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Microfinance plays a crucial role to reduce the poverty in developing countries. For that reason, the effectiveness of microfinance institutions (MFIs) is widely investigated in the literature. This study examines the levels of efficiency of MFIs in Vietnam and their determinants. The research, then, evaluates the relationship between MFIs’ efficiency and poverty reduction. Data are mainly taken from the MIX market website and other empirical researches. Regarding the methodology, two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to estimate MFIs’ efficiency scores in Vietnam and their determinants, while meta-analysis and statistic descriptions are employed to examine the relationship between MFIs’ efficiency and poverty reduction. The findings show that technical efficiency (TE) of MFIs in Vietnam is considerably high with the average TE score and efficiency of scale being 85.5% and 94.7%, respectively. Size, age, outreach, and market target of MFIs are found not to be determinants of efficiency, while capital structure is. Also, many researches confirm the impact of MFIs’ efficiency to poverty reduction. However, the relationship is different between countries because of particular characteristics and operational mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the way in which a popular ritual became one of Vietnam’s most important festivals, elevated as a celebration of national heroism and charts its gradual transformation in modern society.

This research focuses on the combination of a fertility rite and narratives of St Gióng based on nationalism or heroism created a special festival reflecting many traditional cultural characteristics of Vietnam and the Việt people and the transformation of St Gióng from a mythological to a national symbol of heroism in anti-invader history was recorded in texts.

The paper casts light on the mythologization and historicization of St Gióng in Vietnam’s particular historical context by decoding the Gióng symbol as a core element of the folktales and myths about St Gióng to understand the formation and development of St Gióng in the cultural history of Vietnam.

The paper is not exploring the Gióng symbol within a larger cultural context of nationalism and ethnosymbolic approach in a comparison of national symbolism and heroism.

The paper includes implications for advised scholars to conduct further exploration of the symbol and myth of not only St Gióng in Vietnam but also Kubera in India and Vaisravana in China to connect Kubera, Vaisravana and St Gióng under the connection of literal myth and heroic symbol.

The paper shows how processes of historicizing myth and mythologizing history are important features of Vietnamese socio-historical research.

The paper shows how a fertility rite became a historical festival and the figure of St Gióng became a symbol of patriotic heroism.

Internal branding efforts are essential in improving employee performance in services marketing. Drawing on reformulation of attitude theory, this paper aims to contribute to the internal branding literature by positing that while internal brand knowledge (IBK) is essential for transforming brand vision into brand reality, it is not brand knowledge per se but its integration with other brand- and customer-related aspects that drive superior employee performance. In particular, this paper develops a cognitive-affective-behaviour model of internal branding proposing that IBK results in higher levels of employee brand identification (EBI); this sense of identification then motivates employees to engage in both employee-related and brand- and customer-focussed behaviours (i.e. brand citizenship behaviour [BCB] and customer-oriented behaviour [COB]), which in turn foster employee performance.

The hypotheses were empirically tested using a sample of 697 from services industry in Vietnam.

The findings indicate a sequential mediation model in that employee brand knowledge affects employee performance (both objective and subjective measures) through EBI, BCB and COB. Employee brand knowledge results in higher levels of EBI; this sense of identification then motivates employees to engage in employee-related brand and customer-focussed behaviours (BCB and COB), which in turn foster employee performance.

Firms should understand that IBK may not directly result in high levels of service performance, and instead should embrace the culture of self-driven positive brand-connection attitudes that motivate employees to engage in BCB and COB that are consistent with their sense of self.

This study makes a unique contribution to the internal branding literature by unravelling a pathway that integrates employees’ self-related psychological mechanism (EBI) and employee-related brand and customer-focussed behaviours (BCB and COB) through which employee brand knowledge is converted into employee performance.

This study aims to use the voice of the customer (VoC) strategy to collect user-generated content (UGC) compare customer expectations with reality, make the necessary improvements for the business and create personalized strategies for each customer to maximize revenue, focus on hospitality industry in Vietnam market.

This study proposes a synthesis of techniques for a deep understanding of the VoC based on online reviews in the hospitality industry. First, 409,054 comments were collected from websites in the hospitality sector. Second, the data will be organized, stored, cleaned, analyzed and evaluated. Next, research using business intelligence (BI) solutions integrating three models, including net promoter score (NPS), graph model and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), based on natural language processing (NLP) technique, experiment on Vietnamese and English data to explore the multidimensional voice of customer’s row. Finally, a dashboard system will be implemented to visualize analysis results and recommendations on marketing strategies to improve product and service quality.

Experimental results allow analysts and managers to “listen to the customer’s voice” accurately and effectively, identify relationships between entities, topics of discussion in favor of positive and negative trends.

The novelty in this study is the integration of three models, including NPS, graph model and LDA. These models are combined based on the BI solution and NLP technique. The study also conducted experiments on both Vietnamese and English languages, which ensures more effective practical application.

As the dynamic competition in the global marketplace becomes increasingly severe, multinational firms have no choice but to improve their competitive advantages and enhance productivity through innovation, learning and leadership. One essential issue is the capability of expatriates to support knowledge sharing and transfer from organizations headquarter to their subsidiaries through expatriates; however, there are few studies on this issue. This study attempts to identify the antecedents, consequences and moderators of knowledge sharing.

Using a questionnaire survey approach, data were obtained from 234 expatriates working for Taiwanese multinational enterprises. The hypotheses were tested by SmartPLS 3.0.

The empirical results indicate that opportunity and ability have a significant impact on expatriates' knowledge sharing. Trust, commitment and social capital also have significant influences on expatriates' collecting and donating of knowledge. The level of tacitness, specificity and complexity of knowledge have a negatively impact on knowledge sharing. Knowledge collecting can positively promote the outcome of knowledge sharing, including learning and growth, internal process, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Furthermore, organizational support and the richness of transmission channels served as two of the moderators that can amplify the influences of the antecedents on knowledge sharing and the influences of knowledge sharing on outcomes.

The results of this study can provide valuable references for academicians and professionals when deciding how to facilitate knowledge transfer from the company headquarters to subsidiaries through expatriates.

This study aims to investigate a new determinant of corporate cash holdings of Australian energy firms: economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Based on two motives for holding cash: precautionary and speculative motives, the authors argue that EPU increases financing constraints or induces firms to postpone investment projects, thereby increasing their cash holdings. The authors examine whether the Australian policy-related economic uncertainty affects cash holdings of Australian energy companies.

This research uses a data set of Australian energy firms from 2010 to 2020 and the Australian EPU index, which measures the uncertainty in economic policy, using news coverage of eight major Australian newspapers. To address the potential endogeneity bias and ensure the robustness of the results, three models are used: ordinary least squares, fixed-effects and dynamic generalized method of moments.

The authors find that the EPU index has a significant and positive effect on cash holdings, after controlling for firm-specific factors. While firm size and dividend payments have mixed and insignificant effects, other determinants are significant, such as growth opportunities, net working capital, cash flow, cash flow risk, leverage and capital expenditure. The authors also find that the positive effect of EPU on cash holdings is not the manifestation of EPU affecting corporate investments but rather explained by financing constraints.

The findings have implications for policymakers and regulators in Australia as the uncertainty of their economic policies plays an important role when Australian energy companies determine their cash holding level to manage liquidity risks.

This study is the first to document EPU index as the new determinant of corporate cash holdings of Australian energy companies. Firms in this sector have a great need of funding and liquidity for their operations and capital-intensive projects. High EPU index induces them to hold more cash to avoid liquidity shocks.

The current study aims to examine the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction in Vietnamese adolescents and investigate the possibility that emotional and behavioural problems mediate this relationship.

Quantitative means of data collection and analysis were used to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction and the underlying mechanism of this relationship. A set of questionnaires was presented to a sample of 828 adolescents (M age = 14.61; SD = 1.08) aged 14–17 years from two secondary schools and two high schools in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam. This helped to determine their self-compassion (self-compassion scale), emotional and behavioural problems (strengths and difficulties questionnaire) and life satisfaction (life satisfaction scale). Instruments reflected satisfactory reliability and validity.

The results show that self-warmth was positively associated with life satisfaction and that self-coldness was positively associated with emotional and behavioural problems and negatively associated with life satisfaction in Vietnamese adolescents. Emotional and behavioural problems fully mediated the negative relationship between self-coldness and life satisfaction.

It is implied that intervention programmes should be tailored to both promote self-compassionate behaviours and reduce self-coldness, to increase life satisfaction in adolescents.

The research available on the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction in adolescents, especially adolescents from Southeast Asia, is very sparse. More significantly, the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship are not yet fully understood.

This study aims to investigate the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate sustainable performance (CSP) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by looking into the significance of mediating factors, namely, brand image (BI) and brand loyalty (BL), within the context of an emerging economy.

The authors conduct an extensive literature study on the subjects of CSR, BI and BL to assess their influence on the sustainable performance of SMEs in an emerging market. The study adopts a quantitative methodology. A total of 438 answers were obtained from a sample size of 513. The data of the SMEs in Vietnam was analyzed using the smart partial least squares structural equation modeling software, specifically version 3.3.2.

The results of the authors demonstrate notable and favorable correlations between CSR and CSP, CSR and BI and CSR and BL. Importantly, the findings contribute to existing knowledge by looking into the mediating influence of BI and BL in the relationship between CSR and CSP.

According to the authors’ understanding, a number of research have investigated the correlation between CSR and CSP within the realm of SMEs. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of scholarly research examining the mediating function of BI and BL in this association. The study’s findings have important implications for entrepreneurs and senior management in effectively guiding their enterprises and improving their business strategies with an emphasis on sustainability in emerging markets. The outcome of this study has the potential to significantly contribute to SMEs in Vietnam as well as other emerging countries.