Jason Nguyen

• Nguyen, J. N., 2024, "Beyond policy impacts: Internal strategic capabilities as determinants of industrial energy efficiency implementation", Energy Policy, January 184: 113898 - 113898.
  Abstract: Many countries have implemented policies to encourage higher Energy Efficiency (EE) implementation, but they seem insufficient and significant EE opportunities are unrealized. It is thus important to understand which internal strategic drivers can help further improve EE implementation by a firm. We develop a theoretical framework and empirically investigating how corporate strategy influences firms' EE implementation on top of EE policies. Drawing from the literature on Natural-resource-based view and Proactive Environmental Strategy, we hypothesize the impacts of several strategic capabilities, including shared vision, top management support and stakeholder integration on a firm's EE implementation. We test our hypotheses using combined secondary data of 572 publicly traded firms from the CDP report, COMPUSTAT Fundamentals North America and Global, and the World Economic Forum. Our study enriches the literature on firms' perceived EE drivers by dissecting the nuanced impacts of different strategic capabilities and exploring new dimensions. Our findings also suggest important policy insights in encouraging higher industrial EE implementation. It remains important to strengthen EE policies and regulation. However, to make further leaps in EE implementation, policy efforts could be spent in information campaigns helping redirect interpretation of EE improvements toward opportunities and away from risks/threats.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113898

• Nguyen, J. N.; Le, Q. V.; Ha, J. T., 2022, "Impacts of Health and Safety Concerns on E-Commerce and Service Reconfiguration During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from an Emerging Economy", Service Science, December 13(4): 193 - 295.
  Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented growth to the e-commerce industry, triggering widespread digital service transformation across various business segments in Vietnam. A pressing concern for both businesses and policymakers is whether the sudden peak in customer interest in e-commerce can be sustained in the future. This research seeks to address this concern by considering whether and how customers’ motivations to participate in e-commerce activities have changed. We collected primary data from a self-administered survey to empirically examine how health and safety concerns influence customers’ online shopping behavior during the pandemic, alongside other known determinants for e-commerce participation, namely technology readiness and connectedness. The results confirm that health and safety concerns have a positive influence on customers’ usage of e-commerce after controlling for technology readiness and connectedness. Furthermore, customers in age groups with higher risks of severe COVID-19 symptoms and mortality are more likely to increase e-commerce usage during the social distancing and isolation period. Our results support the idea that the customer base for e-commerce and digital services have expanded beyond the typical tech-savvy and young customers in their twenties. These are promising signs for postpandemic recovery and even expansion, as firms may leverage the momentum of change in customers’ motivations and start tailoring their public relation campaigns to address a wider age range of potential consumers.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2021.0279

• Coggins, J. S.; Goodkind, A. L.; Nguyen, J. N.; Wang, Z., 2019, "Price Effects, Inefficient Environmental Policy, and Windfall Profits", Environmental and Resource Economics, March 72(3): 637 - 656.
  Abstract: We examine conditions under which a new or tighter restriction on emissions from a competitive polluting industry creates price effects in adjacent markets. Price effects may arise when a quantity restriction on emissions causes output to fall and, therefore, output price to rise. They may also arise when the required reduction in output causes the price of a polluting input to fall. We model emissions as a fixed proportion of output, limiting the possibilities for input substitutions. The possibility of price effects exists whenever the set of regulated firms is large relative to its input or output markets, a possibility that is expressly ruled out in Montgomery’s (J Econ Theory 5:395–418, 1972) paper. Two potential implications of price effects are explored. One is an efficiency concern: a welfare-maximizing regulator who neglects price effects will require more than the optimal level of abatement. The other is a distributional concern: an emissions restriction might create windfall profits for the polluting industry.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10640-018-0217-0

• Nguyen, J. N.; Donohue, K.; Mehrotra, M., 2019, "Closing a Supplier’s Energy Efficiency Gap Through Assessment Assistance and Procurement Commitment", Management Science, January 65(1): 122 - 138.
  Abstract: This paper analyzes the energy efficiency (EE) investment decisions of a capital-constrained manufacturer that competes with an alternative supplier for the business of a large industrial buyer. Through a series of game-theoretic models, we characterize when it is beneficial for the buyer to offer EE instruments, including assessment assistance and procurement commitment, and how these instruments interact with third-party assessment assistance to affect the supplier’s EE investment level. We find that assessment assistance helps reduce the EE gap but procurement commitment is required to eliminate it. We also find that the availability of third-party assessment assistance reduces the buyer’s incentive to offer both of its instruments, a scenario that potentially lowers the supplier’s EE investment level. Our findings provide insights for buyers and policy makers interested in improving supply-chain EE.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2941

• Boyabatli, O.; Nguyen, J. N.; Wang, T., 2017, "Capacity Management in Agricultural Commodity Processing and Application in the Palm Industry", Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, October 19(4): 551 - 567.
  Abstract: This paper examines the capacity investment decisions of a processor that uses a commodity input to produce both a commodity output and a by-product in the context of agricultural industries. We employ a multiperiod model to study the optimal one-time processing and (output) storage capacity investment decisions—in addition to the periodic processing and inventory decisions—when both input and output spot prices as well as production yield are uncertain. We characterize the optimal decisions and perform sensitivity analysis to investigate how spot price uncertainty affects the processor’s optimal capacity and profitability. Using a calibration based on the palm industry, we study (both numerically and analytically) the performance of a variety of heuristic capacity investment policies that can be used in practice. We find that if the yield uncertainty is ignored in capacity planning, then basing those plans on the average yield is preferable to basing them (as often occurs in practice) on the maximum yield. However, planning based on the average yield performs well only when the relative (processing-to-storage) capacity investment cost is high; otherwise, it leads to a significant loss of profit. We also find that ignoring spot price uncertainty in capacity planning results in a relatively small profit loss. In contrast, ignoring by-product revenue—which constitutes a small portion of total revenues—during capacity planning substantially reduces the processor’s profit.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2017.0624

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