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Essays on Enterprises, Standards Compliance, and Environmental Issues in Vietnam
Ort / Verlag
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Erscheinungsjahr
2023
Quelle
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Globalisation has promoted economic prosperity in developed and developing countries. However, it also negatively impacts the environment. This thesis examines the relationship between standards compliance, environmental compliance, energy efficiency improvement and enterprises in Vietnam in the globalisation context. The findings are important for Vietnam and developing countries in similar contexts.First, standards recognition and compliance are essential to economic activities in an era of globalisation. The first core chapter of the thesis (chapter 2) investigates the impact of standards compliance on participation in the global value chain and labour productivity of Vietnam’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This chapter uses a 3-period panel dataset of SMEs combined with Vietnam’s Provincial Competitiveness Index. I find that standards compliance by Vietnam’s SMEs improved their participation in the global value chain via subcontracts with foreign direct investment (FDI) multinational firms. I also find that standards compliance improved labour productivity in Vietnam’s SMEs. My findings are robust to the choice of econometric models. The results suggest that better outcomes for both firms and society at large are possible if standards are recognised and respected.Second, improvements in energy efficiency are essential for sustainable economic and social development. Chapter 3 explores the effects of energy efficiency improvements on non-energy benefits, particularly financial performance in terms of profit and labour productivity. This investigation may provide information for firms when deciding their energy consumption behaviours. The chapter uses a 4-period panel dataset of Vietnamese manufacturing SMEs. I find that improvements in energy efficiency enhanced profit and labour productivity. My results are robust to different estimation techniques, alternative energy efficiency proxies, and subsamples. The finding suggests that firms can benefit much more from improving their energy efficiency than is often assumed. This finding, therefore, creates incentives for firms to contribute to climate change mitigation.Third, using panel data from 2011-2018, chapter 4 applies the variable returns to scale Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) in order to measure the energy efficiency of textile and apparel firms in Vietnam. This study also examines some influencing factors of TFEE by using the pooled OLS, the random Tobit, and the unobservedeffect Tobit models. I find that, on average, textile and apparel firms’ TFEE was 40.7%, which strongly suggests that textile and apparel firms could have reduced their energy input by 59.3% while keeping their output unchanged during the study period. The TFEE significantly varied across firms. There was a decreasing trend in TFEE during the study period.The regression results of chapter 4 also present some noteworthy findings. First, the energy efficiency of the apparel sector was higher than that of the textile sector. Second, there was a U-shaped relationship between firm size and the TFEE of firms. Third, there was no difference in the energy efficiency between FDI and other firms. Finally, the provincial institutional environment had no impact on energy efficiency. My results suggest that more attention should be paid to the textile and apparel industry in implementing government policies that support improvements in energy efficiency. The study also has some policy implications related to factors influencing TFEE.