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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of entrepreneurs’ personality traits on firm innovation performance through the mediation role of entrepreneurs’ innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach The data consist of 2,574 firms from a survey of small and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, a developing and transitioning economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy. The estimation results based on the structural equation model was applied to analyze the data. Findings The results indicate that an entrepreneur’s innovativeness is positively associated with his extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience but negatively accompanied with his neuroticism. Besides, the three traits – openness to experience, conscientiousness and extraversion have positive indirect effects, while neuroticism has a negative indirect effect on technological improvement and new technology adoption. However, the effects of agreeableness on entrepreneurial innovativeness and firm innovation performance are insignificant. In addition, the diverse backgrounds of the entrepreneur such as education and ethnics are also found to influence his innovativeness and to have indirect effects on firm innovation performance. Originality/value This study may contribute to the immature literature on the entrepreneurial process within SMEs by presenting empirical evidence on the relationship between entrepreneurial personality traits and firm innovation with a large sample of SMEs in Vietnam, an emerging economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy.

Objectives: The objective of this research was isolation and evaluation of xanthine oxidase inhibitory effects of isolated substances from mulberry bark (Morus alba L.). Methods: All four fractions: n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and water were evaluated for their effects on xanthine oxidase activity. The active compounds were isolated from the most potential fraction using column chromatography. The structures of these compounds were elucidated using 1H and 13C-NMR and their xanthine oxidase inhibitory activities were evaluated spectrophotometrically. The pharmacokinetics parameters of the most promising substances were predicted using SwissADME tool. Results: Three compounds (Me01, Me02, Me04): ursolic acid Me01, oxyresveratrol Me02 andkuwanon G Me04 were isolated from ethyl acetate fraction. The xanthine oxidase activity assay showed that two compounds Me02 (oxyresveratrol) and Me04 (kuwanon G) both demonstrated inhibitory effects on xanthine oxidase with the IC50 values of 42.08 µg/ml and 52.41 µg/ml, respectively. The predicted adsorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) properties illustrated that oxyresveratrol (Me02) had high solubility in water, high gastro-intestinal (GI) absorption, no violation of Lipinski’s rule of five and was not affected by P-glycoprotein, which is the cause of poor bioavailability of many drugs. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that oxyresveratrol is potent natural xanthine oxidase inhibitor in drug discovery and development for prevention and treatment of gout.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of CAMEL components on the financial performance of commercial banks in Vietnam. Three econometric models are built using four CAMEL’s crucial indicators as independent variables (capital adequacy, asset quality, management effectiveness, bank liquidity) and return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and net interest margin (NIM) as proxies for commercial banks’ financial performance – dependent variables. The research sample includes 31 Vietnamese commercial banks over the 6-year period, from 2013 to 2018. The results show a better fit of the fixed effects model (FEM) in terms of the research methodology compared to the ordinary least squares (OLS) and random effects model (REM). It was found that capital adequacy, asset quality, liquidity and management efficiency affect the performance of Vietnamese commercial banks. Acknowledgement This research is funded by National Economics University (NEU), Hanoi, Vietnam. The authors thank anonymous referees for their contributions and the NEU for funding this research.

This paper analyzes the importance of credit self-rationing for borrowers with lower levels of education using a survey of Vietnamese SMEs from 2004 to 2014. We show that entrepreneurs not only refrain from using formal credit because of burdensome application procedures but also because they are inherently debt-averse. Both factors are more prevalent in entrepreneurs with lower educational levels. Consistently, borrowers with lower education have a lower propensity of using formal credit, are more likely to perceive financial constraints, and are more likely to report difficulties during the loan application process. However, we find no evidence of higher supply-side rationing by banks for entrepreneurs with lower educational levels. Our results imply that efforts targeted at alleviating actual financial constraints will have limited results if debt aversion and apprehension towards formal finance are not properly addressed. The best way to do this is to favor better education.

We examine how SMEs choose alternative external finance when their access to formal finance is constrained in an emerging market context. We find that when constraints to formal credit for an SME i...

Using data from a survey of small and medium scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, this study investigates the impact of firm and owner characteristics on firm growth. The results reveal that firm size has a negative effect on firm growth, suggesting the invalidity of Gibrat’s Law. Moreover, the results indicate the dependence of firm growth on firm and owner attributes. Regarding firm characteristics, leverage, labor quality, training and export activities all enhance growth, while firm age is negatively associated with the growth of SMEs. As for owner characteristics, the results indicate a negative relationship between owner age and firm growth. Furthermore, female-headed firms have higher growth than male-headed firms; and highly educated owners create higher growth than those with lower levels of education.

The reliable use of purified Cry1Ab protein standards is a prerequisite for ecological studies and resistance monitoring programs of Cry1Ab-expressing transgenic corn. In this study the stability and activity of different Cry1Ab protein batches expressed in and purified from Escherichia coli were determined during two-year storage at different temperature conditions (4 degrees C, -20 degrees C, and -80 degrees C). SDS-Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed degradation of the protein stored at 4 degrees C over four months, whereas no difference in the band intensity of the Cry1Ab proteins stored at -20 degrees C and -80 degrees C was observed. Bioassays with neonate larvae of Ostrinia nubilalis indicated that the biological activity of Cry1Ab varied from batch to batch, depending on the production process. Cry1Ab protein stored at 4 degrees C for four months showed a significantly decreasing activity measured as median lethal concentration (LC(50)), whereas the protein activity declined less than 11-fold after two years storage at -20 degrees C. When stored at -80 degrees C the toxin activity remained relatively stable for at least 30 months, as indicated by low LC(50) values of 7-10 ng Cry1Ab per cm(2) diet. These experiments demonstrate that appropriate long-term storage conditions of Cry1Ab protein standards are crucial for resistance monitoring programs of Bt corn, and storage at -80 degrees C is recommended.

BACKGROUND: Insect-resistant transgenic corn is meeting a growing adopt ion in Europe. Corn is also the major substrate for biogas production, which has vastly increased in recent years. In areas with high insect pest pressure Bt-corn silage will consequently be fed into biogas production facilities. To assess the potential risks of transgenic plants as energy crops we investigated the fate of the coleopteran-specific protein Cry3Bb1 from MON88017 corn in the utilization chain of a farm-scale biogas production facility using ELISA. RESULTS: The mean Cry3Bb1 protein content in chaffed MON88017 plant material was 15 µ gg −1 .I n silage the content decreased rapidly, with less than 20ng g −1 detectable after 8months. From the start of fermentation in the biogas reactor, only trace amounts of Cry3Bb1 could be detected. Conventional corn harvested alongside MON88017 with the same equipment showed a presence of transgenic plant material of around 0.5%. Analyses performed at two laboratories showed consistent and systematic differences in the concentrations of Cry3Bb1 measured with ELISA due to methodical differences. CONCLUSIONS: An extensive degradation of Cry3Bb1 was observed in silage despite differences in ELISA measurements. The potential risk associated with the use of MON88017 silage is discussed on this basis.  2008 Society of Chemical Industry

Before pest-resistant genetically modified maize can be grown commercially, the risks for soil-beneficial, non-target organisms must be determined. Here, a tiered approach was used to assess the risk to free-living soil nematodes posed by maize genetically modified to express the insecticidal Cry3Bb1 protein (event Mon88017), which confers resistance towards western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera; Coleoptera). The toxicity of purified Cry3Bb1 for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was determined using a bioassay and gene expression analysis. In addition, a soil toxicity test was used to assess the effects on C. elegans of rhizosphere soil obtained from plots of an experimental field grown with Mon88017, the near-isogenic cultivar, or either of two conventional cultivars. Finally, the indigenous nematode communities from the experimental field site with Mon88017 and from the control cultivars were analyzed. The results showed a dose-dependent inhibitory effect of Cry3Bb1 on the growth and reproduction of C. elegans, with EC50 values of 22.3 mg l⁻¹ and 7.9 mg l⁻¹, respectively. Moreover, Cry-protein-specific defense genes were found to be up-regulated in the presence of either Cry1Ab or Cry3Bb1. However, C. elegans was not affected by rhizosphere soils from Mon88017 compared to the control plots, due to the very low Cry3Bb1 concentrations, as indicated by quantitative analyses (< 1 ng g⁻¹ soil). Nematode abundance and diversity were essentially the same between the various maize cultivars. At the last sampling date, nematode genus composition in Bt-maize plots differed significantly from that in two of the three non-Bt cultivars, including the near-isogenic maize, but the shift in genus composition did not influence the composition of functional guilds within the nematode communities. In conclusion, the risk to free-living soil nematodes posed by Mon88017 cultivation can be regarded as low, as long as Cry3Bb1 concentrations in soil remain four orders of magnitude below the toxicity threshold.

To evaluate the effects of transgenic expression of Coleopteran-specific Bt protein Cry3Bb1 on target and nontarget insects in fields with Bt crops, it is necessary to quantify the Cry3Bb1 contents in the plants. Here, we describe the optimization and validation of the quantitative detection of Cry3Bb1 by adapting the commercially available qualitative PathoScreen double antibody sandwich-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) for quantitative measurements. The optimized method had an average accuracy of 84-109% and was used to quantify the Cry3Bb1 contents of different tissues of Bt corn MON88017 at four developmental stages during three years (2005-2007) in a field trial in Germany. The Cry3Bb1 contents were determined based on both dry weight and fresh weight. Cry3Bb1 expression was highest in young leaves (228.4 microg/g dw and 35.5 microg/g fw) and lowest in pollen (3.8 microg/g fw). In root tissues, the Cry3Bb1 content declined during the growing season from 130 to 40 microg/g dw. A significant decline of Cry3Bb1 contents was also observed during the growing season in other plant tissues. The Cry3Bb1 contents of different plant tissues strongly correlated to each other. On the basis of the total corn biomass produced on 1 hectare, it was estimated that up to 905 g of Cry3Bb1 is produced per hectare Bt corn MON88017.