Influence of livelihoods on climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers in the Mekong Delta Vietnam

Farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta face a wide range of climate-related and hydrological factors which threaten rice production. Smallholder farmers must adapt to climate change to sustain rice production as their central and most important livelihood activity. A sample was stratified across agro-ecological areas in the Delta affected by flooding, alluvial soils, acid sulphate soils, and saline water intrusion and by derived farmer typologies. A rural livelihoods approach was used in focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to identify and enumerate enabling and constraining adaptation factors. Smallholders experienced diverse natural hazards such as floods, abnormal rains, high temperatures, water scarcity, and salinity intrusion specific to the agro-ecological areas. Adaptation was constrained by labour shortages, water quality, topography, access to combine harvesters, transportation infrastructure, dryers and household savings. Adaptation was enabled by farming techniques and experience, cooperative groups, water quantity, access to information, and ability to purchase agro-chemicals through credit. Small farmers (< 1?ha) were more constrained than large farmers (> 1?ha) who had an expanded livelihood asset base. A range of policy implications are discussed, but adaptation is not just about technological fixes but requires overall improvements in a range of human, social and financial components.     

Discretionary HR practices and proactive work behaviour: the mediation role of affective commitment and the moderation roles of PSM and abusive supervision

Proactive work behaviour may drive public employees to proactively improve public service quality. This research seeks an insight into the role of discretionary human resource (HR) practices in fostering proactive work behaviour among public employees through the mediation mechanism of affective commitment. The data for the research variables were harvested from public employees and their direct managers from local governments at the district level in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam. The research results shed light on the positive association between discretionary HR practices and public employees’ proactive work behaviour, which was mediated by affective commitment. The research results also supported the role of public service motivation (PSM) as an intensifier and abusive supervision as a negative moderator for the effect of discretionary HR practices on affective commitment and proactive work behaviour. Our research model integrates discretionary HRM and proactive work behaviour research streams into public management literature.     

Measurement of Formal Convergence of Vietnamese Accounting Standards with IFRS

Convergence refers to the process of narrowing the differences between International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS) and country‐specific accounting standards. The purpose of this study is to measure the formal convergence between Vietnamese Accounting Standards (VAS) and IAS/IFRS using a fuzzy‐based approach. We assess the extent of convergence between VAS and IAS/IFRS from the perspective of a single standard, clusters of standards and the standards as a whole. The levels of standards convergence are clustered into four categories: full convergence, substantial convergence, substantial difference and complete difference. Our results indicate that the level of convergence between the two sets of standards only achieves mid‐level convergence. The findings of this study should help policy makers improve VAS to meet international standards.     

Does Greater Amount of Information Always Bolster Attitudinal Resistance?

Previous research suggests that attitudinal resistance to information that challenges a prior evaluation increases with the amount of information underlying the prior evaluation. We revisit this proposition in a context in which a set of important claims about a target brand are presented either alone—a lower amount of isolated information—or along with other favorable, but less important claims—a higher amount of embedded information. Results from two experiments show that when the challenge occurs immediately after the initial evaluation, a greater amount of embedded initial information does produce greater attitudinal resistance. However, when the challenge occurs after a delay, a lesser amount of isolated information produces greater attitudinal resistance. The findings qualify previous assumptions about the role of prior information in attitudinal resistance, and support a constructive view of judgment revision and attitudinal resistance.     

Analyzing the Memory Impact of Advertising Fragments

Marketers are making increasing use of very brief messages that mention just a brand name or a brand name with a short headline, as in event sponsorship and program endorsements. There has been debate over the effectiveness of these advertising fragments. This paper introduces an approach for controlled testing of the effects of advertising fragments. Using a reaction-time based procedure, we show that a key effect of advertising fragments is to revive established brand associations, even though these associations are not explicitly communicated. This reactivation occurs not only when these names receive focal attention, but also when they receive nonfocal attention.     

The Prospect of Ethical Consulting

Ethical consulting is a critical professional activity that is very critical to the very survival of the corporate world and is thus likely to boom within the shortest possible time in the future. This predictive statement is based on the consequential effect of the bankruptcy of Ertron and WorldCom and its aftermath legislature, Sarbanes-Oxley Act （Lander, 2004）. The main issues boarder on how ethics influence organizations＇ operations and to what extend these influences can be coded and managed to enhance objectivity and minimize fraud. The methodology applied in this paper was an exploratory approach under the qualitative design. It encapsulates a thorough review of literature on the subject matter and draws inferences to address the research objectives. It was found that ethical consulting was possible and consultants venturing into the area need to be strategically diversified to enable them to design and develop customized ethical codes for the heterogeneous clientele with appropriate supporting monitoring and compliance procedures.     

The Role of Financial Ratios in the Variance of Stock Trading Volume in Emerging Stock Markets

The study used quarterly panel data of 6 years from 2010 to 2015 of all companies listed on both Vietnamese stock markets including the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange and Ha Noi Stock Exchange, and on three leading industries consisting of insurance-banking, foodstuff, and real estate to explore the relationship among four key financial ratios and stock trading volume. Two models, fixed effects model (FEM) and random effects model (REM), with robust standard errors, were applied for this study. The key findings showed that earnings before tax on sales, debt on owner’s equity, and owner’s equity on total assets significantly influenced trading volume.     

Applying the dissonance‐minimising format to value cultural heritage in developing countries*

We adapt the dissonance‐minimising (DM) format proposed by Blamey et al. [Land Economics, 75 (1999) 126] in a dichotomous choice contingent valuation survey to estimate the economic benefits of preserving a cultural heritage site in Vietnam. We find that the DM format can be successfully applied to avoid biases because of yea‐saying in a developing country context.     

Physical capital accumulation in Asia 12: Past trends and future projections

The pace of capital accumulation in East Asia has simply been stunning. In this paper, we investigate sources of this fast accumulation and make projections for the future. We estimate a “convergence” equation for physical capital per capita, which is derived from an open economy growth model, using a pooled cross-country, across-decade sample of the entire world. We also conduct projections for the next two decades. We find that an economy with a low level of capital stock per capita tends to experience faster accumulation subsequently. Asian economies have certainly benefited from this “convergence effect”. But on the other hand, other factors such as a low rule of law score and high investment goods prices have worked against them. Our projection shows that, if those economies wish to maintain their current pace of fast capital accumulation, the keys would be to reduce distortions in the domestic market and to improve the quality of institutions.