finance than do larger firms when the government removes restrictions from capital movement and the domestic credit market.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2020

This study was conducted to examine how independent audit firms in Vietnam understand and use risk based audit approach (RBAA) in audit practice. To answer the research questions, the researchers used primary and secondary data collected from 2018 to 2019. The results from the interview survey showed that audit firms were aware of the advantages of adopting RBAA. However, RBAA is practiced to a moderate extent by audit firms in Vietnam. Big 4 audit firms use RBAA more popularly than Non-Big 4 audit firms. The causes of the difference are the disadvantages of adopting RBAA and client's characteristics such as relevant guideline, audit fees, auditors' knowledge and experience. Besides, the study investigated factors impacting on the RBAA adoption by distributing a questionnaire to 246 auditors of 126 audit firms in Vietnam. A set of statistical appropriate methods where used through SPSS software version 22.0. The results indicated that there were six factors influencing RBAA adoption including: Auditor's ability, Technological development, Audit fees, auditors' motivation, Audit time and client's risk. Of which, auditor's ability and technological development are factors that have the most significant and positive impacts on the adoption of RBAA. Additional implications were argued in the final section of this study.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.1033-1039
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• 2020

Vietnam is conducting an export-led growth model and labour-intensive industries contributing majorly to the total export value. In the context of Industry 4.0, the labour-based industries are significantly affected; hence, enhancing productivity is the key measure to maintain these industries. The garment industry contributes significantly to the total export value of Vietnam. Based on meta-frontier framework, the approach of data envelopment analysis is used to measure technical efficiency of Vietnamese garment firms and the global Malmquist TFP index is utilised to identify productivity change and its components including efficiency, technology and technical gaps between different groups of firms. The data of Vietnamese garment firms from 2013 to 2018 collected from the Vietnam General Statistic Office is used in this study. The results show that: (i) The total factor productivity of Vietnamese garment firms growth, technical progress is the main contributor; (ii) The private garment sector is the leading group; (iii) There is a large technological gap among Vietnamese garment sectors. The private and FDI garment firms have experienced a growth in all components of total factor productivity change. Meanwhile, technological progress change is the main reason to constrain the productivity growth of state-owned garment firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.663-673
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• 2020

To enhance the performance of privatized firms and state-owned enterprises, Vietnamese government set up a specialized monitoring body named State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) in 2006 to supervise their performance. This motivated us to conduct this study to investigate the effective control of SCIC on privatized firms' performance. We collected the annual reports of 500 non-financial privatized firms listed on HSX and HNX during the period from 2007 to 2017 from Thomson Reuters. Observations with missing values were removed and trimming outliers were implemented resulting in a dataset comprising of 4146 firm-year observations. We applied a quadratic regression model of state ownership on firms' performance, and applied the method of Baron and Kenny (1986) to test the moderating effect of SCIC control. To fix "selection bias" that may occur and result in endogeneity of moderator (M), we utilized the PSM technique to analyze the marginal effect of the moderator (SCIC) on privatized firms' performance. Our findings indicate a positive moderating role of SCIC on the relationship between the state ownership and firms' performance. This implies that there is a positive effect of liberating the management of the private firms from government control, which also means that lesser the intervention of government in the day to day operational activities of a private firm, better the performance of a privatized firm is.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.287-292
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• 2021

The article analyzes the impact of capital structure on the firm value of chemical companies listed on the stock market of Vietnam. Data was collected from the financial statements of 23 chemical firms listed on the Vietnam stock market from 2012 to 2019. Quantitative research method with regression model according to OLS, FEM, REM method is used; FGLS method is used to overcome the model's defects. In this research, firm value (Tobin's Q) is a dependent variable. Capital structure (DA), Return on assets (ROA), Asset turnover (AT), fixed assets (TANG), Solvency (CR), Firm size (SZ), Firm Age (AGE), and revenue growth rate (GR) are independent variables in the study. The analysis results show that the capital structure of firms in the chemical industry listed on the Vietnam stock market has an inverse correlation with firm value. Besides, firms with greater asset turnover, business size, and number of years of operation have lower firm value. This article helps corporate executives improve corporate value by adjusting their capital structure properly. Chemical firms adjusted their capital structure in the direction of gradually decreasing the debt ratio and gradually increasing equity. Firms use high debt, which has the effect of reducing the firm value of firms in the chemical industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.958-969
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• 2002

No one doubts that textile and apparel industries have contributed to economic miracles of the export-led growth in Korea. However, by the turning of 1990′s, these sectors have encountered many problems such as decreasing of domestic production and exports mainly due to wage rise and shortage. Therefore, foreign direct investment to the low labor cost countries has been enlarged for a way of improving its competitiveness and increasing exports. However, no intensive study has been made exploring current investments and future directions. This study focuses Vietnam as one of the promising overseas investment countries. The purposes of this study are to analyze current investment status of Korean textiles and apparel firms in Vietnam, to explore merits and problems Vietnam has, and to present useful implications and strategies for Korean textiles and apparel companies. Analysis of current secondary data suggests that Korean apparel industry, rather than textiles industry, have invested more in Vietnam, mostly in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Investments of Korean apparel and textile firms have shown steady increase from 1990 but have turned to a decrease from 1995. Findings suggested that Vietnam has merits for attracting foreign investment since it provides relatively cheap labor and outstanding skillful hands suitable for apparel and textiles industries. In addition, because of EU quota increase and the trade agreement between Vietnam and USA it is likely for firms in Vietnam to increase exports to EU and USA Rapid expansion of domestic apparel market and "Korean trend (Han Rue)" in Vietnam resulted from successful star marketing of Korean firms are another merits Vietnam has to the Korean fm. However, regulations of central government, low efficiency of bureaucratic and stiff administrative process, difficulty of making decision in case of joint venture, lack of social overhead capital, high factory construction costs, weak construction condition, and the excessive competition among investment enterprises have found to be problems. Based on pros and cons of investment to Vietnam, marketing strategies, practical implications and future directions were suggested.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.235-247
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• 2021

The objective of this paper is to clarify the relationship between ICT application and labor productivity in Vietnamese manufacturing firms and connect it with the context of economic restructuring in Vietnam. The study uses data of 3,428 manufacturing firms from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam and regression models. In addition to the general model, the study also runs the models for sub-samples of firms of different production technology levels. Research results show two main points. First, information technology can enhance the labor productivity of Vietnamese manufacturing firms. This is true for both ICT hardware applications, ICT services, ICT software solutions, and employees' ICT skills in firms. Second, manufacturing firms with higher levels of production technology use ICT more effectively and achieve a higher impact on labor productivity. The results confirm that the Vietnamese government can stimulate ICT application and digital transformation in firms, thereby increasing labor productivity and promoting economic restructuring in the direction of shifting from agriculture to industry and from low-tech industries to high-tech ones. The results also provide implications for business managers and policymakers in other developing countries who are adopting the digital economy as a development strategy.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.225-236
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• 2020

This paper examines empirically the net impact of residual state ownership on privatized firm efficiency in the transitional context of Vietnam. Vietnamese privatization has its own characteristics. Instead of mass and full privatization, Vietnam has chosen a partial and gradual path. Thus, it is important to assess the net impact of residual state ownership on privatized firms during the post-privatization period. This study employs stochastic frontier analysis to investigate the association between residual state ownership and the efficiency of privatized firms, using a sample of all privatized firms that are listed on the Vietnamese stock exchanges over the period from 2007 to 2017. Also, two-stage least squares regression is incorporated into the model to deal with potential endogeneity issues. Our study provides evidence that state ownership should not be considered as a pure source of agency problems. Indeed, the net impact of residual state ownership on privatized firm efficiency is non-monotonic, and the relationship between residual state ownership and privatized firm efficiency is under an inverted U-shape. A moderate level (less than 50%) of residual state ownership might be beneficial to privatized firm efficiency whereas too much state ownership is detrimental to the efficiency of privatized firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.79-89
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• 2021

Green finance plays an important role in environmental protection missions and fighting climate change. The Environment Fund in Vietnam is the main channel of preferential capital offered to firms for environmental protection. Unfortunately, it was previously unknown which criteria influenced these companies' ability to obtain green financing. Using a survey method, we collected data through a structured questionnaire of 203 respondents that represent firms that had received concessional loans from 26 Environment Funds. A Multiple Linear Regression model was used to examine the determinants of access to concessional loans for environmental protection. We found relationships between age, size, ownership type, and industry sector, and access to green finance. Third-party guarantees were a significant factor in financing through Environment Funds. Moreover, we found commercial environmental projects face fewer green financing obstacles. Surprisingly, showing audited financial statements does not mitigate the information asymmetry between firms and these financial institutions. These findings suggest that Environment Funds should classify environmental project types to develop appropriate lending policies. In emerging markets, enterprises need to build a trusted relationship with financial institutions so that they can replace asset-based lending techniques, thereby increasing the firms' accessibility to green finance.