Digital gaming culture in Vietnam: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

New information and communication technologies continue to spread rapidly into the Asian marketplace, which has led to new patterns of leisure consumption, one of the most popular being digital gaming. However, in Vietnam there is limited research on gaming as a leisure activity. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of digital gaming in Vietnam to better understand how it is practiced in this culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-five gaming industry figures and gamers. Thematic analysis was used to guide data collection and analysis. The findings indicate that glocalisation, socialised gaming practices and competitiveness characterise the Vietnamese gaming experience. The distinct culture of Vietnam combined with globalised gaming consumption habits has created new modes of play culture, and hence leisure experiences that are growing in pervasive and influential ways.     

Chinese heritage tourists to heritage sites: what are the effects of heritage motivation and perceived authenticity on satisfaction?

Much of the literature on authenticity is Western-centric, while little work addresses the concept in the Asian environment. The literature relating to authenticity from Asian tourists’ point of view is even underdeveloped. This study therefore aims to fill the knowledge gap by investigating Chinese tourists’ perspective of authenticity. It also examines tourists’ perceived authenticity as a multi-dimensional construct in a consumer-based model, the relationship with heritage motivation and tourist satisfaction. Findings indicate that Chinese tourists’ perceptions of authenticity are closely related to objective and constructive authenticity. The study demonstrates that heritage motivation has a significant positive influence on perceived authenticity and that perceived authenticity has a strong ability to predict tourist satisfaction.     

Interaction effects of dual organizational commitment on retention in international assignments: the case of Western expatriates in Vietnam

The purpose of this study is to examine the interaction effects of two commitment foci (parent company and local operation commitment) on a focal work behavior (retention in an international assignment). Accordingly, this study formulated and tested four hypotheses by using hierarchical regression, moderated regression analyses and plots of two-way interactions. The data were gathered from 471 Western expatriates working for the subsidiaries of multinational companies in Vietnam. The results confirmed that all components (affective, normative and continuance) of parent company commitment and local operation commitment positively predicted retention in international assignments; however, the retention was more driven by the parent company commitment. Besides, the relationships between two components (affective and continuance) of local operation commitment and retention were moderated by the corresponding components of parent company commitment. The findings improve the understanding of dual commitment's links to work behaviors in international business contexts. Moreover, as to the practical implication, multinational companies were recommended to be aware of the level of expatriate commitments to two foci in order to reduce the rate of premature return.     

Which covariates should be controlled in propensity score matching? Evidence from a simulation study

Propensity score matching is a widely‐used method to measure the effect of a treatment in social as well as medicine sciences. An important issue in propensity score matching is how to select conditioning variables in estimation of the propensity scores. It is commonly mentioned that variables which affect both program participation and outcomes are selected. Using Monte Carlo simulation, this paper shows that efficiency in estimation of the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated can be gained if all the available observed variables in the outcome equation are included in the estimation of propensity scores. This result still holds in the presence of non‐sampling errors in the observed control variables.     

Characterization of Normal Distribution Related to Two Samples Based on Regression

Characterization of normal distribution related to two samples based on second conditional moments has been obtained. This characterization has been transformed to a characterization based on the UMVU estimators of the density function. These results are generalized to k samples from normal distributions. Finally applications of these characterization results to goodness-of-fit test are discussed.     

A look into the factor model black box: Publication lags and the role of hard and soft data in forecasting GDP

We derive forecast weights and uncertainty measures for assessing the roles of individual series in a dynamic factor model (DFM) for forecasting the euro area GDP from monthly indicators. The use of the Kalman smoother allows us to deal with publication lags when calculating the above measures. We find that surveys and financial data contain important information for the GDP forecasts beyond the monthly real activity measures. However, this is discovered only if their more timely publication is taken into account properly. Differences in publication lags play a very important role and should be considered in forecast evaluation.     

Formal and real ownership structure of the Polish economy: state-owned versus state-controlled enterprises

This article analyses the difference between the state’s formal and real shares in the Polish economy. We identify two basic types of corporate control exercised by the state over enterprises through ownership (in the case of majority ownership) and non-ownership tools (in the case of minority ownership). Consequently, we distinguish between two types of state enterprises: state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-controlled enterprises (SCEs). In post-communist economies, SCEs mainly originate from so-called reluctant privatisation, in which the transfer of ownership rights takes place without the appropriate transfer of control rights. We discuss the tools of non-ownership control used by the state. Our estimates of the real share of state enterprises in the Polish economy (which include both SOEs and SCEs) show that it is almost two times higher than the formal share (only SOEs). The share of state enterprises is also highest in the group of Poland’s largest and most important firms. We conclude that the real importance of state enterprises in the Polish economy is much higher than might be expected if only the formal share of state ownership is taken into account.