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This paper examines the political budget cycles in emerging and developing countries using a sample of 91 countries from 1992 to 2019.

This paper employs a pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) model with clustered standard errors at the country level. To address endogeneity issues, the authors also employ a two-step system generalized methods of moments model.

The authors find clear evidence of political budget cycles in emerging and developing countries. The authors consistently find that incumbents increase total government spending, particularly in economic affairs, public services and social welfare, in the year before an election and the election year. In contrast, they contract spending in the year after an election.

Policymakers should be aware of the political budget cycles during election years. Promoting control of corruption and democracy helps to alleviate the effects of the political budget cycles in emerging and developing countries.

The authors are among the first to explore the political budget cycles in emerging and developing countries by focusing on the total government spending and its main compositions, including expenditures on economic affairs, public services and social welfare. Besides, the authors also explore the conditioning effects of control of corruption, political ideology and democracy.

Debt, dividend and investment policy constitutes a company's important financial decisions to determine firm performance. The research emphasizes on the problem of overinvestment, a phenomenon that worsens firm operation. Furthermore, it clarifies the moderation role of debt and dividend policy in mitigating the negative effect of overinvestment on firm performance in the case of Vietnamese listed companies.

The research uses all financial statement of non-financial Vietnamese listed companies on Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi Stock Exchange in the period of 2008–2018. The data are collected from Thomson Reuters Eikon. The final data set is comprised of 669 listed companies. The study measures overinvestment though investment demand function and HP filter. Moreover, the research employs the dynamic model, so it has to apply the SGMM method to deal with the problem of endogeneity caused by the lagged dependent variable.

The research finds that overinvestment is negatively associated with firm performance. Debt or dividend policy separately can moderate the negative effect of overinvestment on firm performance. However, when these two policies are combined, they lessen the positive interaction impact of each policy due to the substitution between debt and dividend policy.

The research may have two limitations. Firstly, the research measures overinvestment indirectly through investment demand function and HP filter. These two measures only help identify the sign that companies may have the problem of overinvestment because we cannot determine whether they overinvest or not in reality. Secondly, when using interaction variables, the problem of multicollinearity may be higher, and this may adjust the signs and significance level of variables in the models.

Practically, the research proposes three policy recommendations. Firstly, a company can exploit debt or dividend policy to limit excessive free cash flow in order to constrain the problem of overinvestment. Secondly, a company should enhance its corporate governance to resolve agency problems. Thirdly, the government should make the financial sector more transparent and effective to improve monitoring functions of various parties in the capital market.

Overinvestment sometimes can cause social issues. Overinvestment means that companies make ineffective investment. If they continue this situation over a long time, companies may have financial distress or even go bankruptcy. As a result, it will slow down economic growth and increase unemployment in the economy.

The research is supposed to make two great contributions to the existing empirical studies in two aspects. Firstly, it is the first attempt to take into consideration the interaction between overinvestment and financial policies. Secondly, it helps enhance the fundamental stance of the agency theory, which supports the interdependence of debt, dividend and investment policy.

This purpose of this paper is to understand residents’ choice of preferred measures and their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the measures to improve the air quality of Hanoi city.

Questionnaire surveys were conducted to collect the opinions of 212 household representatives living in Hanoi City. The survey tools were tested and adjusted through an online survey with 191 responses. Multivariate probit and linear regression models were used to identify determinants of respondents’ choices of measures and their WTP.

Respondents expressed their strong preferences for three measures for air quality improvements, including: (1) increase of green spaces; (2) use of less polluting fuels; (3) expansion of public transportation. The mean WTP for the implementation of those measures was estimated at about 148,000–282,000 Vietnamese dong, equivalent to 0.09–0.16% of household income. The respondents’ choices appear to be consistent with their characteristics and needs, such as financial affordability, time on roads and their perceived impacts of air pollution. The WTP estimates increase with perception of air pollution impacts, time on roads, education and income; but are lower for older people.

Increase of green spaces can be the measure to which policy makers should pay more attention. The match-up of residents needs and well-informed plans will be an important key to success.

This appears to be the first attempt to test the validity of public opinions on choices of measures for improving urban air quality in Vietnam. Our WTP estimates also contribute to the database on the values of improved air quality in the developing world.

The paper aims to ascertain whether residents in Nguyen Du ward still sort their waste at source following the end of the 3R project that ended in 2009. Additionally, this paper aims to explore the relationship between waste separation practices and social bonds.

The Travis Hirschi theory of social control was applied, together with the mixed method research design which included a structured questionnaire survey. Twelve semi-structured interviews were also conducted with residents and the data processed by SPSS software, using Chi-Square test, Independent-Samples t-test and Pearson's correlation analysis.

A proportion of respondents has continued practicing waste separation since the 3R project ended. The study also indicated that the greater the involvement in family and neighborhood activities the more the participants were likely to practice waste separation.

The small sample size limits the extent to which the most influential factors can be determined and therefore the degree to which the findings can be generalized.

The study includes implications for rerunning the waste separation programs for households as together with community campaigns to improve individuals' attachment and commitment and thus their participation in pro-environmental behaviors.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to take a sociological approach to investigate factors affecting household waste separation, which has attracted little attention in previous studies. Useful information is also provided to local authorities for a policy-making process to implement effective domestic waste policies.

This study aims to examine the relationships among fear of COVID-19, job stress, job commitment and intention to quit. It also investigates the boundary conditions of the impact of fear of COVID-19 on job stress and intention to quit, a research gap that has not been addressed yet.

This research focused on full-time frontline hotel employees who have been working in four- and five-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A pilot test was performed before collecting formal data. The survey was conducted face-to-face on site so that any potential confusion could be clarified right away. 487 valid responses were analyzed using SPSS 28 and SmartPLS 4.

The majority of hypotheses were supported, with the results suggested that supervisor support contributes to reducing the tendency of hotel employees to quit their job and their job stress. Besides, government support is necessary to make staff feel secure during the pandemic.

This study contributes to pointing out central priorities in making decisions by hotel managers when facing crises. Managers need to focus more on measures to help their employees feel secure and should be available for guidance and feedback when nedeed. Additionally, supportive policies from the government, especially financial support, can provide hotel employees with resources they need to maintain a basic level of living in the face of a severe drop in their income. The study provides the hotel industry not only in Vietnam but also in countries with comparable settings with strategies to cope with unexpected events.

Research on intention to quit a job has mainly focused on a complex interplay of internal factors. However, the influence of fear of COVID-19 on intention to quit a job has not been studied in the context of Vietnamese hotel industry yet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of hotels in Vietnam had to close due to a lack of visitors, which had a negative impact on human resources. Accordingly, fear, stress, commitment and intention to quit a job are the issues faced by staff.

“The world needs science, science needs women” is the message given by UNESCO in the program for the development of women in science” (UNESCO, 2017). In Vietnam, women’s participation and achievements in scientific research is considered a great and important resource for industrialization and modernization. Even so, are there gender differences in scientific achievement in the social science research institutes in Vietnam? What factors influence the scientific achievement of female social researchers? The answers will be based on data from a 2017 survey with a sample of 756 researchers, of which 77.6% were female. The survey was conducted by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, a leading, ministry-level national center for the social sciences in Vietnam. This chapter analyzed the scientific achievements of researchers through their position as principal investigators of research projects and their publications, and factors that may impact this. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of factors that may affect the scientific achievement of researchers found that gender differences in academic achievement in the social sciences in Vietnam was still prevalent. Female researchers’ scientific achievements were lower than those of their male counterparts. The contribution to science of Vietnamese female researchers was limited by many different factors; the most important were the academic rank of the researchers and gender stereotype that considered housework the responsibility of women.

This article aims to draw a conceptual model that integrates the view from the entrepreneurial event model with entrepreneurial education and prior self-employment experience. The model tests the role of entrepreneurial education on the formation of intentions to become an entrepreneur and examines whether prior self-employed experiences moderate the route from entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial perceived feasibility (PF) and perceived desirability (PD) into the entrepreneurial intention (EI).

The authors operated on a sample of 389 master's students by applying Cronbach's alpha, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to illustrate the links between constructs.

The study found that entrepreneurial education is positively correlated with PF, PD, and intention to enter entrepreneurial activities. PD is determined as a partial mediator in the entrepreneurial education–intention link and full mediator in PF and EI. Moreover, the study revealed that prior self-employed experiences serve as a positive moderator in the path from entrepreneurial education and PD to EI.

The study offers several recommendations based on research findings so as to nurture and promote entrepreneurial activities among master's students.

The current research provides novel insights about the relationship between entrepreneurial education and intentions to become an entrepreneur over and about the central antecedents in the entrepreneurial event model and moderation effects of prior self-employed experiences.

This paper aims at identifying perceived factors and measuring opinions about the factors' impact on academic staff development (ASD) at Tay Nguyen University (TNU), Dak Lak, Vietnam.

The research used the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) method, the multiple regression model (ordinary least squares (OLS)) and a five-point Likert scale questionnaire. A sample of 70 managerial staff, 374 lecturers and 512 students of TNU was surveyed to obtain data.

The EFA showed that opinions concerning university autonomy (UA) and university social responsibility (USR) were positively correlated. With the above two factors united as responsible autonomy (RA), the OLS indicated perceptions that RA and internal driving factor (IF) had significant and positive impacts on the ASD, while external driving factor (EF) was found to have a perceived negative influence on ASD.

The results indicated that there appears to be a close relationship between UA and USR, and these can be considered as a factor that has apparent impacts on the ASD of the university.

The degree of UA and USR of TNU should be enhanced through awareness of the university's academic staff, the application of a suitable evaluation system and the efficiency of university's regulations. In addition, efforts should be made to improve internal factors such as the dissemination of educational philosophy, the suitability of strategic plans, the development of key performance indicators KPIs and the building of organizational culture – all of which will help to heighten the university’s ASD. At the same time, TNU should endeavor to quickly transform aspects of administration and management to meet the shifting requirements of the autonomous environment and competitive features of the market economy. In particular, there is a need for the academic staff themselves to have increased capacity to adapt to these changes.

The authors' results have a broader application to not only the case of TNU but to other situations in developing countries where universities are in transitional stages as governments assign increasing autonomy and responsibility to them.

This paper suggests that the academic staff of TNU should be provided with both professional autonomy and adaptive capacity to foster research and educational innovation in the market-based higher education system of Vietnam. More generally, if true, the paper suggests that an increase in the degree of UA and USR should be combined with the efforts to improve the internal environments such as disseminating educational philosophy, mission, vision and strategies and building organizational culture.

This study aims to investigate what drives tourists to continue using ChatGPT for travel purposes. This study focuses on the impact of parasocial interaction on tourists’ intention to continue using ChatGPT. It also examines how satisfaction mediates this relationship and the role of technology anxiety as a moderating factor.

Using a sample of 606 tourists in popular Vietnamese tourist destinations, this study used the SPSS PROCESS macro (Model 4 and Model 14) to estimate the research model.

The study found that tourists’ satisfaction and parasocial interactions positively influenced their intention to continue using ChatGPT for travel purposes. The tourists’ satisfaction was found to play a partial role in mediating the relationship between parasocial interactions and their intention to continue using ChatGPT. Technology anxiety was found to be a negative moderator of the direct effect of satisfaction and the indirect impact of parasocial interaction on this intention.

This study stands out as a pioneering exploration into the novel intersection of parasocial interaction, satisfaction, and technology anxiety and their influence on tourists’ intention to persist with using ChatGPT for travel-related purposes.

Innovation allows firms to gain or maintain their competitive advantages in both domestic and international markets. However, the findings on the association between innovation and export vary depending on countries, samples, time, variables and methods used for empirical analysis. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of different types of innovation on export in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing economy in the context of global integration.

For empirical analysis, the authors use a sample of manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam in 2013 and 2015. Because the firms do not engage in innovation at random in the research sample, the authors use propensity score matching to account for self-selection bias. The authors also use different matching estimators to ensure robust results.

Innovation activities are found to be positively associated with the probability of engaging in export activities. The effects are mainly contributed by the adoption of new technology or process.

This research underscores the importance of public interventions and policies designed to promote innovation and export in the SMEs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the early attempts to examine the association between different types of innovation and export in SMEs in a developing economy.