Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the MSc in Finance FINANCE DISSERTATION ON THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FACTORS ON COMPANY PERFORMANCE: CASE STUDY OF VIETNAMESE FOOD PROCESSING COMPANIES LISTED ON HO CHI MINH STOCK EXCHANGE NGUYEN THI NGOC MINH ID No: 19046138 Intake 3 Supervisor: Associate Prof. Pham Quoc Khanh September 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In order to survive and develop, companies always need to improve the performance of their production and business activities. Company performance is a comparative relationship between the results achieved in the production and business process with the costs to achieve such results (Zeitun and Tian, 2007). The study focuses on researching the business status of food processing companies, mainly companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, in order to improve their capacity and company performance, helping them timely issue policies suitable to their business activities and to avoid the risk of bankruptcy, and at the same time creating conditions for economic stability and development, market development, inflation decrease and provision of better food to serve the needs of the people.
Based on empirical evidence, the research inherits a number of ideas from previous studies, at the same time, supplementing and adjusting to better suit the research content as corporate governance factors affecting company performance of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. The author finds out that Company size, Growth rate, Management of customer receivables, Investment in fixed assets, Capital structure, Business risk, and Company age have impact on Company performance. The author proposes some ideas to improve company performance of food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange such as building a reasonable capital structure, investing and expanding revenue, improving the efficiency of managing and using machines, managing accounts receivable and some other solutions. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to send the most sincere thanks to my Supervisor – Associate Professor Dr.
Phạm Quốc Khánh for his valuable comments on my dissertation. Without his advices, my work cannot be completed. Secondly, my thanks will be sent to all who helped me in fulfilling my dissertation. Their help is definitely precious for me.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends who were always besides me and encouraged me to complete my dissertation. September 2020 Author ii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. ii LIST OF TABLES .v LIST OF FIGURES. Overview of dissertation structure.
3 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND INDUSTRY BACKGROUND. Definition of company performance. Roles of company performance for companies. Previous studies on factors affecting company performance.
Theoretical and conceptual basis. 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY, RESEARCH METHODS AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT. 21 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Findings in Vietnam related to corporate governance factors and their impact on company performance.
Discussion on research findings. Investment in fixed assets. 42 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Building a reasonable capital structure.
Investing and expanding revenue. Improving the efficiency of managing and using machines. Managing accounts receivable. 53 APPENDIX 1: LIST OF COMPANIES ON RESEARCH.
56 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Corporate governance factors affecting company performance .1: Descriptive analysis of corporate governance factors on performance of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .2: Correlation matrix among corporate governance factors on performance of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .3: POOLED OLS results .4: Breusch-Pagan applied to test the POOLED OLS results .5: Regression analysis by FEM .6: Regression analysis by REM .8: Regression analysis by REM for the second time. 36 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Proposed theoretical model. Background In order to survive and develop, companies always need to improve the performance of their production and business activities. Company performance is a comparative relationship between the results achieved in the production and business process with the costs to achieve such results (Zeitun and Tian, 2007).
Company performance is influenced by many different factors of corporate governance. Food processing and manufacturing industry is an industry in which Vietnam has many advantages and development potentials (Wertheim-Heck and Spaargaren, 2015). However, the development of this industry is greatly affected by the requirements of food safety, quality and pressure to compete with countries around the world (Nguyen et al. Since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) up to now, the economic situation with many positive changes has opened up a lot of investment opportunities and increased incomes; thus, the demand of people for food has been increasing significantly.
Therefore, the development of food processing companies is indispensable (Nguyen et al. Moreover, due to the relatively high profits of this sector, it has attracted many companies, and at the same time encouraged them to increase their business and expand their operations. However, accompanied by the recent economic crisis and government policies to handle inflation such as reducing public investment, monetary policies, limiting non-production loans, etc., food processing companies have had to face up with many difficulties and challenges. The biggest challenge is the fierce competition of the market economy, with rivals who are stronger in capital, in technology; wiser in using capital and managing.
In such fiercely competitive conditions, how to maintain company performance and create profit is a big question and not easy to answer for food processing companies (Wertheim-Heck and Spaargaren, 2015). From that fact, analyzing factors, especially corporate governance factors affecting company performance of food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange is a matter that needs attention in the current context. Therefore, the study focuses on researching the business status of food 1 processing companies, mainly companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, in order to improve their capacity and company performance, helping them timely issue policies suitable to their business activities and to avoid the risk of bankruptcy, and at the same time creating conditions for economic stability and development, market development, inflation decrease and provision of better food to serve the needs of the people. Stemming from the importance and the need to understand corporate governance factors that affect company performance in order to help food processing companies improve their competitiveness, the author chose the topic: “The impact of corporate governance factors on company performance: Case study of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange” for study and research.
Objectives The research is conducted to meet the following objectives. - To collect the theoretical model consisting of corporate governance factors affecting company performance; - To analyze the performance of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange under the impact of corporate governance factors; - To make some recommendations to improve company performance of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. Methodology In this dissertation, the author applied theories and concepts related to company performance (dependent variable) and corporate governance factors including company size, growth rate, management of customer receivables, investment in fixed assets, capital structure, business risk and company age (independent variables) as proposed and analyzed in Chapter 1: Literature review and industry background. The method applied in this method to meet the research objectives as mentioned above is quantitative method.
Because the author analyzed the relationship 2 between corporate governance factors and company performance, only numerical data just could help to deal with such relationship. Therefore, quantitative research method was taken rather than any other research method to be applied in this dissertation. Research scope Regarding research object, the research focuses on analyzing corporate governance factors on company performance of Vietnamese food processing companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange Regarding geographical space, the research is conducted for food processing companies in Ho Chi Minh City. Regarding timing, data collection is from 2016 to 2019 to propose solutions in the period of 2020 – 2025.
Overview of dissertation structure The final dissertation cocnludes four main chapters as follows. Chapter 1: Literature review and industry background Chapter 2: Methodology, research methods and hypothesis development Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion Chapter 4: Conclusion and Recommendations 3 CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND INDUSTRY BACKGROUND 1. Definition of company performance Company performance is an economic category reflecting the benefits gained from production and business activities of a company on the basis of comparing benefits gained with expenses spent in the course of business and production, showing the level of business development in depth, reflecting the level of exploitation of resources to achieve business goals (Carcello and Nagy, 2004). The essence of company performance is to improve social labor productivity and save social labor.
For companies, company performance is a very important condition in ensuring their existence and development, a factor that promotes competition and progress in production and business and a condition for fulfilling the overarching goal of all companies of maximizing profits (Siminica et al. According to Samerelson et al. (1995), company performance takes place when the company cannot increase the production of one commodity without cutting another. A company with high performance is above its production capacity limit.
The essence of this view is to mention the effective allocation of resources of any company and organization. The allocation and use of productive resources above the production capacity limit will make the company achieve high company performance. It can be said that the level of company performance that he gives is the highest and ideal; and there can be no higher level of company performance. Company performance is to evaluate the ability to achieve results, profitability of the company because the ultimate goal of the owner, of the manager is to ensure the wealth, the growth of assets of the company (Babalola, 2013).
To do this well, a company must utilize and develop its economic potential. When profitability is not guaranteed, future profits will be uncertain, the value of the company will be reduced, its owner will be in danger of losing capital. Analysis of company performance is characterized by examining the efficiency of using all business 4 means in the production and consumption processes as well as the sponsorship policies. Therefore, the performance of a company is considered in two aspects of business operations and financial activities.
Company performance is to consider the efficiency of using all business means in the production and consumption process. Company performance shows the correlation between the output results with the input resources used in the business operation of the company. To achieve high company performance, they need to maximize their outputs in the context of their limited resources (Behn, 2013). With the view of a British economist, Smith (1776) said that company performance is the result achieved in economic activities and the sales of goods consumption.
In this view, the British economist equates company performance and result, while there is a difference between them. According to him, the different cost levels that bring the same result are equal in performance. As such, Smith (1776) only cares about the outputs but not the inputs. Some argue that company performance is determined by the ratio of the result achieved and the cost spent to get that result.
Typically for this view is Kuhn (2015). Accordingly, company performance is determined by taking the result in units of value divided by business costs. This is the viewpoint applied by many economists and business executives regarding to company performance of commercial organizations and units. Company performance = Business results achieved/Costs to achieve such results Onaolapo and Kajola (2010) put forward two concepts of company performance.
They are material company performance and value company performance. According to the two authors, these two concepts are completely different. Accordingly, the relationship between the output in unit (piece, kg, etc.) and the number of inputs (labor hours, unit of equipment, raw materials, etc.) is called technical or material company performance. The relationship between business costs shown in the most favorable conditions and actual business costs is called value company performance.