Application of Total Quality Management in Developing Quality Assessment Model: The Case of Vietnamese Higher Education

Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To NGUYEN,Du Van NGUYEN,Ngoc Nguyen Mong CHU,Van Hong TRAN 한국유통과학회 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.11

The shift from elite education to mass education in Vietnam has met the demand for education for everybody as well as for quality human resource talent for an emerging nation. Under the resource constraint, understanding the quality dimensions of education and its priority level is important for effective and efficient policies. This study was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to develop quality criteria and a ranking model. Two rounds of in-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen experts in the field, who were rectors, employers, and recruitment specialists to develop the quality framework applied in Vietnamese universities under total quality management (TQM), starting from the input of the senior secondary school leavers, through a teaching process to the output. The first round of interviews were unstructured questionnaires designed to explore the main factors in quality assessment model. The second round affirmed the experts’ agreement on the assessment model. Then, fuzzy logic was applied to rank eight criteria in the quality assessment model into priority order: cost, teaching and administrative staff, leadership, curriculum, student-related factors, internationalization, admissions, and campus. The results are critical for identifying the necessary actions to enhance the education quality and to further research on the optimal quality model.

Competency Gap in the Labor Market: Evidence from Vietnam

LE, Quan Thai Thuong,DOAN, Tam Ho Dan,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To,NGUYEN, Doang Thi Phuc Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.9

The relationship between education and work is of the greatest concern to individuals and society because they are the key drivers of growth and development. In the context of Industry 4.0, labor and educators are facing the challenges of big changes in the workplace. How to prepare undergraduate students for the world of employment has become the most important mission of higher education providers. This paper explored the competency gap in the labor market in Vietnam from the perspective of employees who have been dissatisfied with the current status. First, a qualitative method with the Delphi technique was applied to confirm this consensus in an employees' competency model. Then, the satisfaction level for each competency criterion was explored by applying the advance quantitative method, namely, best non-fuzzy performance approach. Lifelong learning was ranked first, followed by creativity and innovation, foreign languages, expertise and digitalization, adaptability, and finally, organizing and managing ability. Critical thinking and problem-solving were perceived to have the biggest gap. The order of competency satisfaction is useful in explaining the mismatch between education quality and labor market demand. The findings provide valuable guidelines for education managers who seek to bridge the competency gap and improve education quality.

Critical Factors Affecting Construction Price Index: An Integrated Fuzzy Logic and Analytical Hierarchy Process

NGUYEN, Phong Thanh,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.8

Nowadays, many construction engineering and technology enterprises are evolving to find that prosperity is driven and inspired by an open economy with dynamic markets and fierce multifaceted competition. Besides brand and product uniqueness, the ability to quickly provide customers with quotes are matters of concern. Such a requirement for prompt cost estimation of construction investment projects with the use of a construction price index poses a significant challenge to contractors. This is because the nature of the construction industry is shaped by changes in domestic and foreign economic factors, socio-financial issues, and is under the influence of various micro and macro factors. This paper presents a fuzzy decision-making approach for calculating critical factors that affect the construction price index. A qualitative approach was implemented based on in-depth interviews of experts in the construction industry in Vietnam. A synthetic comparison matrix was calculated using Buckley approach. The CoA approach was applied to defuzzified the fuzzy weights of factors that affect the construction price index. The research results show that the top five critical factors affecting the construction price index in Vietnam are (1) consumer price index, (2) gross domestic product, (3) basic interest rate, (4) foreign exchange rate, and (5) total export and import.

Barriers to Derivative Accounting Disclosure: The Case of Vietnamese Firms

NGUYEN, Hanh Thi Hong,TRAN, Ngoc Minh,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.10

This paper explores the barriers to derivative accounting disclosures in Vietnamese companies and ranks their relative importance for effective and efficient remedies. The Delphi technique was applied to get agreement of panel of experts on the measurement of factors hindering disclosure. Unstructured questionnaires were first sent to twelve experts who had both practical experience and academic knowledge in the field to get ideas on the obstructions to derivatives disclosure. The structured questionnaire was designed to get their agreement on barriers to derivative accounting disclosures. The data analysis with mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and quartile has been implemented to ensure the unanimity. Market-related factors, legislation, accountants' attributes, managers' attributes, information technology and communication, and on-site training were the six major obstacles agreed upon by the experts during their in-depth interviews. Then, these factors were ranked by applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The findings confirmed the priority of information technology and communication, which held the greatest weight. Legislation ranked second, followed by market-related factors and on-site training, which explained the impediments to derivatives disclosure. Managers' and accountants' attributes had the least contribution to the barriers to derivative disclosures. The results have important implications for actions to enhance corporate derivative disclosures in Vietnam.

Evaluation Factors Influencing Construction Price Index in Fuzzy Uncertainty Environment

NGUYEN, Phong Thanh,HUYNH, Vy Dang Bich,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To Korea Distribution Science Association 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.2

In recent years, Vietnam's economic growth rate has been attributed to the growth of many well-managed industries within Southeast Asia. Among them is the civil construction industry. Construction projects typically take a long time to complete and require a huge budget. Many socio-economic variables and factors affect total construction project costs due to market fluctuations. In recent years, crucial socioeconomic development indicators of construction reached a fairly high growth rate. Also, most infrastructure and construction projects have a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. This makes it challenging to predict the accurate project price. These challenges raise the need to recognize significant factors that influence the construction price index of civil buildings in Vietnam, both micro and macro. Therefore, this paper presents critical factors that affect the construction price index using the fuzzy extent analysis process in an uncertain environment. This proposed quantitative model is expected to reflect the uncertainty in the process of evaluating and ranking the influencing factors of the construction price index in Vietnam. The research results would also allow project stakeholders to be more informed of the factors affecting the construction price index in the context of Vietnam's civil construction industry. They also enable construction contractors to estimate project costs and bid rates better, enhancing their project and risk management performance.

Exploring Critical Risk Factors of Office Building Projects

NGUYEN, Phong Thanh,PHAM, Cuong Phu,PHAN, Phuong Thanh,VU, Ngoc Bich,DUONG, My Tien Ha,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To Korea Distribution Science Association 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.2

Risks and uncertainty are unavoidable problems in management of projects. Therefore, project managers should not only prevent risks, but also have to respond and manage them. Risk management has become a critical interest subject in the construction industry for both practitioners and researchers. This paper presents critical risk factors of office building projects in the construction phase in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey based on the likelihood and consequence level of risk factors. These factors fell into five groups: (i) financial risk factors; (ii) management risk factors; (iii) schedule risk factors; (iv) construction risk factors; and (v) environment risk factors. The research results showed that critical factors affecting office building projects are natural (i.e., prolonged rain, storms, climate effects) and human-made issues (i.e., soil instability, safety behaviors, owner's design change) and the schedule-related risk factors contributed to the most significant risks for office buildings projects in the construction phase in Ho Chi Minh City. They give construction management and project management practitioners a new perspective on risks and risk management of office buildings projects in Ho Chi Minh City and are proactive in the awareness, response, and management of risk factors comprehensively.

Social Capital and Corporate Performance: Evidence from State Capital Enterprises in Vietnam

NGO, Chin,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To,NGUYEN, Phong Thanh Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.6

The research has been conducted to explore the combination of three intangible resources, including social capital, entrepreneurship, and resilience capability on the performance of State Capital Enterprises (SCEs) in Vietnam. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are applied in the study. An in-depth interview of ten CEOs at SCEs in Vietnam was made to explore new indicators for the contextual latent variables in the research models. By employing the data from the authors' survey of 568 SCEs in Vietnam in 2019, using Cronbach's alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis (SEM), the mechanism that social capital impacts on SCE performance has been analyzed. In addition to the direct role, social capital indirectly affects corporate performance through entrepreneurship and resilience capability. It was found that social capital has a larger impact on entrepreneurship than resilience capacity. However, the contribution of resilience capacity to the firm performance is much more than the entrepreneurship's in Vietnamese context. This study enriches the theory by proposing a measurement scale of the contextual latent variables as a result of in-depth interviews with experts using a qualitative analysis technique. In addition, the path analysis findings suggest practical implications for managers to effectively use their resources in SCEs.

Exploring the Health Production Model in Vietnam

Tuyen Thi Mong NGUYEN,Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To NGUYEN 한국유통과학회 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.12

One of the sustainable development goals is to promote good health and well-being for all people. Child health is a top priority since their health issues can have a detrimental impact on human capital development, which is a critical input for the growth model. This paper applies the health production model to explore the determinants that influence the health of children under the age of five. The results of a survey of 203 households in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, were examined. Child health is measured using anthropometric indicators such as weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height (ZWFH). Three separate multinomial logistic models are regressed to examine the drivers of child health as proxied by z-score weight for age, z-score height for age, and z-score weight for height. The significance of input variables relating to a child’s attributes, household, and environment was validated by the findings. The inclusion of overweight besides under-nourished indexes is novel because it reflects the current trend of child over-nutrition. The findings of the study highlight the importance of a wide range of initiatives to enhance child health. Moreover, the genetic effect is found to be crowded out by environmental and household factors. The finding verifies that despite their parents’ moderate height, the future generation of Vietnamese can achieve the desired height.

Applying the Fuzzy Decision-Making Method for Program Evaluation and Management Policy of Vietnamese Higher Education

TONG, Kiet Hao,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To,NGUYEN, Tuyen Thi Mong,NGUYEN, Phong Thanh,VU, Ngoc Bich Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.9

Education policy is a dynamic process featuring social development trends. The world countries have focused their education program on empowering the learners for future life and work. This paper aims to assess the higher education curriculum based on a survey of 280 students, employers, alumni, and lecturers in both social sciences and natural sciences in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The fuzzy decision-making method, namely the Fuzzy Extent Analysis Method (F-EAM), was applied to measure the relative weight of each parameter. Seven factors under the curriculum development have been put in the ranking. Input with emphasis on foreign language was the highest priority in curriculum development, given the expected demand of the labor market. Objective and learning outcome and teaching activities ranked second and third, respectively. The traditional triangle of teaching content, methodology, and evaluation and assessment are still proven their roles, but certain modifications have been defined in the advanced curriculum. Teaching facilities had the least weight among the seven dimensions of curriculum development. The findings are helpful for education managers to efficiently allocate scarce resources to reform the curriculum to bridge the undergraduate quality gap between labor supply and demand, meeting the dynamic trends of social development.

Disputes in Managing Projects: A Case Study of Construction Industry in Vietnam

VO, Khoa Dang,NGUYEN, Phong Thanh,NGUYEN, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.8

The construction industry in developing countries like Vietnam, which incorporates small and medium construction enterprises, is typically more prone to disputes and contract dispute-related lawsuits. A dispute may occur at any time in the life cycle of the project. It is sometimes solved with the intermediation of a lawyer or directly by stakeholders. Understanding the causes of disputes in a construction project not only improves the efficiency of a company but also increases the success of projects. This study was carried out using a questionnaire survey at construction projects in Ho Chi Minh City. Sample data with 117 observations were analyzed to find the disputing factors in construction projects: diversity of working style among the parties; reluctance to work; and poor teamwork. Correlation coefficient on a rank of factors between design consultant and contractor; Design consultant and project owners are positively correlated. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) analysis identified six groups of factors in construction disputes: cooperation, technology, economics, productivity, information, and behavior. The findings are useful for enterprise practice and provide participants with an overview of sources of dispute. Thus, a more complete risk management plan can be formulated, which will accelerate project progress and improve the likelihood of success.