Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of income diversification on the financial performance of commercial banks in Vietnam over the period 2007–2017. It then provides additional analysis to examine whether the diversification–performance nexus is conditioned upon bank experience and ownership structure. Design/methodology/approach The financial information of each bank were manually collected from bank annual reports. In the empirical model, a number of modern econometric techniques, including panel OLS with fixed effects and a two-step system GMM estimator, were utilised to achieve the research objectives. Findings The empirical results show that income diversification has a positive impact on banks’ performance. However, the effect varies across different types of banks. Specifically, the authors find that while diversification benefits state-owned and foreign banks, it exhibits a detrimental effect on the financial performance of other non-state owned domestic banks. In addition, the authors further find that the positive impact of diversification is more prominent for banks with more experience in the market. Originality/value This study is among the first to empirically investigate the relationships between income diversification and the financial performance of commercial banks in Vietnam. In this sense, the findings of this study could draw important inferences for researchers, policy makers and bank managers towards more appropriate diversification strategies, to ensure the safety and soundness of the whole banking system.

Purpose This study aims to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) with the opportunity- and innovation-based view of multinational subsidiaries (MNSs) in Vietnam. While CSR has traditionally been investigated in the developed market, this paper demonstrates how MNSs can take advantage of their CSR practises and create business opportunities and innovation activities for themselves and local society in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach This is an exploratory qualitative research-based on four MNSs that have practised CSR in Vietnam. Data were collected from 18 individual interviews with managers and business leaders in four case firms. Findings This study finds that CSR activities in the studied firms potentially drive new business opportunities and innovation in the form of product, process, idea and management practises. In addition, both opportunities and innovation also benefit MNSs and the local community in Vietnam. Research limitations/implications The paper makes clear that CSR literature varies depending on the different countries or areas where the studies take place and these studies tend to focus on a specific area that was appropriate within a particular socio-economic and political context. Given that the business context in Vietnam is characterised by opportunities and incentives for innovation from the socio-economic of the context of a South East Asian developing market, the research provides an important first step in the integration and consolidation of CSR practises, opportunities and innovation. In light of the findings presented above, the study provides an important contribution to the CSR literature, particularly the CSR practises of multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries. Practical implications The study suggests that CSR practitioners in Asian emerging countries should ground themselves in an understanding of the local society and try to gain an understanding of the priorities of local stakeholders. MNCs should develop an appreciation of the context in which CSR is initiated, as addressing such issues often inspires firms to bring in social innovations in the form of products, services and processes and discover or create opportunities based on the emergent social problems through business solutions that overall benefit their business and local stakeholders. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to explore the interaction between MNSs undertaking CSR and business opportunities and innovation in the context of a developing country – Vietnam.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) and its two major modes of entry: greenfield investment (greenfield) and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from 131 countries. Modern econometric techniques, including the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, two-stage least square estimator and two-step system GMM estimator, are used to evaluate the impact of corruption on FDI activities. Findings The empirical results illustrate that corruption is a deterioration factor that significantly hinders FDI inflows. However, this finding turns out to be contradictory when the two major components of FDI – greenfield investment and cross-border M&As – are separately examined. Specifically, while corruption consistently discourages cross-border M&As over time, it appears to exert positive effect on greenfield investments. Originality/value This is among the first to empirically examine the impact of corruption on FDI and its modes of entry in a number of countries spanning different time windows. In this sense, this paper also captures the changing nature of societies and economic conditions overtime and, therefore, enable academic researchers, policy-makers and business practitioners to draw broad inferences from the empirical results.

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This paper investigates the dynamic linkages between different types of foreign direct investment (FDI), domestic investment and economic growth in Vietnam. We decompose the aggregated FDI level into its two major components: greenfield investments, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The empirical results reveal that greenfield investments and cross-border M&As exhibit different impacts on economic growth. While greenfield investments appear to complement domestic investment, which subsequently promotes long-run economic growth, cross-border M&As exert a significant crowd-out effect and subsequently impede growth in both the short-and the long-run. These results provide important implications for policies to attract FDI in order to stimulate sustainable growth. Keywords FDI • Greenfield investments • Cross-border M&As • Domestic investment • Growth • SVAR