Factors affecting the level of bank competition : empirical evidence in Vietnamese commercial banks

Purpose: There is increasing interest in the trends and requirements associated with improvement in the competition of commercial banks. Many studies have been conducted on this topic in Vietnam as well as in the rest of the world. In the present study, the factors affecting the level of competition in the banking system in Vietnam have been studied. Design/Methodology/Approach: We employ the Bayesian Multilevel Generalized Linear Model to identify the factors affecting the level of competition in the banking system in Vietnam. Findings: The findings show that the eight variables that affect the level of competition in Vietnam commercial banks were identified, including previous-year competition, equity on total assets ratio, loans on total assets ratio, operating expense on the operating income ratio, return on equity, bank size, economic growth, and inflation rate. Moreover, the results demonstrated that during the 2008–2009 crisis, there was a positive relationship between the crisis and the Lerner index. Practical Implications: Based on the research results, we provide policy implications to improve the competitive status of commercial banks in Vietnam. Originality/Value: The results of the present study would serve as a basis for assisting the policy-makers and the other stakeholders to better understand the current state of bank competition and the factors affecting the level of bank competition, which would assist them in formulating strategies and solutions to improve bank competition in Vietnam.peer-reviewe

Managing resistance to information system (IS) change at the pre-implementation stage from the senior management perspective : a case of a commercial bank in Vietnam

User resistance to information system (IS) change is an important issue in the IS literature. However, despite a large body of user adoption literature, there is far less literature addressing user resistance to IS change, especially in organisational contexts. Moreover, there are still left a number of open questions regarding the why and how resistance takes place. Particularly, previous research failed to explain these questions for two reasons. First, none of the previous research explained the reasons for IS resistance from a multilevel perspective. Second, previous research, with few exceptions, was empirically conducted after IS had been implemented in organisations. Hence, it can be considered to be observations made on downstream results of the upstream resistance process. The two reasons above were used as drivers for this research at the AlphaBank during the preliminary phases of its core banking system (CBS) upgrading project. The ultimate purpose of this study is to develop a framework which will be of use to practitioners for understanding and managing resistance to IS change. Given the complexity of the resistance, explanatory theories guiding the study were argued, discussed, and developed. These guiding theories were based on the open system theory, the political variant of the interaction theory, and the status quo bias theory. The study employed an interpretivist philosophical standpoint and a collaborative practice research (CPR) was adopted. During the study, different methods were designed and conducted including informal discussions, documentation, semi-structure interviews, staff meetings and workshop. In total, twenty eight participants covering different levels of the bank’s hierarchy were involved in the study. Based on the findings, it was concluded that comprehending resistance from a multilevel lens helped the AlphaBank’s managers move beyond a search for a simple explanation of this phenomenon and enabled them to create more meaningful and actionable solutions. The findings contribute to knowledge in a multilevel model for understanding and managing resistance to IS change

The impacts of tour guide performance on foreign tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty in Vietnam

This research was generated through my previous career as a tour guide in Vietnam. The tourism industry has been developing over recent years in Vietnam, as will be evidenced by the literature review below. This research investigates the impact tour guides have on the satisfaction of tourists who are choosing Vietnam as a tourism destination. The following proposal outlines the case of the study in terms of history of tourism industry in Vietnam, the role of tour guide in a package tour, and the relationships between tour guide performance, foreign tourist satisfaction, and tourist’s destination loyalty in Vietnam. In the literature on tourism studies, significant attention has been paid to tourist satisfaction that depended on various factors, but relatively little attention has been paid to the effect of tour guide performance on both tourists’ satisfaction and their destination loyalty. Even less research has been conducted on the role of the tour guide in a package tour. Tour guides are frontline employees in the tourism industry who play a significant role in drawing tourists to a destination. Tour guiding service is the principal component of tour services. Whether tour guides can deliver quality service to tourists is not only essential to the business success of the company, but also significant to the image of the destination (Huang et al., 2010). Although previous research looked at the factors of tour guide performance on the experience of tourists in package tour, there is disagreement about the impact of tour guide performance on tourist satisfaction. Destination loyalty of tourist also needs to be investigated from the tour guide performance and tourist satisfaction perspectives, in order to provide a more complete understanding of the role of the tour guide in a package tour. This research, therefore, attempts to bridge these gaps by exploring the attributes of tour guide performance from the foreign tourist’s perspective. The study was conducted in the context of the foreign tourists who are in Vietnam to evaluate domestic tour guide performance. This context was chosen on the basis that there has been no research conducted on tour guide performance in the Vietnamese context. A self-administrated questionnaire was developed based on the review of the relevant literature and focus group interviews, and was administered to a sample of 500 foreign tourists in six big cities that attract many foreign tourists in Vietnam. Tour guides were recruited for data collection in every tour held by tourism companies. Tour guides distributed the questionnaires to the tourists on the last night of the package tour and then collected them on the next morning. The tour guide, in addition, also informed the tourists that only the researcher would see the returned questionnaires that they put in a sealed envelope. Additionally, I and my colleagues also travelled to the places that attract many foreign tourists; handed the questionnaires to them; let them have approximately 10 minutes to answer; and finally collected the questionnaires again. Following a pilot study testing the survey instrument, the main data collection phase resulted in 451 completed and useable questionnaires being available for analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the relationships among tour guide performance, tourist satisfaction, and destination loyalty. The findings show that the theoretical model fits well with the data, and that the five hypotheses proposed were supported, providing answers three research questions. The finding indicates that tour guide performance plays an important role on foreign tourists’ satisfaction and tourists’ destination loyalty in a package tour. Tour guide performance is comprised of five dimensions – appearance, professional competence skill, solving problems skill, organizational skill, and entertainment introduction skill. Tour guide performance is not only positively and significantly related to the satisfaction of tourists, but also is one of the factors that determine the destination loyalty of customers. This study, moreover, has proposed a number of suggestions for both tour guide and tour manager/tour operator in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages of tour guide attributes, and then to foster and enhance the performance of this force to reach a higher level of customer satisfaction, as well as promote destination loyalty

Solid waste management in Mekong Delta: Review Paper

Municipal solid waste (MSW) in Vietnam has been increasing quickly and became one of the most considered environmental problems in Mekong Delta (MD) region covering 13 provinces and municipalities in the south of Vietnam. With a considerably large amount of MSW, the region produces about 5% of the total amount of MSW of the country. The collection rate of solid waste is about quite high (65 - 72%) in the cities and rather low (about 40 - 55%) in the rural areas, with a high content in organic matter (about 60 - 85%). The climate of MD can be characterized as tropical and monsoonal with a high rate of humidity and a strong impact of flooding. Like other regions too, the MSW collection and treatment system is still underdeveloped and rudimentary, with disposal sites being the sole dumping method of the unsorted MSW remaining untreated by any mechanical and biological pre-treatment steps. Within this paper, the current treatment, management and operation of MSW systems are introduced, as well as the identification of advantages and disadvantages, environmental impacts, potential risks of the MSW system within the impact of global climate change. The situation of MSW treatment and management is correlated with the climate change impact and the integrated solid waste management is introduced as a new approach for adapting the environmental protection awareness by considering the climate change for the longterm sustainable development orientation.Sự gia tăng chất thải rắn ở các đô thị Việt Nam ngày càng nhanh và chất thải rắn đang là một trong những vấn đề môi trường được quan tâm hàng đầu. Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long (ĐBSCL) nơi có đến 13 tỉnh và thành phố nằm ở phía Nam Việt Nam. Với lượng chất thải không nhỏ, chiếm khoảng 5 % tổng lượng chất thải rắn sinh hoạt của quốc gia. Tỷ lệ thu gom chất thải rắn thấp, chiếm khoảng 65 - 72 % ở thành thị, tỷ lệ này ở nông thôn thấp 40 - 55%, chất thải có hàm lượng hữu cơ cao chiếm khoảng 60 - 85%. Khí hậu nhiệt đới gió mùa với độ ẩm không khí cao và chịu ảnh hưởng lớn của lũ lụt hàng năm. Cũng như các khu vực khác, hệ thống thu gom và xử lý rác thải ở khu vực ĐBSCL còn rất thô sơ và lạc hậu, bãi rác là nơi duy nhất tiếp nhận trực tiếp hổnhợp rác thải không phân loại và qua bất kỳ công đoạn tiền xử lý nào. Trong phạm vi bài viết này, chúng tôi giới thiệu hoạt động vận hành hệ thống quản lý và xử lý rác đô thị trong khu vực đồng thời phân tích các thuận lợi và bất lợi, cũng như các tác động môi trường, những rủi ro tiềm ẩn trong điều kiện ảnh hưởng của biến đổi khí hậu toàn cầu - khu vực ĐBSCL là nơi chịu ảnh hưởng nặng nề nhất. Tình hình quản lý và xử lý rác được cân nhắc trong điều kiện tác động của biến đổi khí hậu, đồng thời quản lý tổng hợp rác thải cũng được đề xuất như một các tiếp cận mới nhằm đáp ứng nhiệm vụ bảo vệ môi trường trong điều kiện biến đổi khí hậu theo định hướng phát triển bền vững lâu dài