Determinants of consumers’ purchasing intentions toward organic foods: A study in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) this research investigates the factors explaining the purchasing intention of organic food among consumers living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and identifies factors influencing their attitude toward buying organic foods. The quantitative method with Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Model (SEM) from 370 valid questionnaires were used. The study found that health consciousness & food safety, environmental consciousness & consumer knowledge, and availability product impact significantly on consumer attitude toward buying organic food; Customer attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control have a significant influence on their purchasing intention. The findings of the study provide useful information to marketers for increasing organic food consumption in Vietnam. The findings imply that marketing activity should focus on the change of people’s attitude and lifestyles to increase the consumption of organic food in Ho Chi Minh City

Adaptive resilience in a post-pandemic era: A case of Vietnamese organizations

The Covid-19 pandemic has been fading gradually, but another problematic phase has begun for organizations in the post-Covid-19 era in Vietnam. This study aims to examine the direct impact of transformational leadership on adaptive resilience, the indirect impact of transformational leadership on adaptive resilience via psychological and employee resilience, and the interactions between the levels of resilience. Quantitative research was used to analyze data from 324 employees chosen via convenient sampling in Vietnam. The findings indicated that transformational leadership directly impact adaptive resilience (β = 0.559, p < 0.000), psychological resilience (β = 0.361, p < 0.000), and employee resilience (β = 0.292, p < 0.000) and also indirectly impact adaptive resilience via psychological and employee resilience (β = 0.135, p < 0.000), and employee resilience via psychological resilience (β = 0.130, p < 0.000). Furthermore, there was also the direct influence of psychological resilience on adaptive resilience (β = 0.135, p < 0.005) and the indirect influence of psychological resilience on adaptive resilience via employee resilience (β = 0.073, p < 0.000). The other direct significant relations, such as between psychological resilience and employee resilience, and between employee resilience and adaptive resilience, were also confirmed (β = 0.360, p < 0.000; β = 0.204, p < 0.000)

Automated Extraction of Tree Adjoining Grammars from a Treebank for Vietnamese

International audienceIn this paper, we present a system that automatically extracts lexicalized tree adjoining grammars (LTAG) fromtreebanks.We first discuss in detail extraction algorithms and compare themto previous works. We then report the first LTAG extraction result for Vietnamese, using a recently released Vietnamese treebank. The implementation of an open source and language independent system for automatic extraction of LTAG grammars is also discussed

Mediating Effect of Social Commerce Continuance Use Intention on the Relationship Between Perceived Values and Brand Loyalty

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of social commerce continuance use intention on the relationship between perceived values and brand loyalty in the social commerce context. The data was collected from 176 members of the Apple Watch Social Commerce site in Vietnam via an online questionnaire. Applying the structural equation modelling method, we found that social commerce continuance use intention has mediating effects on the relationship between perceived values and brand loyalty. Keywords: Perceived values, continuance use intention, brand loyalty, social commerce, Vietnam DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-11-07 Publication date: April 30th 202

THE IMPACT OF INNOVATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE SPILLOVER EFFECT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Purpose of the study: Innovation is seen as the key to improving quality and productivity, thereby promoting competition and economic growth. This study analyzes the impact of innovation on economic growth through various measures, such as research and development spending, the number of researchers, number of patents as well as trademark registrations. Research results are evidence to recommend policies for intellectual-based economic growth. Methodology: Literature review and empirical analysis conducted in the study. The empirical method is a two-step System Generalize Methods of Moments (GMM), aiming at reliable results. Accessing the World Bank Database, research data from 64 developed and developing countries are collected from 2006 to 2014. Main Findings: The empirical findings show that innovation plays a crucial contribution in promoting economic growth, similar to national openness and government spending on education. This study also finds a positive impact on foreign investment flows and their spillover role in enhancing the correlation between innovation and economic growth. Applications of this study: The findings of this study focus on the contributions of innovation, foreign direct investment inflows, and other macro factors that can be enforced to improve economic growth by policymakers. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study uses different measures of innovation, including inputs such as the number of researchers, research and development expenditure, and outputs as the number of patents and number of trademark registrations. Empirical findings are found consistently, thus confirming that innovation is very important for economic growth. The study also shows convincing evidence confirming the positive contribution of foreign direct investment as well as its spillover effect on innovation and economic growth

Targeting effect of folate on cancer cell through curcumin carrier nano-system

Folate receptor (FR) is well known for its overexpression on surface of various cancer cell lines, which is identical to normal tissue. Folic-based targeting drug delivery systems, therefore, are one of the most effective targeting carriers that effectively bind to FR up-regulated cancer cells. Curcumin was used both for labeling and chemotherapy. The materials were characterized and structurally confirmed by FT-IR spectra, fluorescent images and FE-SEM images. Bioassays were conducted on HeLa and HT29 cancer cell lines after 4 and 12 hours. Results show that folic acid significantly enhanced both targeting efficiency and internalization of curcumin to FR-expressing cancer cells

Isolation an agar degradation Bacillus sp. AT6 and preliminary application for seaweed saccharification

Background: Agar is a common polysaccharide found in nature. However, agar is strongly resisted to the degradation processing, leading to limitation of its application in various areas. Thus, finding an effective solution for agar saccharification significantly improves the economically effects of agar based substrates.Methods: Soil samples were collected from TienPhong Forestry Ltd. Company, ThuyXuan District, ThuaThien Hue province, Vietnam. Potential agar degrading bacteria were screened on a mineral salt agar medium. The isolate was identified based on 16S rRNA nucleotide sequence, morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics. Agarase production was evaluated by modification culture conditions including incubation time, shaking speed, and initial inoculum size. Molecular mass of extracellular agarase was determined by native SDS-PAGE. The effect of pH, temperature, metal ions, and organic solvents were conducted for enzyme characterization. Application of enzyme was investigated on seaweed saccharification.Result: An agar degrading bacterial strain was isolated from soils and identified as Bacillus sp. AT6. Maximal agarase accumulation obtained in the culture containing an inoculum size of 10% (v/v), shaking speed of 210 rpm, and 96 hours incubation. The agarase revealed a single band on zymogram analysis with an apparent molecular weight of 180 kDa. The optimal temperature and pH were 40°C and pH 8.0, respectively. All tested metal ions and organic solvents partially decreased enzyme activity. Treatment seaweed by agarase resulted in reducing sugars release present in the reaction, indicating the saccharification of seaweed was succeeded.Conclusion: Bacillus sp. AT6 is a new report of agarolytic bacteria that produces extracellular agarase enzymes. The present results promise strain AT6 is a great candidate for agar saccharification for industrial application

Carrot hairy roots (Daucus carota L.) characterisation and optimisation for high β‐carotene extraction

Hairy roots are widely known as a biological system for the production of highly diverse biomolecules. β‐carotene – a precursor for vitamin A – is known to be an anti‐oxidant and anti‐gastric cancer and protection agent against cardiovascular disease, heart disease and stroke. β‐carotene has been chemically synthesised and consumed by humans. However, the chemical process often produces a by‐product that may be harmful to human health. Therefore, this study established a protocol to induce hairy roots (HRs) from a Vietnamese carrot variety and produce natural β‐carotene. The Rhizobium rhizogenes ATCC15834 harbouring Ri plasmid and a Vietnamese carrot variety were used as materials for genetic transformation and HR induction studies. The result showed that approximately 50 HR lines were obtained. Culture medium supplemented with 30 mg/L of sucrose that gave the highest biomass of HR was shown in carrot HR line 30, which had a doubling time of 6.5 days. The highest content of β‐carotene extraction, at 128 mg/100g hairy roots, was achieved with a ratio volume (v/v) of 2‐propanol and plant samples of 20:1, followed by two hours’ incubation with 2‐propanol at 60 °C. Our study reveals a highly efficient protocol for Vietnamese carrot hairy root establishment and multiplication. A very efficient protocol for β‐carotene extraction from the hairy root was established to produce natural β‐carotene that achieves the same β‐carotene quantity as that produced by normal roots. This study provides new insight into the production of high‐content and natural β‐carotene for therapeutic application