Expert Opinion Collection Results


(ii) The thesis also prepares documents such as: preliminary research models and scales based on the process of theoretical review and previous research (including original scales from previous research articles).

Expert selection (according to expert standards)

Prepare documents, research models and preliminary scales according to previous research

(iii) The author contacted experts according to the prepared list and prioritized experts with a doctorate degree or higher, who were knowledgeable about VXH and were willing to give comments on the thesis. The contact resulted in 5 experts who were lecturers at 3 universities in Ho Chi Minh City (including 2 doctors; 3 associate professors, doctors). The author sent all relevant documents via email to the experts. The experts gave comments by ballot and notes attached to the preliminary scale table.


Synthesize expert opinions and calibrate preliminary scales

Access and send documents to collect expert opinions using opinion collection forms


Organize expert seminars

Record, discuss and agree on the scale to form the scale

Official scale

Pilot survey (n = 70)

Figure 3.2: Process of conducting qualitative research

Source: Author's suggestion

(iv) The experts are people who have researched on social sciences, so the thesis is convenient in the process of collecting opinions, the opinions of the experts are quite similar. The author synthesizes and re-adjusts the scale, however, there are still some opinions of the experts that do not match the theory and previous research, so the author still reserves the original opinion.

(v) After synthesizing expert opinions and adjusting the preliminary scale, the author conducted an expert workshop. The workshop was held at the University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City with the participation of 10 lecturers from 3 universities in Ho Chi Minh City (including 4 experts who had previously contributed comments by ballot). At the workshop, the author presented


presented in detail the model, the initial preliminary scale and the revised scale after recording the experts' comments by ballot. At the same time, the author also raised the opinions of the experts who had previously commented but the thesis had not been revised because of concerns due to theoretical inconsistencies. At the workshop, each expert gave detailed comments on the research model and scale. The experts also gave their views and discussion opinions (including opposing opinions). The author noted and gave his own views for the experts to give further comments. At the end of the workshop, the doctoral student also agreed on some opinions with the experts to continue to revise the preliminary scale for the second time.

(vi) The scale continued to be revised after the results of the expert workshop. The author completed the scale and sent an email to two experts (two associate professors, PhDs from the Faculty of Development Economics - Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics) for final comments. After comments, the scale was revised (mainly wording and arrangement). The researcher conducted an expert workshop in the field of Statistics to record the opinions of experts in the field, to ensure that the questionnaire was clear and detailed. Here, the data collection plan was also presented.

(vii) Statistics experts (including the Statistics Department of Ho Chi Minh City and Long An Province) mainly commented on the survey on employment and income information of households (for the social affairs section, statistics experts only asked for clarification of unclear points in the survey, for example: trust - level of trust). After the statistics experts' workshop, statistics officers conducted a pilot survey in 7 research areas using a convenient method (each district/town interviewed 10 households with diverse household groups: purely agricultural, non-agricultural, and a group with both).

(viii) After completing the pilot survey, the thesis noted the unclear points, the clear sentences, the most unclear ideas to calibrate the scale. After that, the author organized a workshop in Long An province with the participation of experts and statistical officers (including the Statistics Department of Ho Chi Minh City and Long An province) to implement data collection. At this workshop, most of the opinions exchanged and discussed were related to the survey plan and data collection.

3.2.3. Results of collecting expert opinions

Scientists suggest that social capital should be measured not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of social capital quality and that it is necessary to clearly define the level at which social capital is considered (macro, meso, etc.).


and micro) and both structural and cognitive aspects or just consider each aspect separately. At the same time, experts also suggest that it is necessary to clarify what relationships are present in the research area? Does the social capital of the research subject represent the family? The thesis needs to clarify the research on the social capital of the family, so it is necessary to clearly identify who the interviewees are? How to collect the social capital of the family? The social capital of the family is a new research topic, so it is necessary to consider carefully when building the scale. If the thesis only measures the social capital of the family through interviewing an individual representing the family, is the information complete? Are the factors of the head of household or the family representative (social capital and personal characteristics) considered in the research model? The thesis needs to clarify the scale for measuring the social capital of the family. If it is only measured by a few scales as in the VARHS data, it will be difficult for the thesis to be new, or if it only uses the Likert scale, who will be interviewed in the family with many people? How to synthesize the results? According to the research model of the thesis, the social capital of individuals and families needs to be clarified, whether it is approached according to the structure or trust (cognition) or both? If the social capital of families is approached according to the meso level, it is necessary to clearly identify which organizations exist in practice related to the employment and income of the family. Once those organizations are identified, the social capital scale according to the structure can be built correctly according to reality.

From the results of expert opinions (collected by questionnaire), the thesis clearly identifies the study of social capital at the micro and meso levels (individual, family), and simultaneously studies both structural and belief (cognitive) aspects. Expert opinions help the thesis clearly identify the interviewee as the main worker (the person with the highest income in the family), if not the main worker, then the person who decides the income and expenditure of the family to collect personal information and personal social capital. This choice is to ensure that the topic is in line with the orientation of social capital with employment and income. At the same time, the characteristics of the individual (the person with a certain important role in the family) are also included to consider whether they affect the social capital, employment and income of the family or not.

According to the expert's comments, the author studied legal documents and consulted with the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Home Affairs of Long An province to identify organizations and groups established according to the provisions of law and voluntary organizations and groups operating in Long An province. From this result, the thesis reconstructed the social capital scale of the family (structural aspect) according to the results of consulting with experts.


The expert's opinion also helps the thesis clearly see the design of the scale and the integration between personal and family social capital. Thereby, the thesis determines that personal social capital is designed to interview the main worker (the person with the highest income in the family or the person who decides the family's income and expenditure, in which priority is given to the person with the highest income) and the 5-level Likert scale is used in this case. Personal social capital is initially determined based on the theoretical framework including: the level of attachment to relationships, trust and "reciprocity".

For the social capital of the family, the thesis determined to use quantitative scales according to specific numbers, these numbers were synthesized from the interview results of all family members of working age. However, the aspect of trust is very difficult to measure and synthesize data accurately, so the initial proposed scale was built in the form of a dummy variable (whether or not to trust the organizations that the family has members participating in). The questionnaire after being edited according to the opinion collection form of each expert was presented in the workshop to collect the general opinions of experts and scientists from 3 universities in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the workshop, experts helped to solve the difficulties for this study in building a scale to measure family social capital in terms of trust. Expert opinions also proposed to consider trust, the reciprocal viewpoint in social capital with quantitative numbers. Trust, if only asked "yes or no trust", does not ensure the reliability of the data, because asking others whether they trust the government, or trust the people they know, most of them will answer yes, and if so, the data collection results will hardly discover interesting things. Expert opinions say that the most effective way to measure trust is the financial factor - "asking to borrow or lend money". Because in fact, only people who are very close and trust each other can lend money (without interest) and this also shows "reciprocity".

However, the scale was included in the workshop to solicit opinions from statistics experts, the thesis received some more detailed opinions on the aspect of trust, specifically, statistics experts said that rural people often trust the people around them, if measuring "trust by lending/borrowing money from others, it is necessary to be clear about the amount of money because people can trust each other very much but the amount of money exceeds their ability, it is difficult to lend. Regarding the aspect of MQH, statistics experts


It is necessary to clarify which relationships, because people are only limited to a number of common relationships such as relatives, neighbors, people in the same profession, friends and local authorities (only when really necessary or when the family has someone working in government agencies).

The Statistical Expert Group also agrees that households with members participating in social organizations have easier access to jobs, loans, and participation in production groups and teams. Therefore, households with members participating in social organizations have better conditions to improve their income than households without members participating in social organizations. The Statistical Expert Group proposes to measure this by the amount of social spending of individuals and households. In fact, the level of spending in general and social spending in particular can reduce the income of households.

According to scientists (university lecturers) and reality, spending levels are related to income. Among spending items, Vietnamese people have social spending (funerals, weddings, parties, etc.) that accounts for a large part of personal and family spending. Spending reflects income to some extent because people usually spend according to their income. Therefore, social spending reflects social capital best, showing the level of connection with the social community, the level of connection and quality of relationships of individuals and families. Expert opinions have helped the thesis complete the scale and questionnaire, forming the official research model and scale.

3.3. Official research scale

Domestic and foreign studies related to the relationship between social capital and employment, income, and income distribution of households mostly use few observed variables representing social capital. In particular, the number of observed variables representing social capital of households is even smaller. Previous studies that mentioned social capital of individuals or households mostly used a 5-level Likert scale or a qualitative scale (dummy variables). This leads to research results that cannot measure social capital according to the characteristics of the household, the quality and quantity of social capital.

Furthermore, the VXH variables of the household need to be calculated for the whole household, so measuring them with specific numbers will help compare the VXH levels of the households with each other. According to expert opinion, all 8 observed variables related to VXH of the household have been adjusted (Table 3.1).


Table 3.1: Scales and basis for scale design


Variable code

Scale

initial

Official scale

(after expert opinion)

Basis for building the scale

Personal social security

MINUS

Likert 5

level

Likert 5 levels

Ommen et al (2009); Kang (2012); Mohsenzadeh & Ahmadi (2013); Savari, Eslami & Monavarifard (2013), Hasan, Gholamreza & Maryam (2014), Pham Huy Cuong (2014), Shin & Lee (2016); Edinger & Edinger (2018); Gültekin (2019).

COS

Likert 5

level

Likert 5 levels

REH

Likert 5

level

Likert 5 levels

BOR

Likert 5 levels

Likert 5 levels

Personal work

SASJ

Likert 5

level

Likert 5 levels

Spector (1985), Teymouri et al. (2007), Wang (2008), Savari, Eslami &

Monavarifard (2013).

SASI

Likert 5

level

Likert 5 levels

Social Security of the Family

- Structural aspect:

NPART

Yes/No

Number

Lin & Dumin (1986), Bekkers et al.

(2012) and expert opinion

NPOLO

Yes/No

Number

Nega et al. (2009), Khai & Danh

(2014) and expert opinion


NPROO


Yes/No


Number

Zhang (2010), Chau Ngoc Hoe & Nguyen Hoang Yen (2020) and opinions

expert

NVOLO

Yes/No

Number

Pellizzari (2010), Hoogendoorn (2017)

and expert opinion

- Cognitive aspect:


NBORM


Yes/No


Number

Henly, Danziger & Offer (2005), Barr, Di Falco & Mourato (2011), Goulden

(2013) and expert opinion

COSTC

VND/person

Million VND/month/family

(take logarithm)

Yusuf (2008), Hoang Ba Thinh (2009) and

expert opinion


COSTG


VND/person

Million VND/month/family (take logarithm)

Yusuf (2008), Chau Ngoc Hoe & Nguyen Hoang Yen (2020) and opinions

expert

COSTF

VND/person

Million VND/month/family

(take logarithm)

Lin (2001), Yado & Yano (2017) and their

expert opinion

Maybe you are interested!

Expert Opinion Collection Results

Source: Author's synthesis after comments from experts

3.4. Data and data collection methods

3.4.1. Sampling method and sample size


The survey on social capital, employment and income of households aims to collect information on social relations, employment and income to serve the study of the impact of social capital on employment and income of households. The scope of the survey is all towns and districts in the Dong Thap Muoi region, Long An province including Kien Tuong town and 6 districts: Thu Thua, Tan Hung, Vinh Hung, Moc Hoa, Tan Thanh and Thanh Hoa. The survey subjects are households and members of working age of the household.

The household survey is a random sampling survey. The survey sample includes 1,260 households. To ensure that the selected sample represents the entire study population and facilitates field investigation, the sampling method applied to this survey is the 3-stage sampling method, with the sampling method applied in stage 1 being the sampling method based on probability proportional to population size, this method will help select a representative sample for the entire study population and give the lowest sampling error compared to other random sampling methods; the sampling method applied in stages 2 and 3 is the systematic sampling method. The specific sampling design is as follows:

Phase 1. Select sample wards/communes/towns

The sampling unit of phase 1 is the ward/commune/town. The sample list is all the wards/commune/towns of the Town, district in Dong Thap Muoi region, Long An province. The total number of wards/commune/towns in Dong Thap Muoi region is 74 wards/commune/towns. The number of sample units is 14 wards/commune/towns selected by the probability sampling method proportional to the population size of the wards/commune/towns. List of selected sample wards/commune/towns (Table 2, Appendix 3).

Phase 2. Select survey location

In each sample ward/commune/town selected in phase 1, based on the list of survey areas established from the 2019 Population and Housing Census in Long An province, 3 survey areas were selected using the systematic sampling method. The total number of sample survey areas is: 3 sample survey areas * 14 sample wards/commune/towns = 42 sample survey areas. List of sample survey areas of sample wards/commune/towns (Table 2, Appendix 3).

Phase 3. Select survey households

To select a sample of households for survey in each sample area, first, a list of households in the sample survey area was made. Based on the list of households in the sample area,


30 sample households were selected using a systematic sampling method based on a random number table (Table 3, Appendix 3). The total number of sample households selected was: 30 households * 42 sample survey areas = 1,260 sample households.

3.4.2. Characteristics of the research area

Seven districts and towns in the study area have a labor force/population ratio lower than the provincial average. Of which, 7 districts and towns except Tan Thanh district have a higher ratio than the provincial average, the remaining localities are much lower. This shows that the study area has a low labor force per population, the number of people outside of working age is higher than the provincial average.

Table 3.2: Labor force/population size ratio

(Unit: %)

Local

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Preliminary 2020

Kien Tuong Town

60.44

60.03

59.97

59.99

62.37

60.09

Tan Hung District

60.49

60.08

60.02

60.04

62.42

60.14

H. Vinh Hung

60.48

60.07

60.01

60.03

62.41

60.13

Moc Hoa District

60.50

60.09

60.03

60.05

62.43

60.15

Tan Thanh District

60.96

60.55

60.49

60.51

62.89

60.61

Thanh Hoa District

60.76

60.35

60.29

60.31

62.69

60.41

H. Thu Thua

60.51

60.10

60.04

60.06

62.44

60.16

Provincial average

60.73

60.39

60.34

60.38

62.59

60.55

Source: Data provided by Long An Provincial Statistics Office (2021)

The employed labor force by economic sector of the seven districts and towns is also lower than the average of the whole province. The employed labor force in all three economic sectors of the seven districts and towns is mostly in sector I, sector II also has a proportion of 8-10%, while sector III has a very low proportion (mostly below 5% except Thu Thua district). This is because the research area was formerly a purely agricultural area, in recent years there have been a few areas shifting to industry - construction, while services are mainly small-scale trading activities. Except for the three districts of Thu Thua, Tan Thanh and Thanh Hoa which have the advantage of being located right on National Highway 62, convenient for transportation so the economic structure shifts faster, the remaining districts and towns have a high proportion of agricultural economic structure. Kien Tuong town is oriented towards economic development in sectors II and III,

Comment


Agree Privacy Policy *