Having geographical proximity and a high volume of trade with China, the first country to record an outbreak of the new Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Vietnam was expected to have a high risk of transmission. However, as of 4 April 2020, in comparison to attempts to containing the disease around the world, responses from Vietnam are seen as prompt and effective in protecting the interests of its citizens, with 239 confirmed cases and no fatalities. This study analyzes the situation in terms of Vietnam’s policy response, social media and science journalism. A self-made web crawl engine was used to scan and collect official media news related to COVID-19 between the beginning of January and April 4, yielding a comprehensive dataset of 14,952 news items. The findings shed light on how Vietnam—despite being under-resourced—has demonstrated political readiness to combat the emerging pandemic since the earliest days. Timely communication on any developments of the outbreak from the government and the media, combined with up-to-date research on the new virus by the Vietnamese science community, have altogether provided reliable sources of information. By emphasizing the need for immediate and genuine cooperation between government, civil society and private individuals, the case study offers valuable lessons for other nations concerning not only the concurrent fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but also the overall responses to a public health crisis.

As an example of a recent emerging economy, Vietnam has witnessed changes in its research policies and productivity during the last ten years. Since the establishment of the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) in 2008, the Vietnamese scientific community had adapted to new international standards in 2014 and 2017, which resulted in different productivity between social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines. Therefore, to understand the effects of new research policies, this study deploys Bayesian analysis on a comprehensive dataset of 1,564 Vietnamese authors in the 2008-2018 period. The dataset was extracted from the exclusively designed Social Sciences Humanities Peer Award (SSHPA) database (http://sshpa.com/). Various factors are considered in the data collecting process, including age, gender, new authors in a year, leading authors, co- authorship, and journal’s Impact Factor (JIF). The findings indicate three main characteristics of the Vietnamese SSH community after the research policy application. First, in terms of output, Economics is the dominant field relative to other SSH’s disciplines in Vietnam. It has contributed 858 publications in 12 years, about two times as much as the total output of Education, the second place. Economics also experiences a high level of contribution from authors at the age of 40-44 and nearly 500 new authors within the period. Secondly, despite a rapid rise in the number of lead authors, gender disparity among disciplines is a critical issue. Male researchers outnumber female ones in Economics and Social medicine, with Education being the sole exception. Lastly, authors in Education appears to have less international collaboration than those in Social medicine, Economics, and other fields. The success of Economics could be a reference point for other SSH disciplines to increase their research output. These findings enable a better understanding of SSH research policy application and call for a more suitable policy to support female academics in a number of SSH fields.

This paper examines the enablers, barriers and opportunities of digital supply chain management (DSCM) in manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam fromexpert’s perspective. The study is a foundational effort to contribute to the establishment of new digital management era in many emerging economies. Applying a systematic literature review (SLR) of relevant studies and a qualitative data methodology this research also aims to explore the factors affecting technology adoption in supplychain management from managerial perspective of Vietnamese manufacturing SMEs. Findings of the research reveal that the enablers and barriers are classified into four main dimensions which are Organisational, Technological, Strategic and Legal –Ethical issues. In addition, our findings also reveal that external factors deeply influence the adoption intention in Vietnamese manufacturing SMEs. The development of digital SCM could be different in each case according to companies’ characteristics and business environment. Our study therefore adds to the limited research in the domain of digital technology adoption in SMEs in developing country context.

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 4 Quality Education has highlighted major challenges for all nations to ensure inclusive and equitable quality access to education, facilities for children, and young adults. The SDG4 is even more important for developing nations as receiving proper education or vocational training, especially in science and technology, means a foundational step in improving other aspects of their citizens’ lives. However, the extant scientific literature about STEM education still lacks focus on developing countries, even more so in the rural area. Using a dataset of 4967 observations of junior high school students from a rural area in a transition economy, the article employs the Bayesian approach to identify the interaction between gender, socioeconomic status, and students’ STEM academic achievements. The results report gender has little association with STEM academic achievements; however, female students (αa_Sex[2] = 2.83) appear to have achieved better results than their male counterparts (αa_Sex[1] = 2.68). Families with better economic status, parents with a high level of education (βb(EduMot) = 0.07), or non-manual jobs (αa_SexPJ[4] = 3.25) are found to be correlated with better study results. On the contrary, students with zero (βb(OnlyChi) = -0.14) or more than two siblings (βb(NumberofChi) = -0.01) are correlated with lower study results compared to those with only one sibling. These results imply the importance of providing women with opportunities for better education. Policymakers should also consider maintaining family size so the parents can provide their resources to each child equally.

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 4 Quality Education has highlighted major challenges for all nations to ensure inclusive and equitable quality access to education, facilities for children, and young adults. The SDG4 is even more important for developing nations as receiving proper education or vocational training, especially in science and technology, means a foundational step in improving other aspects of their citizens’ lives. However, the extant scientific literature about STEM education still lacks focus on developing countries, even more so in the rural area. Using a dataset of 4967 observations of junior high school students from a rural area in a transition economy, the article employs the Bayesian approach to identify the interaction between gender, socioeconomic status, and students’ STEM academic achievements. The results report gender has little association with STEM academic achievements; however, female students (αa_Sex[2] = 2.83) appear to have achieved better results than their male counterparts (αa_Sex[1] = 2.68). Families with better economic status, parents with a high level of education (βb(EduMot) = 0.07), or non-manual jobs (αa_SexPJ[4] = 3.25) are found to be correlated with better study results. On the contrary, students with zero (βb(OnlyChi) = -0.14) or more than two siblings (βb(NumberofChi) = -0.01) are correlated with lower study results compared to those with only one sibling. These results imply the importance of providing women with opportunities for better education. Policymakers should also consider maintaining family size so the parents can provide their resources to each child equally.