Tin tức
Các số tạp chí
The article also identifies 2 groups of negative impacts on the development of Vietnam Stock Market: (1) adversely affecting other entities who participate in and/or relate to the market, including: creating challenges, even damage, to domestic investors; increasing the complication of financial regulations in the stock market; increasing challenges to the market administration and supervision agencies; (2) causing risks which may badly affect the development of the market, including: the risk of massive capital withdrawal of foreign investors; increasing the overall risk ratio of the stock market; increasing the risks of inflation and foreign exchange; increasing the risks of foreign capital transfer among economic sectors.
Upon identifying 4 reasons, the article proposes 9 grand solutions to foreign investment in order to sustainably develop Vietnam Stock Market in the coming period, including: (1) continuing timely and flexible fiscal and monetary policies; (2) promptly regulating and adjusting abnormal incidents and unsustainable growth arising in the stock market; (3) fostering the restructuring of the financial market, including the stock market; (4) strengthening supervision on foreign investors’ transactions, both direct and commission, in Vietnam market in general and stock market in particular; (5) enhancing the identification and supervision of information and transactions of hedging funds by foreign investors; (6) in case of urgent incidents which may lead to market instability, administration agency should take necessary and appropriate measures such as disconnecting the market, temporarily ceasing transactions with foreign investors; (7) improving communication with domestic investors to prevent their habit of ‘trendy’ or ‘copycat’ investments; (8) developing financial regulations to restrict the massive capital withdrawal by foreign investors in the stock market; (9) loosening room for foreign investors according to the market opening roadmap under Vietnam WTO’s entry commitment.
2. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Bach Khoa and Nguyen Quang Huy, MA – Problems and Orientations for Business Strategy Restructuring in Vietnam State-Owned Groups in the Present Context
The article stems from 2 grounds: first, from the fact that most Vietnam’s economic groups have the structure of a complex of enterprises covering the whole or most of the supply chain in a major industry, including the parent company, subsidiaries (members) and other associated enterprises. In this complex, parent company is the core to connect subsidiaries and associated enteprises, it controls and dominates the strategic policies of the group, the business strategies for the group in its main industry, the regulations on organization and human resources in subsidiaries; second, from the modern corporate management theory by P.Drucker that the nature of corporate management is the management of its future, in the mean time, management of future means management of its strategies, in which management of business strategy is the backbone.
On these two grounds, the article concludes that in the business structures of enterprises in general and of state-owned economic groups in particular, the essence is its strategic structure, in which the core is business strategic structure. Therefore, restructuring Vietnam’s state-owned economic groups is by nature the restructuring of their business strategies. Besides, the article also identifies 3 main reasons for the need of restructuring business strategies in Vietnam’s state-owned groups: (1) business strategies of Vietnam’s state-owned economic groups are slowly developed and cannot catch up with the changes in the environment and markets of the global, regional and local business areas; consequently their indicators of business results, performance, competitiveness in both domestic and international markets remain weak, even insolvent in somes cases (Vinashin, Vinalines); most groups cannot realize the common strategic goals which the Government have assigned to them; restructuring therefore becomes a must; (2) business strategies of state-owned economic groups are most vulnerable to impacts for 2 reasons: first, they operate under the pressure of leadership in globalization and integration into the international business areas (due to their scale and representativeness); second, because of the global financial crisis and international economic downturn, together with fluctuations in the demand of their industry, enterprises and goups with low competitiveness in the supply chain and big scale often suffer from high inventory and bad consequences, if they continue their current business strategies, they will surely fail; restructuring therefore becomes a must; (3) the Government, as a full or partial owner of the economic groups, has passed a resolution to restructure the state-owned economic groups in the present context, this resolution has been implemented in all groups, initially in the high-ranking administration level. This is the motive force to restructuring business strategies in Vietnam’s state-owned economic groups.
On the basis of implementing the Government’s instructions on restructuring state-owned enterprises in general and state-owned economic groups in particular; from the principles of restructuring business strategies and the analysis of the principles, together with the analysis of TOWS models with opportunities/threats and strengths/weaknesses of state-owned economic groups, the article has identified 8 major orientations to effectively restructure business strategies of these groups, including: (1) transfering the business model from product-based to supply value; (2) adopting the competence-based market-oriented business strategic model; (3) developing the business strategy towards fully covering the supply chain in their main business industries rather than entering other trendy business areas; (4) the core of restructuring business strategies is restructuring the supply chain of the groups towards reducing cost of the entire chain in mid-term and diversifying, differentiating and integrating to the global supply chain in the long term; (5) the framework of business strategy restructuring includes 6 pillars: restructuring business strategic philosophy and changing the groups’ value model towards supplying value to customers; restructuring the strategies of price selecting and positioning in domestic markets and global target market segments; restructuring the strategies of creating and sharing differentiated values to the target market (segment); restructuring the strategies of communications, business promotion and developing supporting industries to each major business industry; (6) restructuring business strategies should pay attention to restructuring risks and creating national strong brands as well as international prestigious brands; (7) restructuring business competence should pay attention to creating and improving core competence, differentiation by focusing on raising financial capacity, infrastructure, marketing, production and operations in the mid term and enhancing human resources, leadership and value based on intellectual creation in the long term; (8) restructuring business strategies by nature means creating and ensuring investment portfolio in the new business units with high efficiency in the target market which is appropriate to the groups’ business competence, it is therefore often associated with M&A, consolidation, dissolution, capital sharing, partnerhip, etc. this process cannot take place in a short time but immediate with high consensus and commitment to the goals of restructuring. Therefore, it is necessary to bring into full play the leadership of the Party unit, the consensus and political resolution of CEOs and management board to communicate, persuade and ensure the benefits of the staff so that the restructuring of business strategies can be successful.
3. A/Prof.Dr. Đinh Van Thanh – Orientations and Solutions to Make Use of Preferential Tariffs in Free Trade Zones to Promote Vietnam’s Exports
Catching up with the trends of globalization and free trade, besides the efforts to promote and join the global multi-lateral linkage (WTO), since the 1990s of the 20th century, Vietnam has regarded the foreign trade area (FTA) linkage as an important pillar. The article estimates that since 1995, Vietnam has established FTA with 16 countries in 6 regional FTAs and 2 bilateral FTAs, at present the country is negotiating to participate in 2 regional FTAs and 1 bilateral FTA. On this basis, the article evaluates the situation of making use of preferential tariffs from FTAs on Vietnam exports and points out 2 major advantages: increasing export turnover and increasing the proportion of exported products which are entitled to preferential tariffs (the proportion of products with preferential C/O) over the products exported to non-FTA markets; at the same time it identifies 2 main weaknesses in adopting preferential tariff: the low effectiveness of communications to state-owned enterprises and administration agencies about exporting policies in general and the benefits of and regulations on procedures to be entitled to preferential tariffs in FTA framework; a large number of state-owned enterprises are not active enough and not yet able to identify and respond to the requirements to enjoy the preferentials of joining FTAs of the nation.
With the aims of helping Vietnamese enterprises to take advantages of preferential tariffs in FTAs, the article presents 3 specific instructional views to implement the general policies, 3 strategic objectives in participating FTAs, 2 principles and 5 grounds to select partners in FTAs with 3 criteria for selection and list of priorities in FTA negotiation. The article then proposes 4 groups of solutions to utilize preferential tariffs in FTAs to promote Vietnam exports in the coming time, including: (1) adjusting investment policies towards developing supporting industries to reduce the imports of intermediate inputs, increasing the proportion of domesticalization and added values in exported products; (2) completing the trading policies appropriate to Vietnam conditions without contradicting with FTAs commimments which Vietnam is and likely to participate in; (3) actively adjusting the structures of export and domestic markets in accordance with import-export strategies by 2020, vision by 2030; (4) accelerating administration reforms to create favorable conditions for enterprises to take advantage of preferential C/O certificates.
4. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Phuong Lien – Solutions to Completing Investment Administration Policies in Vietnam Stock Market
The article generalizes the stock market and investment activities in Vietnam’s stock market over the past 12 years of establishment and development through quantitative indicators such as the number and types of the market entities, the number of securities codes, the average transaction scale and the market capitalization rate as well as through development indicators such as the transition from semi-automatic, direct transaction technology to automatic, electronic-based transactions, in which emphasizes the growth in the number of investors in general, foreign investors in particular in terms of both individual and organization accounts. On this basis, the article points out 4 problems: first, despite some certain benefits, the division of the market into two sub-markets (HOSE and HNX) with different listing conditions has revealed some limitations which are not suitable to the trend of unification and development of Vietnam stock market in depth; second, the development of the market is oriented towards supply rather than demand; third, the market information system remains weak, which fails to meet the demand for standard information activities; fourth, the structure of investosr is imbalanced (with majority of private investors with poor behavioral competence and short-term investment capital).
The article also looks into the situation of investment management in Vietnam stock market in the past time by pointing out the new features in the latest legal documents of the Government (Circular No. 14/2001/TT – BTC taking effect from 1 August 2011). After 1 year in practice, this new policy has brought about 4 achievements: first, creating a comprehensive, synchronous and systematic legal framework for investment activities in the stock market; second, increasing supervision of state administration agencies on investment in the stock market; third, creating legal foundations for intermediaries and professional investors in the market; fourth, enhancing the accordance of Vietnam policies with international stock market and international integration.
At the same time, the article identifies 5 weaknesses in the policies, including: first, there are not yet documents to instruct some new investment operations (derivatives) and mechanism to control the scale and purposes of the capital flow in the market; second, there are not yet clear regulations to control the transitions among investment forms of foreign capital to ensure the safety and security of the stock market; third, it is not yet possible to comprehensively control foreign capital, especially in the free market or over investment trust through local investors; fourth, the administration of foreign investment in the stock market has not yet met the standards of accounting, auditing and transparence of the reports, the organization of administration is dispersed; fifth, there are not yet regulations on aggregate supply of foreign investment in the stock market in each period as well as preventions and solutions to the risks of massive withdrawal by foreign investors.
Upon identifying the reasons for this situation, the article proposes 6 grand solutions to completing investment administration policies in Vietnam stock market in the coming time: first, researching and approving instructional documents on some newly-arising investment operations in the market; second, supplementing policies to balance and diversify investors, especially stimulating organizational investors; third, competing mechanism to supervise trusts (transactions and investment) of foreign investors; forth, steadily removing regulations on the maximum ownership ratio of foreign investors; fifth, researching and approving mechanism to accelerate the effective and prompt cooperation between State Securities Commission and State Bank to share information and administration of investment capital in the stock market; sixth, enhancing the legal position, autonomy and competence of state administration on the stock market in general and investment in the market in particular.
5. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Quoc Thinh – Anti Dumping – An Approach from Protectionism View
The article opens with a view that although in principle anti-dumping, a factor constituting tariff barriers in international trade, is considered a tool to ensure fair trade, because of obscure regulations, in practice, it has somewhat become a device of protectionism; therefore Vietnamese enterprises should be well aware of it to have appropriate behavior in both roles: petitioner and defendant in the anti-dumping cases.
The article then summarizes some concepts related to anti-dumping and anti-dumping measures in accordance with WTO’s regulations, presents some anti-dumping cases by WTO’s members since 1995 from the view of protectionism and comes up with some figures: of the total 154 WTO’s members, there have been 4,010 anti-dumping cases with 46 petitioners and 102 defendants, in most cases, powerful, developed members/nations took proceedings against weak, developing ones (except for China which is the most sued country); the number of countries which frequently apply and account for 90% of anti-dumping investigations represent only 12% (18 members); the countries which filed the most anti-dumping cases are those who tend to run the most protectionism.
On this basis, the article analyses some anti-dumping cases against Vietnam or related to Vietnam since June 2012, totaling 45 cases, and comes to conclusion that: first, members which are mostly sued are countries/regions which have the largest import turnover of the same products to Vietnam; second, the members which take most proceedings against Vietnam are the major export markets of Vietnam; third, in the anti-dumping cases against Vietnam, there are many factors related to procedures and files on evaluating the damage to domestic production of the importing countries and applying WTO’s investigation regulations (the article on normal prices of the third comparable country) and these factors should be taken into consideration.
In the opposite side, Vietnam is among 105 WTO members which have not taken anti-dumping proceedings against any countries despite these risks. This fact stems from 3 weaknesses: weak behavioral competence, weak industrial linkage and weak financial capacity to pursue the case. On this basis, the article proposes some policy implications to Vietnamese enterprises in case they are sued against dumping: linking international trade activities with diplomatic activities of the state and organizations, individuals; making business and production activities transparent in accordance with international standards and conventions (Vietnam and international accounting standards); being cautious about anti-dumping traps and the supports in the relationships with foreign importers; finding solutions to make use of the supports from consumer associations from in the petitioning countries; enhancing the competence of identification and warning of state administration agencies on the likelihood of dumping of imported products; strengthening the linkage and alliance among enterprises in the same industry; increasing communications and propaganda as well as raising professional knowledge of enterprises on dumping and anti-dumping measures.
6. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Viet & Nguyen Huy Hoang, MA. – Delivered Value of Market Offering in Place Marketing to Attract Investments in Industrial Zones in Vietnam (Model and Research Methods)
Place marketing and its application in both management and social aspects of a locality and particularly in attracting investments into local industrial zones is new but essential in the current context of Vietnam. With different approach from other works, the article looks into the research topic from the view that considers each locality as an investment destination, thus the core concept of products in place marketing to lure investment is seen as a valuable local investment destination (LID) which is managed by local authority and offered for target investors to satisfy the demand and expectation for shared values for each individual market. From which, the article points out some basic principles of modern marketing applied in place marketing to attract investment such as principles of customer value and market offering in place marketing.
Moreover, the article also builds a research model based on a preliminary research to analyze value structure of market offering factors from the quality of a local investment destination and services/ fees based on values related to investment and business. As a result, a research model on delivered and shared values of target investors is drawn out with 5 factors:
- Place’s image economic value of an LID
- Place’s business value of an LID
- Value of investment and business related services provided in the place
- Value of organization and human factors in legal – political environment to attract investments of the place
- Value of investment and business regulation and procedures in the place
In order to identify the research methods, the article bases on the classification of two views on investors’ actually delivered value and perceived value to select the market questionnaire as the main method. It later designs a research method with the research subject, scope, samples and questionnaire with 5 independent variables and 28 items; Likert’s 5-point scale; sampling and data analysis by SPSS16.0. The analysis includes testing the hypotheses on statistical relationship of variables and items with values divided by Conbach’s Alpha, median and standard deviation of each item and variable. These results help assess the shared and delivered values for target investors to evaluate the investment attraction of an LID and compare with those of another LID or average indicator. Places (provinces) in a country can identify their relative value positioning in attracting investment in positioning map.
7. A/Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Vietnam University of Commerce – Measuring Customer Value of Enterprises – Methods and Application.
Maximizing delivered value in line with the demand of each target customer group is the main aim of the production and business process which is the measurement of enterprises’ survival and development in the world’s economic recession with no current positive signs of recovery. Implementing this business idea requires enterprises’ management to select and effectively employ measures to identify economic value delivered by customers/ customer groups under each strategic business unit (SBU), from which creates essential condition for developing relevant business strategies. Since the late 20th century, there have been a lot of research on suggestions and implementations of methods to identify economic value delivered by customers/ customer groups to the enterprises, namely (1) Total customer value; (2) Previous period customer Revenue (PCR); (3) Past customer Value (PCV); (4) Customer lifetime Value (CLV); (5) Customer referral Value (CRV). CLV and CRV are considered by real managers as the most advanced methods to measure enterprises’ customer value. In the article, the author would like to provide an overview on CLV and CRV, then determine the process and explain conditions to implement and measure the customer economic value to create the basis for setting target marketing strategies for the enterprise.
The article includes:
There are 4 steps in calculating customer value including calculating the lifetime value of each customer; calculating the influential value of each customer; segmenting customers based on CLV and CRV; determining target marketing strategies of the enterprise through segmentation.
In the last part, the article suggests some conditions to apply customer value measurement method which is forcasting CLV, CRV on the essential condition that the enterprise has to collect, store comprehensive and updated customer data as well as practical research on customer introduction under each marketing program of the enterprise. It is then necessary to coordinate and implement both CLV and CRV logically. On the basis of identifying customer value, the enterprise can select the best cost-effective marketing strategy and investment with extra focus on two customer groups (1) for those with high CLV but low CRV the enterprise needs to address to increase customer introduction value; (2) for those with low CLV but high CRV the enterprise needs to implement marketing solutions to enhance CLV and maintain CRV development.
8. A/Prof. Dr. Phan Thi Thu Hoai, Vietnam University of Commerce – Marketing Strategies to Create Competitive Advantages for Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises in the Current Context of Intensive Economic Integration.
Global economic integration has changed the domestic and international business environment and markets as well as increased the competitive pressure even in domestic market. Local enterprises of Vietnam have some disadvantages in comparison with foreign competitors, especially multinationals and global companies in terms of resources, experience and capability. In order to improve the competitive advantages in domestic and international markets, marketing strategies of local companies should be based on developing their competitive advantages namely global vision, local insight, unique value awareness, cultural differences exploitation. Marketing strategies to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese companies should be centralized and differentiated including determining segments and target market positioning according to local characteristics, localizing offers and products, developing relationship with partners in value delivery chain in localities, enhancing modern sales channels in addition to traditional ones and supplying differentiated value based on their own assets.
The article includes 3 parts:
1. Theoretical background
2. Real situation and resources to create competitive advantages for small and medium enterprises in developing countries in the new context
3. Suggestions on developing marketing strategies to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese enterprises in the new context
In the beginning, the article gives an overview on business environment of enterprises in integration on national, regional and international scale. Through combining theories of different researchers on creating competitive advantages for local enterprises, it can be seen that economic integration has changed competitive pressure and instability of domestic and foreign business environment. Therefore, in order to be successful in international market, enterprises in general and Vietnamese companies in particular need to have strategies to create competitive advantages on both domestic and foreign markets, especially marketing strategies to help companies gain advantages in business.
In order to win the competition, companies have to focus on developing overall competitive strategies and marketing strategies to create advantages including global vision with local insight; unique value supply; cultural resources exploitation. They are the strengths of local companies compared to international and global competitors from developed countries.
Finally, the article suggests some solutions to develop marketing strategies to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese enterprises in the new context namely determining segments and positioning target market based on local characteristics; localizing offers and products; strengthening relationship with partners in value supply chain; improving modern sales channels together with traditional ones; supplying differential value based on enterprises’ own assets.
9. Dr. Cao Tuan Khanh, Vietnam University of Commerce – Mobile Marketing and Industry Competitive Strategies of Vietnamese Enterprises in Integration
Like the Internet, mobile and mobile marketing have created many new industries including placement services. In the same situation as the Internet, its biggest influence lies in its restructuring existing industries. Mobile marketing has most influenced industries with high mobile information uses, large mobile labour or easy-to-mobilize activities. Each industry has its own features which means each is affected by mobile marketing differently. However, wide mobile marketing trends tend to influence different industries.
The article is divided into 4 parts:
1. Introduction
2. Real situation of Vietnamese enterprises in applying mobile marketing
3. The application and influence of mobile marketing on forces in competitive strategies of trading industry
4. Conclusion
In the first part, the author briefly introduces telecom market in Vietnam - one of the world’s fastest growing areas in mobile network development. The rapid development of mobile services marketing in Vietnam from subsidized, monopoly to competitive status has created a diversified, dynamic and customer value- oriented market. Rapid growth of the mobile market also leads to some problems such as those related to connection, management on resources, digital data, networks switching with the same numbers, etc. The biggest challenge in the digital age involves supplying higher customer value and satisfaction than competitors. It relates to two factors affecting value supply which are industrial force determining capability to supply value and relative competitive advantage allowing a company to overcome other competitors. To address one in two factors, the article adopts research with five forces model of M. Porter including industrial rivalry, new entrants, substitutes, customers and suppliers.
The research and interview with mobile marketing users show the awareness of marketing companies, suppliers and customers in Vietnam of mobile marketing in the real situation.
Mobile marketing application and influence on forces in industry competitive strategies include industry rivalry, threat from substitutes, threat of the new entrants/ exits (entering barriers), bargaining power of suppliers. To industrial rivalry whether new or existing, the attraction of an industry is determined by competitive forces and competitive power is adjusted by some interactive forces. The application of mobile marketing can have an effect on all of those. In the industry with few and mature companies, mobile marketing use tends to enhance the focus and balance, i.e. fixed costs at first. Threats from substitutes: the influence of the substitutes leads to the price balance of mobile devices. On the customers’ viewpoint, the application of mobile marketing brings positive results, expanding the market for enterprises. Threats of new entrants/ exits: companies using mobile marketing entering the industry tends to raise the entrance barriers by eliminating redundancy and helping to increase general efficiency. Bargaining power of suppliers: appliers can employ their bargaining power on other companies in the industry by increasing/ decreasing the price, quality of the products and services. Bargaining power of buyers: with mobile marketing, the buyers can hold significant bargaining power, especially when they gather as a large group with lower switching costs than other companies and vice versa they have information and full access to subtitute offers.
The analysis of mobile marketing adoption can be seen from the viewpoint of single company (value chain) and industry in which competing companies (industrial forces) can be studied systematically by the analysis to indicate the potential role of mobile marketing in differentiating value performance, lowering costs and offering more improvements. This potential can create strategic advantage because it brings companies new method to overtake the competitors. Apart from changing value performance, mobile marketing also changes competitive forces, then the whole industrial structure.
10. Dr. Nguyen Viet Thai, Vietnam University of Commerce – Organizing Tour Guiding in Lang Son – based Travel Agencies.
Tour guiding (TG) plays an important role in tourism business, it is the core activity of the travel agencies. The quality of tour program (TP), the satisfaction of tourists mainly depend on the organization of tour guiding in travel agencies. Therefore, the organization of TG is essential to improve the quality of tourism products, the competitiveness of tourism businesses and the attraction of the tourism destinations.
Lang Son has rich potential for tourism and an important location in Vietnam’s tourism development strategy. However, Lang Son’s tourism has not yet developed in parallel with its potentials with such weaknesses as low tourism services quality, underdeveloped infrastructure, and unprofessional TG organization. Thus, it is necessary to accomplish the organization of TG in travel agencies in Lang Son province.
The article consists of three parts:
1. An overview on the performance of travel agencies in Lang Son province in recent years
2. The real situation of organizing TG of travel agencies in Lang Son province through customers survey
3. Some suggestions on improving the organization of TG in travel agencies in Lang Son province
In the first part, the article gives a brief overview on Lang Son as an attractive destination. The province’s tourism industry has recently grown rapidly in terms of tourists numbers and revenue. To now, there are 15 travel agencise licensed by Vietnam Administration of Tourism including 9 provincial companies, 5 branches and 1 representative office with over 60 registered tour guides.
By surveying 120 tourists who took part in the TP organized by some travel agencies in Lang Son province, the article measures the quality of the tour guiding in the province’s travel agencies with such indicators as tour guides’ attitude; tour guides’ credibility; tour guides’ knowledge; guides’ problem-solving skills; customer satisfaction on tour guides’ quality; customer satisfaction on travel services quality; customer satisfaction on the after-sales services. By evaluating the tour guiding performance in travel agencies in Lang Son province, the autor suggests the strengths, weaknesses and the reasons. From that, he makes suggestions to improve the tour guiding organization. Travel agencies should build a standard tour guiding procedure suitable for the condition of the companies; they need to design compatible programs; administration and management should pay some sudden visit to check on new and inexperienced tour guides during the tours to avoid unnecessary problems; the managers have to build the process to solve problems arisen during the tours based on tour guides’ suggestions after each tour and supervise service suppliers.
The approach of “Tourism Human Resources Development – Solution to Improve Competitiveness of Quang Ninh Province” is right and necessary in the current context of integration. The research also identifies the key elements to improve the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province including infrastructure, tourism technical and material conditions, institution, development cooperation, and tourism human resources. The research confirms that of the above elements, tourism human resources play the most important and strategic role; hence the paper focuses on studying the situation of tourism human resources development of Quang Ninh province, thus assessing the success and shortcomings in the development of tourism human resources. On the basis of utilizing theoretical and practical research results, the paper puts forward several solutions to improve the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province.
The paper consists of five parts:
In the theoretical background, the paper mentions several concepts of human resources in general and tourism human resources; the core nature of human resources development is increasing the quality and quantity of human resources. The method used in this research is synthesizing and analyzing data, comparing secondary data which is a statistic of the total direct workers in tourism; collecting documents related to tourism human resources development and improving the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province.
In the following part, the paper analyses the research results including the situation of Quang Ninh tourism human resources (the quantity, quality and labor structure) and the real situation of Quang Ninh tourism human resources development (staff training, tourism vocational schools – technical and material conditions for training, staff and teachers; government administration; the policy system to develop tourism human resources) shown in the sheet of the total direct workers of Quang Ninh province in 2010 and the diagram of sex structure in tourism professions of Quang Ninh province.
After analyzing research results, the researcher comes to a conclusion of success and shortcomings of tourism human resources and Quang Ninh province’s tourism human resources development. Accordingly, the research also suggests several solutions to improve the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province.
Nowadays, Parent-Subsidiary is considered an advanced model which has been being implemented in enterprises throughout Vietnam in general and enterprises under the Ministry of National Defense in particular. However, in the period of transition, there will appear many problems including problems in accounting activity in the enterprises adopting this model. Given the real situation of accounting activity of enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense, the researcher carried out research and analysis thus coming to several constructive ideas to improve accounting activity in these enterprises.
The paper includes three parts:
The enterprises under the Ministry of National Defense are mostly about national security and defense coordinating with doing business, with an aim to make contribution to protecting the country, building and developing the country’s economy, and to take a proactive position in financing the nation’s reserve army in the peaceful period. However, the enterprises are in the process of integration and shifting to adopting Parent-Subsidiary model. Operating under the new model in the context of competitive market requires enterprises to organize their accounting activity well to meet the demand so that in shifting to the new model they can catch up with accounting information, make good decisions and have business performance. The paper combines more than one method to study accounting activity in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense.
In terms of the real situation, the paper defines Parent-Subsidiary model and accounting system organization; the real situation of organizing accounting in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense. In terms of accounting system organization, the parent company and its subsidiaries are independent legal entities, so the accounting systems of these enterprises are normally both centralized and decentralized. In terms of document system and initial record organization, most enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense are of large size, so their accounting document systems are kept under the existing accounting document regime attached with Decision No. 15/2006/QD-BTC issued on March, 20th, 2006 by Minister of Finance. In terms of applying the account system, the company uses the account system under Decision No. 15/2006/QD-BTC as well as opens primary and secondary subsidiary accounts for their units. In terms of accounting book system organization, the company’s and its subsidiaries’ accounting reports are made quarterly and annually at the end of the accounting year complying with existing accounting standards. In terms of auditing organization, auditing activity is implemented seriously; enterprises carry out quarterly auditing over their subsidiaries by sending staff from the company’s accounting department to the subsidiaries to audit directly. Hereby, the researcher draws the advantages and disadvantages of accounting activity.
In the final part, the paper suggests several constructive ideas to improve accounting activity in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary Model under the Ministry of National Defense; those are: the accounting apparatus should be changed; the relationship between the parent company’s and the subsidiaries’ accounting apparatus should be identified; the capital structure of the two sides should be clarified; accounting standards and regulations should be improved and perfected; information technology should be used in accounting activity in a flexible way.
13. Dr. Nguyen Viet Thai and Nguyen Bao Ngoc, MA. - Improving Marketing Control at Foodstuff Trading Companies – Real Situation and Some Solutions
The status and benefits of marketing control in the marketing management of modern companies have been confirmed; however in the current conditions and context of Vietnam, in the implementation of marketing control there still exist a number of shortcomings and limitations in terms of the content, procedures, and methods of organization and implementation.
In the first part of the paper, the researchers focus on analyzing and assessing the real situation of marketing control development in Hanoi Foodstuff Company. In order to carry out independently, systematically and comprehensively the marketing environment control, marketing strategy, marketing organization and system, marketing productivity and functions of this enterprise, the researchers choose the method of description and analysis, and social survey through questionnaires and expert interviews. The researchers assess the real situation at two levels: (1) Marketing control in units directly under the company; (2) Marketing control at Hanoi Foodstuff Company. To accurately and comprehensively assess the marketing control management organization at branch level, the researchers choose three among eleven of the company’s branches which are directly doing business (Van Ho Supermarket, Le Quy Don Food Store, and the Business Center under the company’s sales department). The interviews with the experts and survey carried out in the 3 branches in 3 years (2010-2912) bring about some conclusions: the branches directly under the company hardly implement marketing control; the strategic plan control effectiveness of the branches is really low; the branches under the company have build plans to control marketing organization and functions, but the implementation is just superficial; the branches themselves control marketing efficiency merely through revenues and the rate of revenue growth but hardly control the efficiency of marketing functions, etc.
In such situation, in the second part the researchers suggest several solutions to improve marketing control efficiency at Hanoi Foodstuff Company in particular and foodstuff trading companies in general, namely: (1) Clearly identify the responsibilities, power and duties of the marketing control departments at company level and branch level, at the same time build an optimal system to organize and combine operations within the marketing control department and with other control departments in the company; (2) Implement fully and comprehensively all aspects of marketing control including: marketing environment control, marketing strategy control, marketing organization and system control, etc.; (3) Build a system of standards and deploy marketing efficiency control with one modern, suitable procedure and method in order to accurately identify and update the marketing control norms of the company and its branches; (4) Strengthen control on the company’s social responsibility and marketing culture; (5) Synchronously develop resources for the company’s marketing control.
14. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Loan and Chu Dinh Dong - CEO Human Resources Strategy Development at Companies under Vinashin – Real Situation through Case Study and Issues
The research focuses on analyzing and assessing the real situation of CEO human resources structure of Vinashin. Basing on case studies, the researchers make some conclusions and put forward the issues that need to be dealt with to restructure CEO human resources strategy of Vinashin in the coming time.
Restructuring the CEO human resources strategy of enterprises must be considered frequently, or an imbalance in the system may happen at any time. Put in reality, the aspects in developing CEO human resources of enterprises in general and Vinashin member firms in particular include: (1) analyzing the strategic changes and identify the orientation to restructure CEO human resources strategy; (2) restructuring the CEO human resources building strategy; (3) restructuring the CEO human resources utilizing strategy; (4) restructuring the CEO human resources maintaining and improving strategy. In the second part, the researchers use critical instance research in order to study several really remarkable and necessary cases to check the value of the affirmations related to the situation of CEO human resources strategy development of the member firms of Vinashin. Accordingly, the criteria chosen to be studied as critical instance include: (1) instances of poor macroeconomic management; (2) instance of loss-making business due to wrong implementation of the main functions; (3) instance of loss-making business due to wrong identification of business strategy; (4) instance of profitable business because of promoting the ability of top managers. The survey focuses on 3 main issues including organization and planning framework; the real situation of operational efficiency; the real situation of CEO human resources strategic structure.
In the third part of the paper, the researchers discuss the research findings on the real situation of CEO human resources operational efficiency and strategic structure as following: (1) in terms of organization and planning framework, there needs to be an adjustment in the organizational structure by merging, splitting, and establishing new departments; human resources planning needs researching and adjusting in a descending mode after functions and duties correction and a perfected detailed job description for each position; (2) there needs to be an amendment of functions and duties to match Vinashin’s new situation; (3) there still exist a score of weaknesses and shortcomings in market forecasting and business and manufacturing planning; weaknesses in management and manufacturing implementation; financing without feasible projects, etc.
From the critical instance research of the real situation of Vinashin’s CEO human resources strategy, the researchers have come to several conclusions: (1) most firms under Vinashin are not aware of the importance of business strategy management and strategy restructuring in cases of sudden business strategy changes, especially the status and the role of unit strategies including CEO human resources strategy; (2) Vinashin has not transformed itself from a product provider into a value provider to customer in which CEO human resources play a pioneer part in shaping and implementing; (3) firms under Vinashin do not show an innovation in management quality to make it suitable, effective, and compatible to modern management; (4) business strategy restructuring in general and CEO human resources strategy in particular in firms under Vinashin is basically in short of systematism, breakthrough and a system’s essential components; the efficiency of strategy restructuring solutions is still low, etc.; (5) developing business strategy organization and restructuring in general and CEO human resources strategy in particular in firms under Vinashin does not match its requirements and content.
15. Prof.Dr. Nguyen Bach Khoa and Canh Chi Quan, MA – Views and Solutions to Improving Customer Transportation Service Capacity of Vietnam Airlines
Upon generalizing the researching principles on customer transportation capacity of airline companies, the authors evaluate the transportation service supplying capacity of Vietnam Airlines, from which set up views and solutions to improving the capacity of this coorperation in present context.
In part 1 of the article, the authors emphasize that the supplying capacity of customer transportation services of airline companies could be improved by the following 4 steps: (1) improving capacity levels by order from core competence to value supplying competence and moving competence to ensure the sustainability of the system competences and facilitate the competences at higher levels; (2) in each competence level, selecting indicators with high effectiveness and speading or indicators with inequilibrium versus comparative standard to focus investment in to improve the competence; (3) in each selected indicator, dealing with parametres of weaknesses which may affect the value of this indicator or parametres with effect/cost which may raise the value of the indicator; (4) order of priority to improve the customer transportation service supplying competence of airline companies: (i) improving the strength of core competence and comparative position of the customer transportation service supplying system; (ii) improving the competence to supply the real value and competitive position in the market of the system; (iii) improving the moving competitiveness and developing value positioning in the market of the system.
In part 2, based on secondary data collected from business reports and orientations of Vietnam Airlines, the findings of market and customer research of the cooperation in 3 years of 2009 – 2012, the authors conduct a survey via questionnaires and come up with general evaluation on Vietnam Airlines’ supplying capacity of customer transportation services as follows:
* Achievements and strengths: Vietnam Airlines has set up long-term market-oriented business strategies to develop its transportation service supplying system in general and customer transportation service system in particular and has built up its position in this market; the company has cared of and invested in fundamental factors to create core capacity, which helps lay the foundation to enhance its service supplying competence and effectiveness; it has also attempted to develop its moving competence, raise its indices of marketing offer, quality, service reliability, image, reputation and brand name; it has gained comparatively better results than some other airlines in the region.
* Limitations and weaknesses: Despite having built up market-oriented business strategies for customer transportation service, Vietnam Airlines has not implemented these strategies sustainably due to the lack of considerations based on moving and real supplying competences so the results just reach the average level; some core competences creating factors are lower than the level of route extension, the level of increasing market scale and improving service supplying capacity of the cooperation, especially the differentiation level, has not been appropriately attended to; the company has not fully exploited all factors in its moving competitive competence which customers highly appreciate such as exclusive differentiations, service quality and productivity; it has not been well aware of the position and role of value supplying factors, the effectiveness of selecting and positioning value supply is lower than the requirement for development and its position.
In the final part, based on the situation of supplying capacity in airline customer tranporation services as well as the forecast and orientations of Vietnam Airlines, the authors propose some solutions to improving the company’s supplying capacity as follows: (1) as for airports, it is necessary to take synchronous actions to improve the core competence and differentiations, the moving and value supplying capacity to customers; (2) as for Vietnam Airlines’ representative offices and branches, it is necessary to implement measures to improve the capacity of attracting buyers and selling tickets to target customers such as improving core competence and differentiations, improving value supplying capacity to customers; (3) as for the solutions to improve the customer transportation service supplying capacity of Vietnam Airlines, it is necessary to develop its organization and human resources, raise capital, develop the administration IT system under ICAO and Sky Team standards.
16. Truong Van Khanh, M.A and Vo Đuc Toan, M.A - Demand for Capital of SMEs in Ho Chi Minh City
In the context of global economic integration while still a developing country, Vietnam’s private economic sector, especially small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), plays a vital role in the socio-economic development. SMEs have been making a high contribution to the country such as supplying various kinds of goods and services, creating employment and income for people; attracting investment, developing the local economy, exploiting the potentials and strengths of each region, creating revenues for the state budget... However, SMEs are currently in the shortage of capital for production expansion and technology innovation to improve their competitiveness and expand home and overseas markets. In this article, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is selected as the location to conduct a research project on the capital demand of SMEs.
There are three parts to the article: (1) SMEs and their demand for capital; (2) Real situation of capital demand of the SMEs in HCMC; (3) Some solutions to raising capital for SMEs.
In the second part of the article, the authors describe a survey on 83 SMEs in HCMC in 2010 and make a review of total assets, total capital, average revenues, average costs and profits of the SMEs. In details, the average loan capital demand of a SME in 2010: capital turnover = 11,677/10,742 = 1.087; Capital demand needed for production = 11,096/1.087 = VND 10,208 million; Demand for loan capital = 10,208 – 4,793 = VND 5,415 million/enterprise. According to the findings, the total capital demand of all SMEs in HCMC (over 85,000 SMEs) in 2010 is estimated as followed: VND 5,415 million/SME* 85,000 SMEs = VND 460,275,000 million, up 15.19% compared to 2009. The authors also identify four existing problems. First, SMEs have some limitations which include small production scale, low capital base, backward technology, inadequate facilities and lack of expertise; Second, most of SMEs’ managers use their personal experience to run the business, they are not well trained, therefore they have some problems in financial management and legal procedures; Third, SMEs’ workforce are not very skilled or retrained frequently; Fouth, the lack of capital among SMEs is the biggest difficulty– as they are often founded by individuals or a goups of friends or family members; they are in their early stage of development with limited capital accummulation.
Finally, the authors suggest some measures to raise capital for SMEs, which include: Increasing the equity capital; training and retraining the managers and employees for better management; paying attention to the professionalism of accounting and finance department; increasing banking transactions; taking part in business associations, fostering networking and cooperation; innovating and modernizing the technology, keeping informed of and contributing ideas to the government grants; taking full advantage of the support of the intermediaries...
17. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Loan and Vu Ngoc Giáng Hương, MA – Developing a Service Strategy in order to Increase Efficiency of Using Human Resources and Assets of Guest Houses under Vietnam’s Office of the Party Central Committee
Guest houses under Vietnam’s Office of the Party Central Committee (OPCC) are a revenue raising public service delivery unit with the main task of providing lodging for officials of the Party on work mission or on leave. Besides, the guest houses are entitled to make the most of the existing material and technical facilities and labor force to organize income-generating service activities. However, there have been a lot of limitations in their implementation, resulting in low efficency, poor and unsustanable quality, especially in the volatile environment of hotel services. This article provides some theoretical grounds and builds a research model for developing a service strategy for guest house services in the current context.
In the first part, the authors provide some grounds and necessity for developing a strategy for the guest house services. First, like other services, the guest house services are intangible and will not lead to new ownership under operation; Second, guest house services are a service mix where the main task is pure service and the rest is goods-service mix. Third, guest house services are based mainly on human resources rather than facilities and aimed at satisfying personal needs; Fouth, economically, guest houses under OPCC are unlike commercial ones as they are not-for-profit service delivery unit in terms of mission, and a public agency in terms of ownership; Fifth, thanks to their intangible nature, the guest house services conform to the standard grading classification criteria, no mater who their guests are. The only difference which can be made to the customers is in the regimes or prices of services...
In the second part, a research model for developing a service strategy for guest house services is suggested. The appropriate model in the coming time is to shift from the current strategy into the market-oriented strategy on the basis of customets’ demand; core competence and differentiation, to create sustainable competitive advantages. For such a sucessful shift, it is necessary to create economic and managing premises as followed: First, the name and the organizational model of guest houses are no longer approporiate as they hamper their operation and management. They should be changed into the model of hotel business; Second, it is important to change the organizational model in such a way that stragetegy management is the central focus and on that basis, function management is carried out; Third, the current product-based approach should be shifted into the value and knowlege-based one; Fouth, only when supported by authority agency (Office of the Party Central Committee) and when there is a great determination and wide concensus among competent CEOs can the service delivery strategy be successful.
These are some grounds generated from the principles of business strategy management and the reality. On this foundation, an appropriate research model for developing a service strategy is built basing on the chacteristics of the guest houses of OPCC in Vietnam. Together with suitable research methods, it can help evaluate the real situation and identify the problems of each situation to find out best-suited and feasible solutions.
18. Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Nhan and Mai Hai An– Using the Box - Jenkins Model to Forecast Sales in State-Own Enterprises
Today, there is an urgent need for scientific and empirical forecasts at all levels at the beginning of a new year or a new period of time. For commercial enterprises (CE), sales forecast is considered a decisive factor that can make or break markets. From observations made in CEs in Vietnam, it can be seen that one of the most serious weaknesses in planning is forecasting; and the main cause is the limitation in using forecasting models. In this article, Box-Jenkins model is selected and proved to be justified.
The article is structured into three parts: (1) Introduction of Box-Jenkins model in sales forecast; (2) Real situation of using sales forecasting models in state-owned enterprises (SOEs); (3) Application of Box-Jenkins model from the case of Hapromart.
Some major principles of sales forecast include: dialectic correlation, historical analogy, special characteristics of the subject and the similarities of the subjects of forecasting. In order to be more scientifically convincing, forecasting models can be used in addition to the use of experts in sales forecast. With the time series data, Box-Jenkins methodology for an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model is proved to be appropriate. There are four stages in using the model: Stage 1: Model identification- Identify variables d, p and q; Stage 2: Model estimation; Stage 3: Model checking- Stationarity of the residuals should be tested to choose the best model which is suitable with the available data. Stage 4: Forecast.
The purpose of the research is to evaluate the real situation of using sales forecasting models in SOEs, basing on the primary and secondary data obtained from a survey which was conducted in 2011 with managers of 30/48 bases of Hapromart on the sales forecasting model being used. (50 questionnaires sent out, 45 collected). The findings showed that the sales forecast method used at Hapromart was too simple, inappropriate with market mechanism and rather subjective; furthermore, no model was used. The consequences were that the results were unrealistic… The findings were shocking- 28% of the respondents thought that the error in short-term forecast was 5%; 41% thought that it was 7% and 31% chose 10% (while the acceptable error is less than 3%). Observations and comparisons against Hapromart’s sales figures in the recent years confirm that these figures are believable because there have been big differences between the forecasted sales and the actual sales.
There is a big difference in the forecasted sales generated by Box-Jenkins model (VND 1525324.985 million) and the sales forecasted by the method used by Hapromart (VND 2600.000 million). Especially, when compared against the actual sales of 2011 (VND 1494.898 million), the difference is more obvious. (While the difference is only approximately 2 % compared to the result generated by Box-Jenkins model – which is in acceptable range for short term forecasts). The benefits of using Box-Jenkins model are tremendous, but SOEs must have a precise set of data and competent forecasters who can operate the model.
Abstracts No 53+54
- Prof.Dr. Đinh Van Son – Foreign Direct Investment and the Development of Vietnam Stock Market from Practical View
The article also identifies 2 groups of negative impacts on the development of Vietnam Stock Market: (1) adversely affecting other entities who participate in and/or relate to the market, including: creating challenges, even damage, to domestic investors; increasing the complication of financial regulations in the stock market; increasing challenges to the market administration and supervision agencies; (2) causing risks which may badly affect the development of the market, including: the risk of massive capital withdrawal of foreign investors; increasing the overall risk ratio of the stock market; increasing the risks of inflation and foreign exchange; increasing the risks of foreign capital transfer among economic sectors.
Upon identifying 4 reasons, the article proposes 9 grand solutions to foreign investment in order to sustainably develop Vietnam Stock Market in the coming period, including: (1) continuing timely and flexible fiscal and monetary policies; (2) promptly regulating and adjusting abnormal incidents and unsustainable growth arising in the stock market; (3) fostering the restructuring of the financial market, including the stock market; (4) strengthening supervision on foreign investors’ transactions, both direct and commission, in Vietnam market in general and stock market in particular; (5) enhancing the identification and supervision of information and transactions of hedging funds by foreign investors; (6) in case of urgent incidents which may lead to market instability, administration agency should take necessary and appropriate measures such as disconnecting the market, temporarily ceasing transactions with foreign investors; (7) improving communication with domestic investors to prevent their habit of ‘trendy’ or ‘copycat’ investments; (8) developing financial regulations to restrict the massive capital withdrawal by foreign investors in the stock market; (9) loosening room for foreign investors according to the market opening roadmap under Vietnam WTO’s entry commitment.
2. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Bach Khoa and Nguyen Quang Huy, MA – Problems and Orientations for Business Strategy Restructuring in Vietnam State-Owned Groups in the Present Context
The article stems from 2 grounds: first, from the fact that most Vietnam’s economic groups have the structure of a complex of enterprises covering the whole or most of the supply chain in a major industry, including the parent company, subsidiaries (members) and other associated enterprises. In this complex, parent company is the core to connect subsidiaries and associated enteprises, it controls and dominates the strategic policies of the group, the business strategies for the group in its main industry, the regulations on organization and human resources in subsidiaries; second, from the modern corporate management theory by P.Drucker that the nature of corporate management is the management of its future, in the mean time, management of future means management of its strategies, in which management of business strategy is the backbone.
On these two grounds, the article concludes that in the business structures of enterprises in general and of state-owned economic groups in particular, the essence is its strategic structure, in which the core is business strategic structure. Therefore, restructuring Vietnam’s state-owned economic groups is by nature the restructuring of their business strategies. Besides, the article also identifies 3 main reasons for the need of restructuring business strategies in Vietnam’s state-owned groups: (1) business strategies of Vietnam’s state-owned economic groups are slowly developed and cannot catch up with the changes in the environment and markets of the global, regional and local business areas; consequently their indicators of business results, performance, competitiveness in both domestic and international markets remain weak, even insolvent in somes cases (Vinashin, Vinalines); most groups cannot realize the common strategic goals which the Government have assigned to them; restructuring therefore becomes a must; (2) business strategies of state-owned economic groups are most vulnerable to impacts for 2 reasons: first, they operate under the pressure of leadership in globalization and integration into the international business areas (due to their scale and representativeness); second, because of the global financial crisis and international economic downturn, together with fluctuations in the demand of their industry, enterprises and goups with low competitiveness in the supply chain and big scale often suffer from high inventory and bad consequences, if they continue their current business strategies, they will surely fail; restructuring therefore becomes a must; (3) the Government, as a full or partial owner of the economic groups, has passed a resolution to restructure the state-owned economic groups in the present context, this resolution has been implemented in all groups, initially in the high-ranking administration level. This is the motive force to restructuring business strategies in Vietnam’s state-owned economic groups.
On the basis of implementing the Government’s instructions on restructuring state-owned enterprises in general and state-owned economic groups in particular; from the principles of restructuring business strategies and the analysis of the principles, together with the analysis of TOWS models with opportunities/threats and strengths/weaknesses of state-owned economic groups, the article has identified 8 major orientations to effectively restructure business strategies of these groups, including: (1) transfering the business model from product-based to supply value; (2) adopting the competence-based market-oriented business strategic model; (3) developing the business strategy towards fully covering the supply chain in their main business industries rather than entering other trendy business areas; (4) the core of restructuring business strategies is restructuring the supply chain of the groups towards reducing cost of the entire chain in mid-term and diversifying, differentiating and integrating to the global supply chain in the long term; (5) the framework of business strategy restructuring includes 6 pillars: restructuring business strategic philosophy and changing the groups’ value model towards supplying value to customers; restructuring the strategies of price selecting and positioning in domestic markets and global target market segments; restructuring the strategies of creating and sharing differentiated values to the target market (segment); restructuring the strategies of communications, business promotion and developing supporting industries to each major business industry; (6) restructuring business strategies should pay attention to restructuring risks and creating national strong brands as well as international prestigious brands; (7) restructuring business competence should pay attention to creating and improving core competence, differentiation by focusing on raising financial capacity, infrastructure, marketing, production and operations in the mid term and enhancing human resources, leadership and value based on intellectual creation in the long term; (8) restructuring business strategies by nature means creating and ensuring investment portfolio in the new business units with high efficiency in the target market which is appropriate to the groups’ business competence, it is therefore often associated with M&A, consolidation, dissolution, capital sharing, partnerhip, etc. this process cannot take place in a short time but immediate with high consensus and commitment to the goals of restructuring. Therefore, it is necessary to bring into full play the leadership of the Party unit, the consensus and political resolution of CEOs and management board to communicate, persuade and ensure the benefits of the staff so that the restructuring of business strategies can be successful.
3. A/Prof.Dr. Đinh Van Thanh – Orientations and Solutions to Make Use of Preferential Tariffs in Free Trade Zones to Promote Vietnam’s Exports
Catching up with the trends of globalization and free trade, besides the efforts to promote and join the global multi-lateral linkage (WTO), since the 1990s of the 20th century, Vietnam has regarded the foreign trade area (FTA) linkage as an important pillar. The article estimates that since 1995, Vietnam has established FTA with 16 countries in 6 regional FTAs and 2 bilateral FTAs, at present the country is negotiating to participate in 2 regional FTAs and 1 bilateral FTA. On this basis, the article evaluates the situation of making use of preferential tariffs from FTAs on Vietnam exports and points out 2 major advantages: increasing export turnover and increasing the proportion of exported products which are entitled to preferential tariffs (the proportion of products with preferential C/O) over the products exported to non-FTA markets; at the same time it identifies 2 main weaknesses in adopting preferential tariff: the low effectiveness of communications to state-owned enterprises and administration agencies about exporting policies in general and the benefits of and regulations on procedures to be entitled to preferential tariffs in FTA framework; a large number of state-owned enterprises are not active enough and not yet able to identify and respond to the requirements to enjoy the preferentials of joining FTAs of the nation.
With the aims of helping Vietnamese enterprises to take advantages of preferential tariffs in FTAs, the article presents 3 specific instructional views to implement the general policies, 3 strategic objectives in participating FTAs, 2 principles and 5 grounds to select partners in FTAs with 3 criteria for selection and list of priorities in FTA negotiation. The article then proposes 4 groups of solutions to utilize preferential tariffs in FTAs to promote Vietnam exports in the coming time, including: (1) adjusting investment policies towards developing supporting industries to reduce the imports of intermediate inputs, increasing the proportion of domesticalization and added values in exported products; (2) completing the trading policies appropriate to Vietnam conditions without contradicting with FTAs commimments which Vietnam is and likely to participate in; (3) actively adjusting the structures of export and domestic markets in accordance with import-export strategies by 2020, vision by 2030; (4) accelerating administration reforms to create favorable conditions for enterprises to take advantage of preferential C/O certificates.
4. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Phuong Lien – Solutions to Completing Investment Administration Policies in Vietnam Stock Market
The article generalizes the stock market and investment activities in Vietnam’s stock market over the past 12 years of establishment and development through quantitative indicators such as the number and types of the market entities, the number of securities codes, the average transaction scale and the market capitalization rate as well as through development indicators such as the transition from semi-automatic, direct transaction technology to automatic, electronic-based transactions, in which emphasizes the growth in the number of investors in general, foreign investors in particular in terms of both individual and organization accounts. On this basis, the article points out 4 problems: first, despite some certain benefits, the division of the market into two sub-markets (HOSE and HNX) with different listing conditions has revealed some limitations which are not suitable to the trend of unification and development of Vietnam stock market in depth; second, the development of the market is oriented towards supply rather than demand; third, the market information system remains weak, which fails to meet the demand for standard information activities; fourth, the structure of investosr is imbalanced (with majority of private investors with poor behavioral competence and short-term investment capital).
The article also looks into the situation of investment management in Vietnam stock market in the past time by pointing out the new features in the latest legal documents of the Government (Circular No. 14/2001/TT – BTC taking effect from 1 August 2011). After 1 year in practice, this new policy has brought about 4 achievements: first, creating a comprehensive, synchronous and systematic legal framework for investment activities in the stock market; second, increasing supervision of state administration agencies on investment in the stock market; third, creating legal foundations for intermediaries and professional investors in the market; fourth, enhancing the accordance of Vietnam policies with international stock market and international integration.
At the same time, the article identifies 5 weaknesses in the policies, including: first, there are not yet documents to instruct some new investment operations (derivatives) and mechanism to control the scale and purposes of the capital flow in the market; second, there are not yet clear regulations to control the transitions among investment forms of foreign capital to ensure the safety and security of the stock market; third, it is not yet possible to comprehensively control foreign capital, especially in the free market or over investment trust through local investors; fourth, the administration of foreign investment in the stock market has not yet met the standards of accounting, auditing and transparence of the reports, the organization of administration is dispersed; fifth, there are not yet regulations on aggregate supply of foreign investment in the stock market in each period as well as preventions and solutions to the risks of massive withdrawal by foreign investors.
Upon identifying the reasons for this situation, the article proposes 6 grand solutions to completing investment administration policies in Vietnam stock market in the coming time: first, researching and approving instructional documents on some newly-arising investment operations in the market; second, supplementing policies to balance and diversify investors, especially stimulating organizational investors; third, competing mechanism to supervise trusts (transactions and investment) of foreign investors; forth, steadily removing regulations on the maximum ownership ratio of foreign investors; fifth, researching and approving mechanism to accelerate the effective and prompt cooperation between State Securities Commission and State Bank to share information and administration of investment capital in the stock market; sixth, enhancing the legal position, autonomy and competence of state administration on the stock market in general and investment in the market in particular.
5. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Quoc Thinh – Anti Dumping – An Approach from Protectionism View
The article opens with a view that although in principle anti-dumping, a factor constituting tariff barriers in international trade, is considered a tool to ensure fair trade, because of obscure regulations, in practice, it has somewhat become a device of protectionism; therefore Vietnamese enterprises should be well aware of it to have appropriate behavior in both roles: petitioner and defendant in the anti-dumping cases.
The article then summarizes some concepts related to anti-dumping and anti-dumping measures in accordance with WTO’s regulations, presents some anti-dumping cases by WTO’s members since 1995 from the view of protectionism and comes up with some figures: of the total 154 WTO’s members, there have been 4,010 anti-dumping cases with 46 petitioners and 102 defendants, in most cases, powerful, developed members/nations took proceedings against weak, developing ones (except for China which is the most sued country); the number of countries which frequently apply and account for 90% of anti-dumping investigations represent only 12% (18 members); the countries which filed the most anti-dumping cases are those who tend to run the most protectionism.
On this basis, the article analyses some anti-dumping cases against Vietnam or related to Vietnam since June 2012, totaling 45 cases, and comes to conclusion that: first, members which are mostly sued are countries/regions which have the largest import turnover of the same products to Vietnam; second, the members which take most proceedings against Vietnam are the major export markets of Vietnam; third, in the anti-dumping cases against Vietnam, there are many factors related to procedures and files on evaluating the damage to domestic production of the importing countries and applying WTO’s investigation regulations (the article on normal prices of the third comparable country) and these factors should be taken into consideration.
In the opposite side, Vietnam is among 105 WTO members which have not taken anti-dumping proceedings against any countries despite these risks. This fact stems from 3 weaknesses: weak behavioral competence, weak industrial linkage and weak financial capacity to pursue the case. On this basis, the article proposes some policy implications to Vietnamese enterprises in case they are sued against dumping: linking international trade activities with diplomatic activities of the state and organizations, individuals; making business and production activities transparent in accordance with international standards and conventions (Vietnam and international accounting standards); being cautious about anti-dumping traps and the supports in the relationships with foreign importers; finding solutions to make use of the supports from consumer associations from in the petitioning countries; enhancing the competence of identification and warning of state administration agencies on the likelihood of dumping of imported products; strengthening the linkage and alliance among enterprises in the same industry; increasing communications and propaganda as well as raising professional knowledge of enterprises on dumping and anti-dumping measures.
6. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Viet & Nguyen Huy Hoang, MA. – Delivered Value of Market Offering in Place Marketing to Attract Investments in Industrial Zones in Vietnam (Model and Research Methods)
Place marketing and its application in both management and social aspects of a locality and particularly in attracting investments into local industrial zones is new but essential in the current context of Vietnam. With different approach from other works, the article looks into the research topic from the view that considers each locality as an investment destination, thus the core concept of products in place marketing to lure investment is seen as a valuable local investment destination (LID) which is managed by local authority and offered for target investors to satisfy the demand and expectation for shared values for each individual market. From which, the article points out some basic principles of modern marketing applied in place marketing to attract investment such as principles of customer value and market offering in place marketing.
Moreover, the article also builds a research model based on a preliminary research to analyze value structure of market offering factors from the quality of a local investment destination and services/ fees based on values related to investment and business. As a result, a research model on delivered and shared values of target investors is drawn out with 5 factors:
- Place’s image economic value of an LID
- Place’s business value of an LID
- Value of investment and business related services provided in the place
- Value of organization and human factors in legal – political environment to attract investments of the place
- Value of investment and business regulation and procedures in the place
In order to identify the research methods, the article bases on the classification of two views on investors’ actually delivered value and perceived value to select the market questionnaire as the main method. It later designs a research method with the research subject, scope, samples and questionnaire with 5 independent variables and 28 items; Likert’s 5-point scale; sampling and data analysis by SPSS16.0. The analysis includes testing the hypotheses on statistical relationship of variables and items with values divided by Conbach’s Alpha, median and standard deviation of each item and variable. These results help assess the shared and delivered values for target investors to evaluate the investment attraction of an LID and compare with those of another LID or average indicator. Places (provinces) in a country can identify their relative value positioning in attracting investment in positioning map.
7. A/Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Vietnam University of Commerce – Measuring Customer Value of Enterprises – Methods and Application.
Maximizing delivered value in line with the demand of each target customer group is the main aim of the production and business process which is the measurement of enterprises’ survival and development in the world’s economic recession with no current positive signs of recovery. Implementing this business idea requires enterprises’ management to select and effectively employ measures to identify economic value delivered by customers/ customer groups under each strategic business unit (SBU), from which creates essential condition for developing relevant business strategies. Since the late 20th century, there have been a lot of research on suggestions and implementations of methods to identify economic value delivered by customers/ customer groups to the enterprises, namely (1) Total customer value; (2) Previous period customer Revenue (PCR); (3) Past customer Value (PCV); (4) Customer lifetime Value (CLV); (5) Customer referral Value (CRV). CLV and CRV are considered by real managers as the most advanced methods to measure enterprises’ customer value. In the article, the author would like to provide an overview on CLV and CRV, then determine the process and explain conditions to implement and measure the customer economic value to create the basis for setting target marketing strategies for the enterprise.
The article includes:
- An overview on CLV and CRV
- Process of researching and measuring customer value
- Conditions to apply customer value measurement
There are 4 steps in calculating customer value including calculating the lifetime value of each customer; calculating the influential value of each customer; segmenting customers based on CLV and CRV; determining target marketing strategies of the enterprise through segmentation.
In the last part, the article suggests some conditions to apply customer value measurement method which is forcasting CLV, CRV on the essential condition that the enterprise has to collect, store comprehensive and updated customer data as well as practical research on customer introduction under each marketing program of the enterprise. It is then necessary to coordinate and implement both CLV and CRV logically. On the basis of identifying customer value, the enterprise can select the best cost-effective marketing strategy and investment with extra focus on two customer groups (1) for those with high CLV but low CRV the enterprise needs to address to increase customer introduction value; (2) for those with low CLV but high CRV the enterprise needs to implement marketing solutions to enhance CLV and maintain CRV development.
8. A/Prof. Dr. Phan Thi Thu Hoai, Vietnam University of Commerce – Marketing Strategies to Create Competitive Advantages for Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises in the Current Context of Intensive Economic Integration.
Global economic integration has changed the domestic and international business environment and markets as well as increased the competitive pressure even in domestic market. Local enterprises of Vietnam have some disadvantages in comparison with foreign competitors, especially multinationals and global companies in terms of resources, experience and capability. In order to improve the competitive advantages in domestic and international markets, marketing strategies of local companies should be based on developing their competitive advantages namely global vision, local insight, unique value awareness, cultural differences exploitation. Marketing strategies to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese companies should be centralized and differentiated including determining segments and target market positioning according to local characteristics, localizing offers and products, developing relationship with partners in value delivery chain in localities, enhancing modern sales channels in addition to traditional ones and supplying differentiated value based on their own assets.
The article includes 3 parts:
1. Theoretical background
2. Real situation and resources to create competitive advantages for small and medium enterprises in developing countries in the new context
3. Suggestions on developing marketing strategies to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese enterprises in the new context
In the beginning, the article gives an overview on business environment of enterprises in integration on national, regional and international scale. Through combining theories of different researchers on creating competitive advantages for local enterprises, it can be seen that economic integration has changed competitive pressure and instability of domestic and foreign business environment. Therefore, in order to be successful in international market, enterprises in general and Vietnamese companies in particular need to have strategies to create competitive advantages on both domestic and foreign markets, especially marketing strategies to help companies gain advantages in business.
In order to win the competition, companies have to focus on developing overall competitive strategies and marketing strategies to create advantages including global vision with local insight; unique value supply; cultural resources exploitation. They are the strengths of local companies compared to international and global competitors from developed countries.
Finally, the article suggests some solutions to develop marketing strategies to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese enterprises in the new context namely determining segments and positioning target market based on local characteristics; localizing offers and products; strengthening relationship with partners in value supply chain; improving modern sales channels together with traditional ones; supplying differential value based on enterprises’ own assets.
9. Dr. Cao Tuan Khanh, Vietnam University of Commerce – Mobile Marketing and Industry Competitive Strategies of Vietnamese Enterprises in Integration
Like the Internet, mobile and mobile marketing have created many new industries including placement services. In the same situation as the Internet, its biggest influence lies in its restructuring existing industries. Mobile marketing has most influenced industries with high mobile information uses, large mobile labour or easy-to-mobilize activities. Each industry has its own features which means each is affected by mobile marketing differently. However, wide mobile marketing trends tend to influence different industries.
The article is divided into 4 parts:
1. Introduction
2. Real situation of Vietnamese enterprises in applying mobile marketing
3. The application and influence of mobile marketing on forces in competitive strategies of trading industry
4. Conclusion
In the first part, the author briefly introduces telecom market in Vietnam - one of the world’s fastest growing areas in mobile network development. The rapid development of mobile services marketing in Vietnam from subsidized, monopoly to competitive status has created a diversified, dynamic and customer value- oriented market. Rapid growth of the mobile market also leads to some problems such as those related to connection, management on resources, digital data, networks switching with the same numbers, etc. The biggest challenge in the digital age involves supplying higher customer value and satisfaction than competitors. It relates to two factors affecting value supply which are industrial force determining capability to supply value and relative competitive advantage allowing a company to overcome other competitors. To address one in two factors, the article adopts research with five forces model of M. Porter including industrial rivalry, new entrants, substitutes, customers and suppliers.
The research and interview with mobile marketing users show the awareness of marketing companies, suppliers and customers in Vietnam of mobile marketing in the real situation.
Mobile marketing application and influence on forces in industry competitive strategies include industry rivalry, threat from substitutes, threat of the new entrants/ exits (entering barriers), bargaining power of suppliers. To industrial rivalry whether new or existing, the attraction of an industry is determined by competitive forces and competitive power is adjusted by some interactive forces. The application of mobile marketing can have an effect on all of those. In the industry with few and mature companies, mobile marketing use tends to enhance the focus and balance, i.e. fixed costs at first. Threats from substitutes: the influence of the substitutes leads to the price balance of mobile devices. On the customers’ viewpoint, the application of mobile marketing brings positive results, expanding the market for enterprises. Threats of new entrants/ exits: companies using mobile marketing entering the industry tends to raise the entrance barriers by eliminating redundancy and helping to increase general efficiency. Bargaining power of suppliers: appliers can employ their bargaining power on other companies in the industry by increasing/ decreasing the price, quality of the products and services. Bargaining power of buyers: with mobile marketing, the buyers can hold significant bargaining power, especially when they gather as a large group with lower switching costs than other companies and vice versa they have information and full access to subtitute offers.
The analysis of mobile marketing adoption can be seen from the viewpoint of single company (value chain) and industry in which competing companies (industrial forces) can be studied systematically by the analysis to indicate the potential role of mobile marketing in differentiating value performance, lowering costs and offering more improvements. This potential can create strategic advantage because it brings companies new method to overtake the competitors. Apart from changing value performance, mobile marketing also changes competitive forces, then the whole industrial structure.
10. Dr. Nguyen Viet Thai, Vietnam University of Commerce – Organizing Tour Guiding in Lang Son – based Travel Agencies.
Tour guiding (TG) plays an important role in tourism business, it is the core activity of the travel agencies. The quality of tour program (TP), the satisfaction of tourists mainly depend on the organization of tour guiding in travel agencies. Therefore, the organization of TG is essential to improve the quality of tourism products, the competitiveness of tourism businesses and the attraction of the tourism destinations.
Lang Son has rich potential for tourism and an important location in Vietnam’s tourism development strategy. However, Lang Son’s tourism has not yet developed in parallel with its potentials with such weaknesses as low tourism services quality, underdeveloped infrastructure, and unprofessional TG organization. Thus, it is necessary to accomplish the organization of TG in travel agencies in Lang Son province.
The article consists of three parts:
1. An overview on the performance of travel agencies in Lang Son province in recent years
2. The real situation of organizing TG of travel agencies in Lang Son province through customers survey
3. Some suggestions on improving the organization of TG in travel agencies in Lang Son province
In the first part, the article gives a brief overview on Lang Son as an attractive destination. The province’s tourism industry has recently grown rapidly in terms of tourists numbers and revenue. To now, there are 15 travel agencise licensed by Vietnam Administration of Tourism including 9 provincial companies, 5 branches and 1 representative office with over 60 registered tour guides.
By surveying 120 tourists who took part in the TP organized by some travel agencies in Lang Son province, the article measures the quality of the tour guiding in the province’s travel agencies with such indicators as tour guides’ attitude; tour guides’ credibility; tour guides’ knowledge; guides’ problem-solving skills; customer satisfaction on tour guides’ quality; customer satisfaction on travel services quality; customer satisfaction on the after-sales services. By evaluating the tour guiding performance in travel agencies in Lang Son province, the autor suggests the strengths, weaknesses and the reasons. From that, he makes suggestions to improve the tour guiding organization. Travel agencies should build a standard tour guiding procedure suitable for the condition of the companies; they need to design compatible programs; administration and management should pay some sudden visit to check on new and inexperienced tour guides during the tours to avoid unnecessary problems; the managers have to build the process to solve problems arisen during the tours based on tour guides’ suggestions after each tour and supervise service suppliers.
11. Nguyen Thi Quynh Huong, MA., Vietnam University of Commerce - Tourism Human Resources Development – Solution to Improve Competitiveness of Quang Ninh Province
The approach of “Tourism Human Resources Development – Solution to Improve Competitiveness of Quang Ninh Province” is right and necessary in the current context of integration. The research also identifies the key elements to improve the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province including infrastructure, tourism technical and material conditions, institution, development cooperation, and tourism human resources. The research confirms that of the above elements, tourism human resources play the most important and strategic role; hence the paper focuses on studying the situation of tourism human resources development of Quang Ninh province, thus assessing the success and shortcomings in the development of tourism human resources. On the basis of utilizing theoretical and practical research results, the paper puts forward several solutions to improve the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province.
The paper consists of five parts:
- Rationale
- Theoretical Background
- Methodology
- Result analysis
- Conclusions, solutions, and petitions
In the theoretical background, the paper mentions several concepts of human resources in general and tourism human resources; the core nature of human resources development is increasing the quality and quantity of human resources. The method used in this research is synthesizing and analyzing data, comparing secondary data which is a statistic of the total direct workers in tourism; collecting documents related to tourism human resources development and improving the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province.
In the following part, the paper analyses the research results including the situation of Quang Ninh tourism human resources (the quantity, quality and labor structure) and the real situation of Quang Ninh tourism human resources development (staff training, tourism vocational schools – technical and material conditions for training, staff and teachers; government administration; the policy system to develop tourism human resources) shown in the sheet of the total direct workers of Quang Ninh province in 2010 and the diagram of sex structure in tourism professions of Quang Ninh province.
After analyzing research results, the researcher comes to a conclusion of success and shortcomings of tourism human resources and Quang Ninh province’s tourism human resources development. Accordingly, the research also suggests several solutions to improve the competitiveness of Quang Ninh province.
12. Nguyen Thu Huong, MA., Defense Economic Technical Industry Corporation (GAET) - Improving Accounting Activity in Enterprises Adopting Parent-Subsidiary Model under the Ministry of National Defense
Nowadays, Parent-Subsidiary is considered an advanced model which has been being implemented in enterprises throughout Vietnam in general and enterprises under the Ministry of National Defense in particular. However, in the period of transition, there will appear many problems including problems in accounting activity in the enterprises adopting this model. Given the real situation of accounting activity of enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense, the researcher carried out research and analysis thus coming to several constructive ideas to improve accounting activity in these enterprises.
The paper includes three parts:
- Methodology
- The real situation in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense
- Constructive ideas to improve accounting activity in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense
The enterprises under the Ministry of National Defense are mostly about national security and defense coordinating with doing business, with an aim to make contribution to protecting the country, building and developing the country’s economy, and to take a proactive position in financing the nation’s reserve army in the peaceful period. However, the enterprises are in the process of integration and shifting to adopting Parent-Subsidiary model. Operating under the new model in the context of competitive market requires enterprises to organize their accounting activity well to meet the demand so that in shifting to the new model they can catch up with accounting information, make good decisions and have business performance. The paper combines more than one method to study accounting activity in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense.
In terms of the real situation, the paper defines Parent-Subsidiary model and accounting system organization; the real situation of organizing accounting in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense. In terms of accounting system organization, the parent company and its subsidiaries are independent legal entities, so the accounting systems of these enterprises are normally both centralized and decentralized. In terms of document system and initial record organization, most enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary model under the Ministry of National Defense are of large size, so their accounting document systems are kept under the existing accounting document regime attached with Decision No. 15/2006/QD-BTC issued on March, 20th, 2006 by Minister of Finance. In terms of applying the account system, the company uses the account system under Decision No. 15/2006/QD-BTC as well as opens primary and secondary subsidiary accounts for their units. In terms of accounting book system organization, the company’s and its subsidiaries’ accounting reports are made quarterly and annually at the end of the accounting year complying with existing accounting standards. In terms of auditing organization, auditing activity is implemented seriously; enterprises carry out quarterly auditing over their subsidiaries by sending staff from the company’s accounting department to the subsidiaries to audit directly. Hereby, the researcher draws the advantages and disadvantages of accounting activity.
In the final part, the paper suggests several constructive ideas to improve accounting activity in enterprises adopting Parent-Subsidiary Model under the Ministry of National Defense; those are: the accounting apparatus should be changed; the relationship between the parent company’s and the subsidiaries’ accounting apparatus should be identified; the capital structure of the two sides should be clarified; accounting standards and regulations should be improved and perfected; information technology should be used in accounting activity in a flexible way.
13. Dr. Nguyen Viet Thai and Nguyen Bao Ngoc, MA. - Improving Marketing Control at Foodstuff Trading Companies – Real Situation and Some Solutions
The status and benefits of marketing control in the marketing management of modern companies have been confirmed; however in the current conditions and context of Vietnam, in the implementation of marketing control there still exist a number of shortcomings and limitations in terms of the content, procedures, and methods of organization and implementation.
In the first part of the paper, the researchers focus on analyzing and assessing the real situation of marketing control development in Hanoi Foodstuff Company. In order to carry out independently, systematically and comprehensively the marketing environment control, marketing strategy, marketing organization and system, marketing productivity and functions of this enterprise, the researchers choose the method of description and analysis, and social survey through questionnaires and expert interviews. The researchers assess the real situation at two levels: (1) Marketing control in units directly under the company; (2) Marketing control at Hanoi Foodstuff Company. To accurately and comprehensively assess the marketing control management organization at branch level, the researchers choose three among eleven of the company’s branches which are directly doing business (Van Ho Supermarket, Le Quy Don Food Store, and the Business Center under the company’s sales department). The interviews with the experts and survey carried out in the 3 branches in 3 years (2010-2912) bring about some conclusions: the branches directly under the company hardly implement marketing control; the strategic plan control effectiveness of the branches is really low; the branches under the company have build plans to control marketing organization and functions, but the implementation is just superficial; the branches themselves control marketing efficiency merely through revenues and the rate of revenue growth but hardly control the efficiency of marketing functions, etc.
In such situation, in the second part the researchers suggest several solutions to improve marketing control efficiency at Hanoi Foodstuff Company in particular and foodstuff trading companies in general, namely: (1) Clearly identify the responsibilities, power and duties of the marketing control departments at company level and branch level, at the same time build an optimal system to organize and combine operations within the marketing control department and with other control departments in the company; (2) Implement fully and comprehensively all aspects of marketing control including: marketing environment control, marketing strategy control, marketing organization and system control, etc.; (3) Build a system of standards and deploy marketing efficiency control with one modern, suitable procedure and method in order to accurately identify and update the marketing control norms of the company and its branches; (4) Strengthen control on the company’s social responsibility and marketing culture; (5) Synchronously develop resources for the company’s marketing control.
14. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Loan and Chu Dinh Dong - CEO Human Resources Strategy Development at Companies under Vinashin – Real Situation through Case Study and Issues
The research focuses on analyzing and assessing the real situation of CEO human resources structure of Vinashin. Basing on case studies, the researchers make some conclusions and put forward the issues that need to be dealt with to restructure CEO human resources strategy of Vinashin in the coming time.
Restructuring the CEO human resources strategy of enterprises must be considered frequently, or an imbalance in the system may happen at any time. Put in reality, the aspects in developing CEO human resources of enterprises in general and Vinashin member firms in particular include: (1) analyzing the strategic changes and identify the orientation to restructure CEO human resources strategy; (2) restructuring the CEO human resources building strategy; (3) restructuring the CEO human resources utilizing strategy; (4) restructuring the CEO human resources maintaining and improving strategy. In the second part, the researchers use critical instance research in order to study several really remarkable and necessary cases to check the value of the affirmations related to the situation of CEO human resources strategy development of the member firms of Vinashin. Accordingly, the criteria chosen to be studied as critical instance include: (1) instances of poor macroeconomic management; (2) instance of loss-making business due to wrong implementation of the main functions; (3) instance of loss-making business due to wrong identification of business strategy; (4) instance of profitable business because of promoting the ability of top managers. The survey focuses on 3 main issues including organization and planning framework; the real situation of operational efficiency; the real situation of CEO human resources strategic structure.
In the third part of the paper, the researchers discuss the research findings on the real situation of CEO human resources operational efficiency and strategic structure as following: (1) in terms of organization and planning framework, there needs to be an adjustment in the organizational structure by merging, splitting, and establishing new departments; human resources planning needs researching and adjusting in a descending mode after functions and duties correction and a perfected detailed job description for each position; (2) there needs to be an amendment of functions and duties to match Vinashin’s new situation; (3) there still exist a score of weaknesses and shortcomings in market forecasting and business and manufacturing planning; weaknesses in management and manufacturing implementation; financing without feasible projects, etc.
From the critical instance research of the real situation of Vinashin’s CEO human resources strategy, the researchers have come to several conclusions: (1) most firms under Vinashin are not aware of the importance of business strategy management and strategy restructuring in cases of sudden business strategy changes, especially the status and the role of unit strategies including CEO human resources strategy; (2) Vinashin has not transformed itself from a product provider into a value provider to customer in which CEO human resources play a pioneer part in shaping and implementing; (3) firms under Vinashin do not show an innovation in management quality to make it suitable, effective, and compatible to modern management; (4) business strategy restructuring in general and CEO human resources strategy in particular in firms under Vinashin is basically in short of systematism, breakthrough and a system’s essential components; the efficiency of strategy restructuring solutions is still low, etc.; (5) developing business strategy organization and restructuring in general and CEO human resources strategy in particular in firms under Vinashin does not match its requirements and content.
15. Prof.Dr. Nguyen Bach Khoa and Canh Chi Quan, MA – Views and Solutions to Improving Customer Transportation Service Capacity of Vietnam Airlines
Upon generalizing the researching principles on customer transportation capacity of airline companies, the authors evaluate the transportation service supplying capacity of Vietnam Airlines, from which set up views and solutions to improving the capacity of this coorperation in present context.
In part 1 of the article, the authors emphasize that the supplying capacity of customer transportation services of airline companies could be improved by the following 4 steps: (1) improving capacity levels by order from core competence to value supplying competence and moving competence to ensure the sustainability of the system competences and facilitate the competences at higher levels; (2) in each competence level, selecting indicators with high effectiveness and speading or indicators with inequilibrium versus comparative standard to focus investment in to improve the competence; (3) in each selected indicator, dealing with parametres of weaknesses which may affect the value of this indicator or parametres with effect/cost which may raise the value of the indicator; (4) order of priority to improve the customer transportation service supplying competence of airline companies: (i) improving the strength of core competence and comparative position of the customer transportation service supplying system; (ii) improving the competence to supply the real value and competitive position in the market of the system; (iii) improving the moving competitiveness and developing value positioning in the market of the system.
In part 2, based on secondary data collected from business reports and orientations of Vietnam Airlines, the findings of market and customer research of the cooperation in 3 years of 2009 – 2012, the authors conduct a survey via questionnaires and come up with general evaluation on Vietnam Airlines’ supplying capacity of customer transportation services as follows:
* Achievements and strengths: Vietnam Airlines has set up long-term market-oriented business strategies to develop its transportation service supplying system in general and customer transportation service system in particular and has built up its position in this market; the company has cared of and invested in fundamental factors to create core capacity, which helps lay the foundation to enhance its service supplying competence and effectiveness; it has also attempted to develop its moving competence, raise its indices of marketing offer, quality, service reliability, image, reputation and brand name; it has gained comparatively better results than some other airlines in the region.
* Limitations and weaknesses: Despite having built up market-oriented business strategies for customer transportation service, Vietnam Airlines has not implemented these strategies sustainably due to the lack of considerations based on moving and real supplying competences so the results just reach the average level; some core competences creating factors are lower than the level of route extension, the level of increasing market scale and improving service supplying capacity of the cooperation, especially the differentiation level, has not been appropriately attended to; the company has not fully exploited all factors in its moving competitive competence which customers highly appreciate such as exclusive differentiations, service quality and productivity; it has not been well aware of the position and role of value supplying factors, the effectiveness of selecting and positioning value supply is lower than the requirement for development and its position.
In the final part, based on the situation of supplying capacity in airline customer tranporation services as well as the forecast and orientations of Vietnam Airlines, the authors propose some solutions to improving the company’s supplying capacity as follows: (1) as for airports, it is necessary to take synchronous actions to improve the core competence and differentiations, the moving and value supplying capacity to customers; (2) as for Vietnam Airlines’ representative offices and branches, it is necessary to implement measures to improve the capacity of attracting buyers and selling tickets to target customers such as improving core competence and differentiations, improving value supplying capacity to customers; (3) as for the solutions to improve the customer transportation service supplying capacity of Vietnam Airlines, it is necessary to develop its organization and human resources, raise capital, develop the administration IT system under ICAO and Sky Team standards.
16. Truong Van Khanh, M.A and Vo Đuc Toan, M.A - Demand for Capital of SMEs in Ho Chi Minh City
In the context of global economic integration while still a developing country, Vietnam’s private economic sector, especially small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), plays a vital role in the socio-economic development. SMEs have been making a high contribution to the country such as supplying various kinds of goods and services, creating employment and income for people; attracting investment, developing the local economy, exploiting the potentials and strengths of each region, creating revenues for the state budget... However, SMEs are currently in the shortage of capital for production expansion and technology innovation to improve their competitiveness and expand home and overseas markets. In this article, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is selected as the location to conduct a research project on the capital demand of SMEs.
There are three parts to the article: (1) SMEs and their demand for capital; (2) Real situation of capital demand of the SMEs in HCMC; (3) Some solutions to raising capital for SMEs.
In the second part of the article, the authors describe a survey on 83 SMEs in HCMC in 2010 and make a review of total assets, total capital, average revenues, average costs and profits of the SMEs. In details, the average loan capital demand of a SME in 2010: capital turnover = 11,677/10,742 = 1.087; Capital demand needed for production = 11,096/1.087 = VND 10,208 million; Demand for loan capital = 10,208 – 4,793 = VND 5,415 million/enterprise. According to the findings, the total capital demand of all SMEs in HCMC (over 85,000 SMEs) in 2010 is estimated as followed: VND 5,415 million/SME* 85,000 SMEs = VND 460,275,000 million, up 15.19% compared to 2009. The authors also identify four existing problems. First, SMEs have some limitations which include small production scale, low capital base, backward technology, inadequate facilities and lack of expertise; Second, most of SMEs’ managers use their personal experience to run the business, they are not well trained, therefore they have some problems in financial management and legal procedures; Third, SMEs’ workforce are not very skilled or retrained frequently; Fouth, the lack of capital among SMEs is the biggest difficulty– as they are often founded by individuals or a goups of friends or family members; they are in their early stage of development with limited capital accummulation.
Finally, the authors suggest some measures to raise capital for SMEs, which include: Increasing the equity capital; training and retraining the managers and employees for better management; paying attention to the professionalism of accounting and finance department; increasing banking transactions; taking part in business associations, fostering networking and cooperation; innovating and modernizing the technology, keeping informed of and contributing ideas to the government grants; taking full advantage of the support of the intermediaries...
17. A/Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Loan and Vu Ngoc Giáng Hương, MA – Developing a Service Strategy in order to Increase Efficiency of Using Human Resources and Assets of Guest Houses under Vietnam’s Office of the Party Central Committee
Guest houses under Vietnam’s Office of the Party Central Committee (OPCC) are a revenue raising public service delivery unit with the main task of providing lodging for officials of the Party on work mission or on leave. Besides, the guest houses are entitled to make the most of the existing material and technical facilities and labor force to organize income-generating service activities. However, there have been a lot of limitations in their implementation, resulting in low efficency, poor and unsustanable quality, especially in the volatile environment of hotel services. This article provides some theoretical grounds and builds a research model for developing a service strategy for guest house services in the current context.
In the first part, the authors provide some grounds and necessity for developing a strategy for the guest house services. First, like other services, the guest house services are intangible and will not lead to new ownership under operation; Second, guest house services are a service mix where the main task is pure service and the rest is goods-service mix. Third, guest house services are based mainly on human resources rather than facilities and aimed at satisfying personal needs; Fouth, economically, guest houses under OPCC are unlike commercial ones as they are not-for-profit service delivery unit in terms of mission, and a public agency in terms of ownership; Fifth, thanks to their intangible nature, the guest house services conform to the standard grading classification criteria, no mater who their guests are. The only difference which can be made to the customers is in the regimes or prices of services...
In the second part, a research model for developing a service strategy for guest house services is suggested. The appropriate model in the coming time is to shift from the current strategy into the market-oriented strategy on the basis of customets’ demand; core competence and differentiation, to create sustainable competitive advantages. For such a sucessful shift, it is necessary to create economic and managing premises as followed: First, the name and the organizational model of guest houses are no longer approporiate as they hamper their operation and management. They should be changed into the model of hotel business; Second, it is important to change the organizational model in such a way that stragetegy management is the central focus and on that basis, function management is carried out; Third, the current product-based approach should be shifted into the value and knowlege-based one; Fouth, only when supported by authority agency (Office of the Party Central Committee) and when there is a great determination and wide concensus among competent CEOs can the service delivery strategy be successful.
These are some grounds generated from the principles of business strategy management and the reality. On this foundation, an appropriate research model for developing a service strategy is built basing on the chacteristics of the guest houses of OPCC in Vietnam. Together with suitable research methods, it can help evaluate the real situation and identify the problems of each situation to find out best-suited and feasible solutions.
18. Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Nhan and Mai Hai An– Using the Box - Jenkins Model to Forecast Sales in State-Own Enterprises
Today, there is an urgent need for scientific and empirical forecasts at all levels at the beginning of a new year or a new period of time. For commercial enterprises (CE), sales forecast is considered a decisive factor that can make or break markets. From observations made in CEs in Vietnam, it can be seen that one of the most serious weaknesses in planning is forecasting; and the main cause is the limitation in using forecasting models. In this article, Box-Jenkins model is selected and proved to be justified.
The article is structured into three parts: (1) Introduction of Box-Jenkins model in sales forecast; (2) Real situation of using sales forecasting models in state-owned enterprises (SOEs); (3) Application of Box-Jenkins model from the case of Hapromart.
Some major principles of sales forecast include: dialectic correlation, historical analogy, special characteristics of the subject and the similarities of the subjects of forecasting. In order to be more scientifically convincing, forecasting models can be used in addition to the use of experts in sales forecast. With the time series data, Box-Jenkins methodology for an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model is proved to be appropriate. There are four stages in using the model: Stage 1: Model identification- Identify variables d, p and q; Stage 2: Model estimation; Stage 3: Model checking- Stationarity of the residuals should be tested to choose the best model which is suitable with the available data. Stage 4: Forecast.
The purpose of the research is to evaluate the real situation of using sales forecasting models in SOEs, basing on the primary and secondary data obtained from a survey which was conducted in 2011 with managers of 30/48 bases of Hapromart on the sales forecasting model being used. (50 questionnaires sent out, 45 collected). The findings showed that the sales forecast method used at Hapromart was too simple, inappropriate with market mechanism and rather subjective; furthermore, no model was used. The consequences were that the results were unrealistic… The findings were shocking- 28% of the respondents thought that the error in short-term forecast was 5%; 41% thought that it was 7% and 31% chose 10% (while the acceptable error is less than 3%). Observations and comparisons against Hapromart’s sales figures in the recent years confirm that these figures are believable because there have been big differences between the forecasted sales and the actual sales.
There is a big difference in the forecasted sales generated by Box-Jenkins model (VND 1525324.985 million) and the sales forecasted by the method used by Hapromart (VND 2600.000 million). Especially, when compared against the actual sales of 2011 (VND 1494.898 million), the difference is more obvious. (While the difference is only approximately 2 % compared to the result generated by Box-Jenkins model – which is in acceptable range for short term forecasts). The benefits of using Box-Jenkins model are tremendous, but SOEs must have a precise set of data and competent forecasters who can operate the model.
Bài viết liên quan
