The influence of CEO characteristics on corporate environmental performance of SMEs: Evidence from Vietnamese SMEs

Drawing on upper echelon theory, this study investigates the impact of CEOs’ (chief executive officers) demographic characteristics on corporate environmental performance (CEP) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We hypothesized that CEO characteristics, including gender, age, basic educational level, professional educational level, political connection, and ethnicity, affect SMEs’ environmental performance. Using the cross-sectional data analysis of 810 Vietnamese SMEs, this study provides evidence that female CEOs and CEOs’ educational level (both basic and professional) are positively related to the probability of CEP. We also find that based on the role of institutional environment on CEP, political connections had a negative effect on CEP in the context of Vietnam. Another finding is that SMEs with chief executives from ethnic minority groups show a higher level of the probability of corporate environmental performance than companies operated by Kinh chief executives. Since CEP is an essential dimension of corporate social responsibility, a strategic decision for SMEs, it is crucial for the company to select appropriate CEOs based on their demographic characteristic

The Relationship Between State Effectiveness And State Legitimacy: A Quantitative Test

Legitimacy is a contested concept in political science. The question of legitimacy has been addressed in various topics, including state formation, state building, and state failure. This research is an attempt to quantitatively test the relationship between state legitimacy and state effectiveness and development in the economy, politics, and society. By examining the literature on legitimacy and its sources, the research tests the following hypothesis: a state with better performance in macro issues, including economic performance, social welfare, and political participation, is more likely to enjoy a higher level of legitimacy. In other words, this study attempts to establish a replicable formula for an incumbent state to achieve and sustain its legitimacy

Improving Gifted and Talented Education in Arkansas: Identification, Academic Benefits, and Local Norms

In the United States, education policies differ from state to state. Local research, therefore, is important to inform educators, policymakers, and researchers on the ground. This dissertation leverages ten years of administrative data to study three questions about gifted and talented (G/T) identification and education in Arkansas: does the current system identify the right students? Are gifted and talented programs beneficial for students? And, how can we improve diversity in gifted and talented education? Leveraging logistic regression, mixed-effects models, and descriptive statistics, I sought to provide answers to these three questions. First, are academically ready students from low-income families being missed in the current gifted and talented education system? Second, do gifted and talented services benefit high aptitude students academically? And finally, does using the local norm approach necessarily improve diversity in the G/T pool of students? This study has important implications for Arkansas’s G/T identification and education policies

Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from the Emerging Market – the case of the Baltic Region

Firm capital structure is one of the most widely researched topics in corporate finance. However, the results are not always consistent and applicable from one market to another when explaining financing patterns. The majority of available research focuses on finding the role of firm-specific factors to leverage while ignoring macro and institutional factors. This paper examines how the capital structure of firms in the Baltic is influenced by both firm level and country level determinants. The study demonstrates that changes in leverage of firms in the Baltic is subject to both changes in firm specific characteristics, such as asset tangibility, growth opportunity, firm size and liquidity, as well as the changes in macro and institutional factors namely bank development, stock development and financial openness to different extent

USING RUBRIC TO ASSESS PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' COMPETENCE IN TEACHING SCIENCE IN VIETNAM

Vietnam is in the early stages of implementing the reform of the curriculum and textbooks. Vietnam's general education is changing strongly from content-based teaching to competence-building teaching [1]. That change has been implemented by researchers and teachers in all elements of the teaching process, including testing and evaluation. Evaluation of educational outcomes needs to shift from testing memorization to assessing the ability to apply knowledge to solve practical problems, attaching importance to both assessment of learning outcomes and assessment in the learning process. In this situation, testing and assessment in teaching Science in primary schools are also interesting to many teachers, and assessment of scientific competence in teaching this subject is considered an important factor contributing to improving the quality of Science and the quality of subject teaching in the direction of developing students' ability. The article mentions some theoretical foundations and the actual situation of using Rubric in assessing the scientific competence of students in grades 4 and 5 when teachers teach Science, thereby proposing some measures to improve the effectiveness of assessment in teaching this subject.  Article visualizations

Institutions matter: the case of Vietnam

The paper investigates institutional reforms in Vietnam and their impact on the economic performance of firms. Using the provincial competitiveness index 2006 (PCI06) and firm-level data in Vietnam in 2005, the results show that provincial competitiveness is economically and statistically significant in explaining cross-province differences in firm performance. We find that a one percentage point improvement in government practice could increase the daily value-added of an average firm by an amount equivalent to nearly three times per capita GDP per day. The results show that an improvement in providing market information, more secure land tenure and labor training assistance has a positive effect on firm performance. By contrast, weaknesses in the judiciary system and administrative reforms impede growth of non-state firms. The findings indicate that governance is an important obstacle to the development of the non-state sector in Vietnam

VIETNAM'S ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY: THE RISE AND PROBLEMS OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Purpose: To evaluate the Vietnamese electronics industry (EI) by analyzing its successes and shortcomings in recent years in comparison with other Southeast Asian countries, as well as the problems faced by the young industries in Vietnam in the course of its development and identify their abilities to participate in the global value chain. Methodology: Systems approach was used to analyze the status of Vietnam’s EI. The advantages and the results achieved by EI are assessed and described with the help of objective data from statistical and officially published sources. Main Findings: The position of Vietnam’s EI in the context of growing industry 4.0 was recognized. Its dependence on imports and other reasons that affect its efficiency and competitiveness were identified in the study. The Government should provide adequate support for the development of priority area including EI within the framework of national policies and encourage import substitution program of the industrial enterprises. Applications: Research results could be used for providing recommendations for making Vietnam's electronic industry development policy and import substitution program in the future. Novelty/ Originality: Study considered the effects of inconsistent structure, import dependence of production, lack of unified government control, quality of labor, etc. in gross output and export revenue

Local Norms and Gifted and Talented Identification in Arkansas: Can it Help Improve Student Diversity?

In the past decades, the gifted and talented (G/T) community has wrestled with an important question about improving equity: How can we best use research to increase student diversity in G/T education? There are many suggestions for answering this question but using local norms, where students are selected based on comparisons with others from a similar school context using traditional measures, has attracted much attention. In some districts, using local norms and universal screening has greatly improved student diversity, whereas, in other districts, the findings have been unclear. Thus it seems useful to study local contexts. In this study, we leveraged Arkansas’ administrative data to answer a similar question: “Would using district/school assessment norms improve student diversity in G/T identification in Arkansas?” We found no consistent evidence that using district/school norms would improve racial and programmatic diversity (i.e., special education students, English language learners, and students from low-come and minority backgrounds). We still urge school districts, however, to consider employing local norms in identifying G/T students as it would limit human errors in identification and increase the alignment between students’ academic aptitude and G/T services, especially for students of racial and demographic groups that the current system has identified successfully