Corporate governance and firm performance: Evidence from Vietnamese listed companies

Abstract

The research aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance in Vietnam – a developing economy in Asia. It focuses on the corporate governance of Vietnamese listed companies with a data-set of the five-year period from 2011 to 2015. Vietnamese listed companies are governed and controlled by two boards, Board of Directors and Supervisory Board. The research investigates the impacts of directors’ and supervisors’ characteristics and ownership structure on firm performance. The outcomes reveal that most governance mechanisms employed by Vietnamese listed companies were not effective and had no effect on the companies’ performance, except for managerial ownership and Supervisory Board size. Specifically, management ownership and firm performance were negatively correlated. Additional analyses show a positive relationship between the number of supervisors and firm performance, which was measured by market-based measurement.