The paper aims at identifying restrictive effects of legal regulations on marketing activities within the corporate governance framework in Vietnam today. From a marketing aspect, many regulations as seen by companies as are obstacles to development and integration into the world economy. | JED July 2012 | 139 Obstacles Caused by Laws to Marketing Activities in Vietnam LÊ ĐĂNG LĂNG Master of Arts, University of Economics and Law ABSTRACT Law not only provides a legal environment for corporate operations but also produces restrictive effects on corporate performance. The paper aims at identifying restrictive effects of legal regulations on marketing activities within the corporate governance framework in Vietnam today. From a marketing aspect, many regulations as seen by companies as are obstacles to development and integration into the world economy. Results obtained through analyses, syntheses, group and twosome discussions help identify several obstacles, such as limits on expenses on advertising and sale promotion, protection for brand names, and regulations about advertising contents and forms. Keywords: law, corporate governance, marketing activities, Vietnam. 140 | Lê Đăng Lăng Obstacles Caused by Laws to Marketing Activities in Vietnam 1. EFFECTS OF LAWS ON CORPORATE OPERATIONS a. Relations between Laws and Corporate Operations: Law is one of the macro factors that affect indirectly corporate operations in general and marketing activities in particular (P. Kotler, 1994). From Drucker’s ideas of governance to M. Porter’s theory of competition and P. Kotler’s thoughts of marketing, all recognize profound effects of laws on corporate operations. Theoretical bases for marketing strategy (P. Kotler, 1996) or brand strategy (D. Aaker, 1996) all point out that the first thing to do when making a plan is to analyze the environment, especially the legal aspect. In practice, laws differ over countries, and the law system produces different effects in different industries. Therefore, analyzing effects of the law system on corporate operations should be based on features of industries at various times and aspects. In Vietnam for example, when analyzing the legal environment for the market on imported toys, such as Legos, marketing strategists
