Tran Quoc Thinh

Corporate social responsibility is the development trend in globalization. Businesses need to be accountable to shareholders. An organization should handle the relationship between community, economic, and social factors. The disclosure of responsibility accounting information by businesses has important implications for information users as well as stakeholders. The paper is intended to verify the influence of profitability on the disclosure of responsibility accounting of all listed commercial banks in Vietnam. The paper employs time series data for 2015–2019 and uses the ordinary least square method to test the model. Five independent variables related to profitability are examined. The results of the study show that ROA and ROE have a positive influence on responsibility accounting disclosure. Thereby, the state agencies of Vietnam need to promulgate regulations of responsibility accounting disclosure according to international standards and strictly control the disclosure of Vietnamese commercial banks to improve the quality of the information in the context of international integration.

In the trend of economic globalization, corporate responsibility is always concerned with economic growth. Responsibility accounting has important implications for enterprises in their growth. It contributes to the harmonization of interests among stakeholders. An enterprise complying with commitments, ensuring the implementation of responsibilities to communities and society, is an inevitable and objective trend. The objective of the paper is to examine the factors of profit ratio affecting compliance of corporate responsibility information. With a survey sample of 100 enterprises listed on Vietnam’s stock market, the paper uses data over the last five years in the period from 2016 to 2020. The results show that two independent variables have a positive effect on compliance of corporate responsibility accounting information, including return on equity and return on sales, in which return on sales has the strongest impact. Therefore, to strengthen the compliance with corporate responsibility information of Vietnamese listed enterprises, Vietnamese state agencies need to comply with international principles to issue appropriate regulations applicable to enterprises. Managers of Vietnamese listed enterprises need to raise awareness and demonstrate full responsibility including compliance with stakeholders.

Information from financial reports plays an important role for stakeholders in making business decisions. The information efficiency is even more meaningful when it is relevant and useful to users. The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of control activities on the information efficiency of the financial reports of Forbes enterprises in Vietnam. The paper uses time series data and the sample includes 250 observations from 2016 to 2020. The paper uses ordinary least squares to experimentally test hypotheses. The results indicate there are two factors out of four that have a negative impact on the information efficiency of financial reports, including control activity members and female members of the control activities. The control activity members have a higher impact than female members. To enhance the information efficiency of Forbes enterprises’ financial reports, Vietnamese state agencies should strengthen control and supervision of legal regulations so that Forbes enterprises can raise awareness on the information efficiency of financial reports.

Profitability is a matter of concern for all economic organizations, including banks. The economic problem always poses for banks in maintaining growth and ensuring sustainable stability. Liquidity is always a concern of banks in maintaining profitability. The article aims to test the relationship between liquidity and profitability of Vietnamese listed banks. Data include 18 Vietnamese listed commercial banks for a period of 9 years from 2011 to 2019. The article uses the time series method with the ordinary least square. The results show that liquidity has a positive relationship with the profitability of listed banks including return on assets, return on equity, and net interest margin. As for net interest margin, the liquidity ratio of loans to deposit plus short-term borrowings and short-term bills payable has the opposite effect. To contribute to the stable and sustainable growth of the banking system, the article proposes the policies for the Vietnamese banking system by fully implementing the regulations on liquidity based on the Bank for International Settlements and should forecast the financial developments in the region and the world to have flexible responses to avoid uncertainties, as well as the need to form and maintain funds to timely support for liquidity in the entire banking system.

In the trend of globalization, profit is always a concern for companies because the competition is increasingly fierce. With accounting tools and policies, managers of companies can perform profit management. The purpose of this paper is to test the influence of the board of directors on the discretionary accruals in Vietnamese listed companies. The paper uses time series of table data. The sample includes 915 observations of 183 Vietnamese non-financial companies in the period from 2016 to 2020. The feasible generalized least squares method is used to test the hypotheses of the research model. The paper uses two foundational theories, including the agency theory and the signaling theory, to explain the discretionary accruals of Vietnamese listed companies. The results show that the independence of the board of directors, the meetings of the board of directors, and the foreigners in the board of directors influence the discretionary accruals in Vietnamese listed companies. Then, the paper proposes some appropriate policies on regulations to control the discretionary accruals in Vietnamese listed companies to improve the quality of accounting information in the context of regional and international economic integration.

Financial reporting of enterprises has important implications for information users. The timely provision of financial reporting by enterprises helps investors to make appropriate business decisions. The purpose of the paper is to test the influence of the factors on the timeliness of financial reporting of the Vietnamese listed enterprises. The timeliness of financial statements is determined by the total number of days of difference between the date of signing the audit report and the end of the financial year. The sample includes the top 100 best-listed enterprises of the Vietnamese stock market. The paper uses time series with panel data. The data are collected from annual and financial reports for the period from 2016 to 2020. The paper performs quantitative research to test the hypotheses. The results verify two factors, such as return on equity and audit type, have a negative effect on the timeliness of financial reporting. Audit type has the most influence on timeliness. Research also shows some listed enterprises have not yet complied with regulations on timely information disclosure. The paper proposes some appropriate policies for Vietnamese listed enterprises to ensure the timeliness of information.

Human resources have an essential meaning in stability and sustainability of business activities. The quality of human resources contributes to increasing intelligence and thinking, as well as productivity and efficiency in all activities of an enterprise. The study aims to determine the influence of different factors on Vietnamese enterprises’ human resources management, including staffing plans, personnel selection, employee use, resource training, employee rating, and bonus policies. Exploratory factor analysis is employed to test the factors related to the research model. The sample comprises 417 leaders working at Vietnamese enterprises surveyed in 2021. The paper uses panel data to test the regression using OLS method. The selected enterprises are diverse in industry and size to ensure representativeness and are based in Ho Chi Minh City. The results elicit that staffing plans and bonus policies are two of the six factors that positively affect the human resources management of Vietnamese enterprises. The findings also show that staffing plans are the factor that has the most substantial impact on human resources management. Finally, the paper has proposed some policy suggestions to stabilize human resources management at Vietnamese enterprises to attract quality talent.

The information quality contained in financial reporting has practical implications for stakeholders. Accounting conservatism is a criterion that affects the authentication of the value of assets and liabilities related to the financial reporting of enterprises. The role of the board of directors is to supervise the information quality of an enterprise. The purpose of the paper is to examine how the board of directors influences the information quality of financial reporting through accounting conservatism. The survey sample includes 100 listed enterprises that have the highest capitalization in Vietnam’s stock market. Time series data taken for the last five years are published by enterprises from 2018 to 2022. The paper implements the quantitative method of ordinary least squares to test the hypotheses. The results explore that board size, board independence, and audit organization affect the information quality of financial reporting through accounting conservatism. Accordingly, board size has the strongest influence, and board independence has the weakest effect on the information quality of financial reporting through accounting conservatism. The research suggests some policies for Vietnamese listed enterprises to have appropriate regulations for the board of directors and strengthen control of the information quality of financial reporting.

Relevant value is important for information users to make business decisions, and stock prices have an essential relationship to the value relevance about enterprises. The paper aims to investigate the earnings and book value influences on the value relevance of 144 Vietnamese listed enterprises. Selected data are non-financial enterprises with a wide range of industries to ensure representativeness on the Vietnamese stock market. The research implements stakeholder and signaling theory to explain the hypotheses of the model related to earnings per share and book value per share. Time series data are analyzed for three years from 2018 to 2020. The quantitative method is applied to test hypotheses. The results determine that the fixed effects model is suitable. The results also show that the earnings per share positively affect the stock price, but book value per share has a negative impact on the stock price. The paper provides some policy suggestions for investors to make reasonable decisions using relevant information about listed enterprises in Vietnam.

The utilization of competitive advantages in international trading has fortuitously put transnational manufacturing enterprises in the position of distorting transfer pricing techniques to maximize profits. The paper aims to explore the influence of the determinants on the transfer pricing behavior of foreign direct investment enterprises in Vietnam. The paper collects primary data from the financial statements of 96 foreign direct investment enterprises in Vietnam over six years from 2016 to 2021. The paper gets a final panel data of 576 observations to be processed by the fixed effects model estimation method using EViews 12. Supporting agency theory and positive accounting theory, the results show that the income tax rate negatively influences transfer pricing behavior, while tunneling incentives and return on equity positively affect transfer pricing behavior. The paper highlights that government agencies should reperform and implement fiscal policies synchronously to be able to monitor transfer pricing behaviors of foreign direct investment enterprises in Vietnam.

In the context of integration, the capital market has important implications for strengthening economic resources for development. This becomes even more important as the derivative securities market has recently emerged in some countries. It is an opportunity for countries to approach many capital sources, especially foreign capital. The objective of this paper is to identify factors affecting the development of Vietnamese derivative financial markets. The paper uses exploratory factor analysis and ordinary least squares to test the model. A survey sample includes 152 managers and experts of Vietnamese derivative securities companies in 2019. The results show that the International integration factor has the same direction, while the Legal environment factor has an adverse impact on the development of the Vietnamese derivative securities market. Therefore, Vietnamese regulatory bodies should amend some laws to create stability in the legal corridor, and state management agencies in the country need the orientation and the international integration strategy to attract financial resources for the development of Vietnam’s economy.

Financial distress is a matter of concern in the recent period as Vietnam gradually enters global markets. This paper aims to examine the factors of Altman Z-score to detect the financial distress of Vietnamese listed companies. The authors use a sample of 30 delisted companies due to financial problems and 30 listed companies on the Vietnamese stock market from 2015 to 2018. They employ Independence Samples T-test to test the research model. It is found that there are significant differences in the factors of Altman Z-score between the group of listed companies and the group of delisted companies. Further analyses using subsamples of delisted companies show that the factors of Altman Z-score are also statistically different between companies with a low level of financial distress and those with a high level of financial distress. Based on the results, there are some suggestions to assist practitioners and the State Securities Commission in detecting, preventing, and strictly controlling financially distressed businesses. These results also enable users of financial statements to make more rational economic decisions accordingly.

The quality of financial disclosures is of great importance than ever, as Vietnam’s international economic integration has been accelerating recently. This issue is currently particularly worrying for the banking sector in Vietnam, as banks play a vital role in economic development. However, there is a growing concern that managers tend to manipulate financial information using earnings management techniques to meet analyst expectations and to enhance the firm value in the short term. Such behavior can lead to inappropriateness in the decision-making process of financial statement users, as well as impair firm value in the long term. Therefore, this study examines the impact of factors related to financial indicators on earnings management of Vietnamese commercial banks to give more insight into the issue. The data of this study was collected from a sample of 30 Vietnamese commercial banks during a 5-year period from 2015 to 2019. By using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method through Eviews 10.0, the findings revealed that financial leverage and loan loss provision have a positive and significant impact on earnings management. Also, bank size and profitability were negatively associated with earnings management. Based on these findings, in the context of Vietnam, the study proposed policy suggestions to improve the quality of accounting information and to assist users of financial statements in recognizing and restricting earnings management in commercial banks.

In the context of global economic integration, there are many opportunities for promoting economic development, but there are also challenges of complexity and risk in business activities. This always raises many questions that need to be resolved for credit institutions. The internal control system of credit institutions has become increasingly important for the sustainable development of the national financial system. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the internal control system in the practical application of Vietnamese credit institutions. Descriptive statistics are applied to analyze data using SPSS software. The structured questionnaire is designed to collect objective opinions and purposive sampling techniques among 382 experts who are managers of credit institutions in 2020. The results show that all five components improve the effectiveness of the internal control system, and the internal control system plays a role in the safety of Vietnamese credit institutions. Thus, the Central Bank of Vietnam should improve the legal framework and related internal control provisions for credit institutions in accordance with international principles to improve the effectiveness of the internal control system.

The disclosure level in the interim financial reporting is important to users when making business decisions. Useful information from interim financial reporting ensures timeliness and flexibility of business operations. Information disclosures that ensure completeness will enhance the quality of information for users. The paper aims to examine the factors of corporate governance that affect the disclosure level in interim financial reporting of Vietnamese commercial banks. To test the model, ordinary least squares (OLS) are used. For the data of this study, 286 samples of 30 commercial banks were studied and time series data were used for 10 years from 2010 to 2019. The results show that there are two factors that positively influence the disclosure level in interim financial reporting, such as the Board size and foreign Board members. Thus, the paper offers some policy recommendations for the Central bank of Vietnam and Boards of directors of commercial banks, as well as investors to improve disclosure in interim financial reporting.

Disclosure plays an important role for information users. Voluntary disclosure is more meaningful for stakeholders in order to make appropriate decisions. The article researches the impact of firm characteristics on the voluntary disclosure of the top 50 listed firms in Forbes Vietnam (50 listed firms) from 2015 to 2019. It uses the ordinary least squares of time-series data to test the regression model. The signaling and agency theory is used to explain the relationship between firm characteristics on voluntary disclosure. The research results show three variables of firm characteristics that positively impact the voluntary disclosure of 50 listed firms, including firm size, growth rate of market share value to book value, and audit type, in which audit type has the strongest influence. Accordingly, the state agencies of Vietnam should encourage 50 listed firms to improve the Vietnamese listed firms’ voluntary disclosure and meet international economic integration.

Acknowledgment
We would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Ngoc Thach Nguyen (Phd), Assoc. Prof. Hoang Anh Ly (Phd) and Assoc. Prof. Thi Loan Nguyen (PhD), as well as some experts of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam and some leaders of 50 listed firms for their advice and support the project.

Accounting information provides the financial state, performance, cash flow, and notes to the enterprise’s financial statements. Information quality plays an essential role for stakeholders in making business decisions. The study examines the impact of government policy and the controller’s connection with relevant parties on the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms in the context of COVID-19. The surveyed subjects include 347 controllers of audit firms in Vietnam. The paper uses quantitative methods, specifically the exploratory factor analysis method, and the ordinary least squares are used to test the model’s hypotheses. Agency and stakeholder theories are used to explain the basis of the study’s theory. The results show that the government policy and the controller’s connection with relevant parties positively affect the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms. The level of correlation between factors is appropriate, between 0.126 and 0.618. Government policy is one of the most influential factors in information quality (0.412). Relevant parties include audit firms, relatives, and the community, and the level of connection between the controller and relatives and the community (0.298) is better than that of audit firms (0.183). The study proposes policies to connect controllers and relevant parties in cooperation and mutual support to ensure strict control activities and improve the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms.