This paper examines the effect of corruption on the business environment in Vietnam. Our survey of firms conducted in Vietnam suggests that corruption is perceived as the most impactful business obstacle for their operation. It was also found that corruption has a significant negative association with the overall satisfaction of the business environment in Vietnam, which supports the hypothesis that corruption has a “sand the wheel” effect on firms' business activities. Given these results, it is urgent that the Vietnamese public authorities accelerate efforts in mitigating this issue. Although this paper sheds light on the importance of corruption, it would be useful to conduct follow‐up studies examining corruption and its impact in more detail. Such studies could be conducted in segments that most severely suffer from corruption according to our survey, that is, medium‐sized enterprises in the hotel/restaurant and construction sectors, Hanoi based, and Vietnamese owned firms.

中文翻译：

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越南的腐败与商业环境：实证研究的意义

本文研究了腐败对越南商业环境的影响。我们对在越南进行的公司的调查表明，腐败被视为对其运营最有影响力的商业障碍。还发现，腐败与越南商业环境的总体满意度之间存在显着的负相关关系，这支持了以下假设：腐败对企业的商业活动产生了“沙轮”效应。鉴于这些结果，迫切需要越南公共当局加快努力缓解这一问题。尽管本文阐明了腐败的重要性，但开展后续研究以更详细地检查腐败及其影响将是有用的。