Assessing competitiveness of foreign and local supermarket chains in Vietnamese market by using Fuzzy TOPSIS method

Considering the strategic importance for supermarket chains and to understanding the critical elements affecting their competitiveness and their relative level of competitiveness, this study tries to assess competitiveness of foreign and local supermarket chains in Vietnam using the fuzzy TOPSIS method. The results show that, even smaller size Vietnamese supermarket chains, when compared to foreign chains, are still slightly higher in competitiveness.Competitiveness; Supermarket chains; Fuzzy TOPSIS

Symmetric and Asymmetric Data in Solution Models

This book is a Printed Edition of the Special Issue that covers research on symmetric and asymmetric data that occur in real-life problems. We invited authors to submit their theoretical or experimental research to present engineering and economic problem solution models that deal with symmetry or asymmetry of different data types. The Special Issue gained interest in the research community and received many submissions. After rigorous scientific evaluation by editors and reviewers, seventeen papers were accepted and published. The authors proposed different solution models, mainly covering uncertain data in multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems as complex tools to balance the symmetry between goals, risks, and constraints to cope with the complicated problems in engineering or management. Therefore, we invite researchers interested in the topics to read the papers provided in the book

Risk Assessment and Mitigation Model for Overseas Steel-Plant Project Investment with Analytic Hierarchy ProcessFuzzy Inference System

This paper presents an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-fuzzy inference system (FIS) model to aid decision-makers in the risk assessment and mitigation of overseas steel-plant projects. Through a thorough literature review, the authors identified 57 risks associated with international steel construction, operation, and transference of new technologies. Pairwise comparisons of all 57 risks by 14 subject-matter experts resulted in a relative weighting. Furthermore, to mitigate human subjectivity, vagueness, and uncertainty, a fuzzy analysis based on the findings of two case studies was performed. From these combined analyses, weighted individual risk soring resulted in the following top five most impactful international steel project risks: procurement of raw materials; design errors and omissions; conditions of raw materials; technology spill prevention plan; investment cost and poor plant availability and performance. Risk mitigation measures are also presented, and risk scores are re-assessed through the AHP-FIS analysis model depicting an overall project risk score reduction. The model presented is a useful tool for industry performing steel project risk assessments. It also provides decision-makers with a better understanding of the criticality of risks that are likely to occur on international steel projects.11sciessciscopu

Applying Consistency Fuzzy Preference Relations to Select a Strategy that Attracts Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Developing Supporting Industries for Vietnam

The Vietnamese government has been focused on promoting supporting industries, which may provide a “key” solution for sustained development and thereby improve the national welfare. Coincidentally, Vietnam is also focused on an optimal strategy to attract foreign direct investment (FDI that develops a strategy for supporting industries). However, these results have not been achieved due to the weaknesses of low FDI flow, the limited number of capital projects, and the inclusion of smaller enterprises with lower technology into the mix. This negative situation begs the question as to what might be the best strategy for attracting FDI that developmentally supports the Vietnamese industry. As an intended remedy, this inquiry establishes an analytical, hierarchy framework beneficial to the Vietnamese government on a best strategic method for attracting FDI to develop supporting local industries. This study utilizes fuzzy preference relations to improve the decision-making process to be both consistent and effective. The analytical results demonstrate that institutional policies, domestic supply capacity, human resources, and technological development, coupled with innovation, are the key criteria to be considered when selecting a strategy that attracts regular FDI. Furthermore, analytical results presented in this work demonstrate that the best strategies for attracting FDI to Vietnam are those that motivate sustainable economic growth on an ongoing basis

Zombie Lending and Depressed Restructuring in Japan

In this paper, we propose a bank-based explanation for the decade-long Japanese slowdown following the asset price collapse in the early 1990s. We start with the well-known observation that most large Japanese banks were only able to comply with capital standards because regulators were lax in their inspections. To facilitate this forbearance the banks often engaged in sham loan restructurings that kept credit flowing to otherwise insolvent borrowers (that we call zombies). Thus, the normal competitive outcome whereby the zombies would shed workers and lose market share was thwarted. Our model highlights the restructuring implications of the zombie problem. The counterpart of the congestion created by the zombies is a reduction of the profits for healthy firms, which discourages their entry and investment. In this context, even solvent banks do not find good lending opportunities. We confirm our story's key predictions that zombie-dominated industries exhibit more depressed job creation and destruction, and lower productivity. We present firm-level regressions showing that the increase in zombies depressed the investment and employment growth of non-zombies and widened the productivity gap between zombies and non-zombies.