FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING ---------***--------- GRADUATION THESIS Major: Accounting and auditing with ACCA orientation THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: A CASE OF CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES LISTED ON VIETNAM STOCK EXCHANGE Student name : Nguyen Hai Linh Student code : 1818820038 Class : English 04 Intake : 57 Supervisor : Bui Thu Hien, PhD. Hà Nội, tháng 6 năm 2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor Bui Thu Hien, PhD. who has been constantly supportive and patient with me from the very beginning to the end of this thesis. I am also deeply grateful to teachers in the Faculty of Accounting and Auditing at Foreign Trade University for providing me with useful knowledge and valuable lessons during the 4 years.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank my family and friends for supporting me in the process of completing this bachelor thesis. DECLARATION I here with formally declare that I myself have written the submitted Graduation Thesis independently. I did not use any outside support except for the quoted literature and other sources mentioned at the References of this Thesis. Hanoi, June 2022 Student’s Signature TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.
The rationale of the research. Research objectives and questions. Research subject and scope. Significance of the thesis.6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND FIRM PERFORMANCE.1 Overview about the ownership structure.1 Definitions of ownership structure.2 Categories of ownership structure.2 The concepts of firm performance.1 Definitions of firm performance.2 Criteria to measure firm performance.3 The factors affecting the firm performance in the enterprises.3 Theories on the linkage between ownership structure and firm performance.1 Ownership Concentration and Firm Performance.2 State Ownership & firm performance.4 The characteristics of construction sector.23 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.1 Choice of research method.2 Research model and hypothesis.5 Data analysis method.33 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS.1 Results of descriptive statistics.2 Results of correlation matrix.4 Results of regression analysis.1 Testing the model with dependent variable ROE.2 Testing the model with dependent variable ROA.5 Discussion on the research results.50 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.2 Recommendations for Vietnam construction firms and the Government.1 Recommendations for Vietnam construction firms.2 Recommendations for the Government.
66 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABBREVIATION FULL WORD AS Asset structure FEM Fixed Effects Model FOREIGN Foreign ownership IVT Inventory turnover HNX Hanoi Stock Exchange HOSE Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange LEV Financial leverage ROA Return on Asset REM Random Effects Model ROE Return on Equity STATE State ownership SIZE Firm size LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The variables used in the research.1 Results of descriptive statistics.2 Results of correlation matrix.3 The results of Breusch-Pagan test in model (1).4 The results of Breusch-Pagan test in model (2).6 Results of OLS model for ROE.7 Breusch – Pagan Lagrange Test for ROE.8 Results of REM for ROE.9 Results of FEM for ROE.10 Results of OLS model for ROA.11 Results of Breusch – Pagan test for ROA.12 Results of REM for ROA.13 Results of FEM for ROA.50 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Categories of ownership structure.2 The factors influencing the financial performance.1 The research steps. The rationale of the research There are a larger number of studies on ownership structure in developing countries, especially countries with the participation of state ownership such as Russia, China, and Vietnam. The main reason is that state ownership in these countries has contributed a crucial part due to the economic transformation from the centralized economy (Xu &Wang, 1999; Hoang, 2015). This also represents state intervention in the firms’ business activities, which has a strong impact on the firm performance (Wei et al.
Poor corporate governance, insufficient monitoring, and a lack of high-powered incentives for state-owned business management can all explain state-owned firms' underperformance when compared to privately-owned firms (Lazzarini & Musacchio, 2018). Furthermore, state-owned companies have various strategic goals, such as improved public services with lower failure rates, better infrastructure, beneficial effects on employment with favorable effects on reducing social transfers, and reliance on market failures. Pursuing goals other than efficiency and profitability frequently results in poor financial results. For developing countries like Vietnam, the role of enterprises in general and construction firms, in particular, is important in building infrastructure for economic development.
As mentioned in Vietnam’s Development Strategy to 2030, construction has been emphasized as having an indispensable role in national economic growth (MOF, 2021). Thus, enhancing firm performance in construction companies in Vietnam will contribute to saving social costs and improving the operational efficiency of units in the economy. Therefore, it is necessary to study the factors influencing the firm performance of the construction companies and based on that, propose solutions to improve their firm performance. From the effects of ownership structure on the firm performance, I chose the topic: “The relationship between ownership structure and firm performance: A case of construction companies listed on Vietnam stock exchange” for my graduation paper.
The research provides empirical evidence on the correlation between ownership structure and firm performance of Vietnam construction companies and makes necessary suggestions and recommendations for these companies to enhance their firm performance. Previous studies ● International studies The study was carried out by Dakhlallh et al. The ownership structure was measured using institutional and block holders’ ownership. Tobin's Q is used to assess performance (TQ).
The panel data method was utilized to analyze data for a sample of 180 companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2009 to 2017 in order to meet the study's aims. The findings reveal that the processes of ownership structure have a considerable impact on firm performance as measured by (TQ). So, institutional ownership has a significant positive link with (TQ), but block holders' ownership has a significant negative relationship with (TQ), according to the data (TQ). Wahla & Shah (2012) examine at the significant association between ownership structure and firm performance in non-financial enterprises listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2010.
Managerial Ownership has a strong negative association with firm performance, whereas Concentrated Ownership has an insignificant relationship with firm performance, according to the findings. Leverage, a controllable variable, shows a substantial negative association with firm performance, whereas Assets Turnover has an insignificant relationship with firm performance. Our findings revealed that managerial ownership had a significant impact on firm performance. In the Pakistani setting, agency issues occur as a result of an increase in managerial shareholdings, which has an impact on business performance.
Similarly, Ogabo et al. (2021) investigates the impact of ownership structure on FTSE 350 company performance from 2008 to 2018. The effect of management and institutional ownership on performance measurements like as return on asset, return on equity, and Tobin's Q was studied in detail. Descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, and regression analysis were used to analyze a panel data set of 48 enterprises with 432 observations.
The findings showed that when managerial ownership exceeds 5%, there is a considerable beneficial influence on business performance with no centralization effect. According to the regression results, the percentage of independent directors on the board of directors increases firm performance, whereas the percentage of women on the board of directors diminishes firm performance. These findings add to the existing knowledge on the relationship between ownership structure and performance. ● Vietnamese studies Compared to the international studies, the number of studies related to the research topic is still limited in Vietnam.
Here are some typical Vietnamese studies: Vo et al. (2020) assess the impact of ownership structure on the performance of listed companies in transition economies. Hypotheses on such a linkage are proposed based on agency theory. The proposed hypotheses are tested using extensive panel data from 502 non-financial companies registered on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and the Hanoi Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2018, as well as the system generalized method of moment estimation.
The findings of the estimations show that state ownership has a U-shaped relationship with the performance of Vietnamese listed companies, whereas foreign ownership and the degree of ownership concentration have an inverted U-shaped association with the performance of listed companies. The report also has governance implications, stating that in order to improve business performance and boost investor trust, Vietnamese listed companies should reduce state and foreign ownership. As stated by Nguyen and Nguyen (2017), foreign ownership has a negative impact on pharmaceutical firm performance in terms of Tobin's Q, but the connection becomes positive after foreign ownership exceeds 24. The performance of listed companies has a U-shaped association with institutional and individual foreign ownership.
Furthermore, according to Nguyen and Ngo (2017), foreign ownership is inversely associated to company performance (as assessed by Tobin's Q). Aside from that, financial leverage, liquidity, and the number of employees all have an impact on the value of a publicly traded company. According to these authors, firms should grow their foreign ownership in order to boost management efficiency and enterprise value. Research objectives and questions As mentioned above, this study aims to fulfill the objectives as followings: ● To build a theoretical framework on the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance.
● To investigate the effects of ownership structure on the firm performance of construction companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange. ● To propose some suggestions for these firms to improve their financial performance and build an appropriate ownership structure. Research questions: To achieve the above research aims, the research questions need to be answered: ● What is the relation between ownership structure and firm performance of the construction companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange? ● What are the impacts of different ownership structures on the firm performance of the construction companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange? ● What are the suggested recommendations for Vietnam construction companies to improve their firm performance? 4. Research subject and scope The subject of the study is the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance of construction companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchanges.
The scope of contents: The influences of ownership structure on the firm performance of Vietnam construction company listed on the Vietnam stock exchanges. The scope of space: The construction companies listed on Vietnam stock exchanges (including HNX and HOSE) The scope of time: In the period from 2017 to 2021. Research methodologies In terms of data source, the authors collect secondary data from the public annual reports of 26 construction companies listed on the Vietnam stock exchange (including HNX and HOSE) from 2017 to 2021. The websites which are used for databases include cophieu68.
Besides, the authors also reference a number of research articles from economic journals and scholars. In terms of the research method, a quantitative approach is applied in this study for data collection and analysis. The SPSS software is used to conduct data analysis with the following steps. The first one is descriptive statistics to provide basic features of data such as Min, Max, Mean or Standard Deviation, etc.
Second, Pearson’s correlation analysis, which describes the correlation between two variables with the coefficient r (from -1 to 1). Third, the researchers test multicollinearity by measuring VIF. The final step is conducting a multiple regression analysis to find out the relationships among the variables. Significance of the thesis researcher can evaluate whether the independent variable and the dependent variable have a positive, negative relationship or no relationship with each other, besides, the researcher can also determine the degree of strong correlation or not.
Step 4: Testing the defects of research data Before analyzing linear regression and building regression model, the author will check the data. Because data testing is an important step for us to determine the accuracy and standards of the collected data, testing the defects of research data will help the analysis results have higher accuracy. To test the defects of research data, the author will use multicollinearity test and autocorrelation test.