Firm Characteristics and Capital Structure Decision: Evidence from Seafood Processing Enterprises in the South Central Region of Vietnam

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the firm characteristics that affect capital structure of seafood processing companies in South Central Coast of Vietnam. In addition, this study also explores the differences in capital structure among companies with different types of ownership in various regions as well as those with debt ratio greater than and less than the optimal debt threshold (57.39 per cent, see Nguyen Thanh Cuong (2014) for details). Design/methodology/approach: The investigation has been performed using panel data procedure for a sample of 90 unlisted seafood processing enterprises in the South Central region (SEASCRs) and 22 listed seafood processing enterprises in the other region of Vietnam (SEALISTs) during 2005–2011. The firm characteristics are analyzed as determinants of capital structure according to different explanatory theories. The hypothesis that is tested in this paper is that the debt ratio at time t depends on the size of the firm at time t, tangible fixed assets of the firm at time t, the growth opportunities of the firm at time t, the profitability of the firm at time t, the business risk of the firm at time t, its liquidity ratio at time t, its interest expense ratio at time t and its income tax ratio at time t. The SEASCRs that maintain a debt ratio above 57.39 per cent using a dummy variable are also distinguished. We also using a dummy variable to evaluate the differences about the capital structure of SEASCRs with regard to firm ownership. In addition, with regard to evaluate the differences about the capital structure of seafood processing enterprises in different regions, we also using a dummy variable.Findings: The findings of this study justify the hypothesis that there is a negative relation between the debt ratio of the firms and their tangible fixed assets, their growth opportunities, their profitability, their liquidity ratio and their business risks. Size and interest expense ratio appears to maintain a positive relation. According to the dummy variable there is a differentiation in the capital structure among the SEASCRs with a debt ratio greater than 57.39 per cent and those with a debt ratio lower than 57.39 per cent. In addition, this study also findings the differences in capital structure among SEASCRs with different types of ownership and the differences about the capital structure of seafood processing enterprises in various regions. Our findings are consistent with the Trade off theory and Pecking order theory. Originality/value: The findings suggest implications for SEASCRs on flexible usage of financial leverage to increasing firm value and lowering cost of capital. Keywords: Capital Structure, Debt Ratio Threshold, SEASCRs, regional characteristics. JEL code: G32, G3

The Relationship Between the Human Capital and Economic Growth: A Case of Vietnam

Human capital are not only the engine of economic growth but also increase the global competitiveness for countries. Improving labor quality helps countries improve long-term economic efficiency. This article uses annual data in the period 1990 - 2017 in Vietnam, which attempts to explore the relationship between total capital formation, the labor quantity, education levels and life expectancy with economic growth. By using OLS regression, the analysis results shown that the gross capital formation, the labor quantity, education levels and life expectancy are positive and have a significant impact on GDP in Vietnam. Furthermore, the Granger causality test indicates that there is a two-way causal relationship between labor and economic growth (GDP) in Vietnam. Keywords: Human capital, Economic growth, Education levels, Granger causality DOI: 10.7176/IEL/9-5-04 Publication date:June 30th 201

Research of methods for determining dynamic stress of the bars in the main structure of gantry crane installed on the cap of bridge pier to serve installation of Super-T girder

The article presents briefly findings in researching methods for determining dynamic stress of the bars in the main structure of gantry crane installed on the cap of bridge pier to install and launch SUPER-T girder. In order to study the dynamic stresses in the bars of the main truss structure of the gantry, the author first had to build a dynamic model, using Matlap software to solve the problem of dynamics with two cases cargo lowering combination combines braking and moving of gantry with cargo to find out the rules and values of dynamic cable tension, dynamic inertial force ( time-varying force), then consider these forces is the external force acting on the main truss structure model of the gantry, from which the author calculates the value of internal force and stress of each bar corresponding to the value of dynamic cable tension and corresponding dynamic inertia force. with two adverse working cases of the gantry. Using Matlap software to calculate the author has obtained a graph of internal force, stress changes over time of each bar in the main truss steel structure of the gantry. The findings of the research provided methods for determining the dynamic stress of the bars in the main structure of gantry crane, pointed out values and rules of change of the dynamic stress of the bars in the main structure of gantry crane. The findings of the research may be used to calculate fatigue, life-span of the main steel structures as well as other parts of the gantry cran

Threshold Effect of Capital Structure on Firm Value: Evidence from Seafood Processing Enterprises in the South Central Region of Vietnam

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is an optimal capital structure at which point firm is able to maximize its value. The author employ an advanced panel threshold regression estimation developed in 1999 by Hansen that will indicate whether there are positive and negative impacts of capital structure on firm value. The author has used data of among 90 unlisted Seafood Processing Enterprises in the South Central region of Vietnam (SEASCRs) during 2005–2011 period. The author has used book value of equity plus long- term debt (BVE) and return on equity (ROE) as surrogate for firm value and book value of total debt to total assets (TD/TA) as surrogate for capital structure and as the threshold variable. The empirical results strongly indicate that triple threshold effect exists between debt ratio and firm value when BVE is selected to proxy firm value. However, when ROE is selected to proxy firm value, the result shows that there exists double thresholds effect between debt ratio and firm value. From these results, the author  may conclude that the relationship between capital structure and firm value has a nonlinear relationship represents an convex Parapol shape. In addition, the findings suggest implications for SEASCRs on flexible usage of financial leverage. Specifically, SEASCRs should not use loans over 57.39%. To ensure and enhance the firm value, the scope of the optimal debt ratio should be less than 57.39%

An effective method for clustering-based web service recommendation

Normally web services are classified by the quality of services; however, the term quality is not absolute and defined relatively. The quality of web services is measured or derived using various parameters like reliability, scalability, flexibility, and availability. The limitation of the methods employing these parameters is that sometimes they are producing similar web services in recommendation lists. To address this research problem, the novel improved clustering-based web service recommendation method is proposed in this paper. This approach is mainly dealing with producing diversity in the results of web service recommendations. In this method, functional interest, quality of service (QoS) preference, and diversity features are combined to produce a unique recommendation list of web services to end-users. To produce the unique recommendation results, we propose a varied web service classification order that is clustering-based on web services’ functional relevance such as non-useful pertinence, recorded client intrigue importance, and potential client intrigue significance. Additionally, to further improve the performance of this approach, we designed web service graph construction, an algorithm of various widths clustering. This approach serves to enhance the exceptional quality, that is, the accuracy of web service recommendation outcomes. The performance of this method was implemented and evaluated against existing systems for precision, and f-score performance metrics, using the research datasets

SME Fringe Benefits Provision

The aim of this paper is to inform the reader about the distribution of fringe benefits provided to employees by firms in 10 provinces of Vietnam. Five types of benefits are considered: Annual leave, maternity leave, sick leave, social insurance and health insurance. We especially focus on whether the gender of the owner has an effect on the fringe benefits provided. It appears that women firm owners are more likely to provide employees with fringes, and this gender effect exists primarily in non-household enterprises and is robust to the inclusion of standard determinants of wage compensation. We dscuss these results and formulate a set ofpolicy recommendations.Vietnam; gender; fringe benefits

Stabilization for equal-order polygonal finite element method for high fluid velocity and pressure gradient

This paper presents an adapted stabilisation method for the equal-order mixed scheme of finite elements on convex polygonal meshes to analyse the high velocity and pressure gradient of incompressible fluid flows that are governed by Stokes equations system. This technique is constructed by a local pressure projection which is extremely simple, yet effective, to eliminate the poor or even non-convergence as well as the instability of equal-order mixed polygonal technique. In this research, some numerical examples of incompressible Stokes fluid flow that is coded and programmed by MATLAB will be presented to examine the effectiveness of the proposed stabilised method