Ngoc Mai Tran

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is quite a new concept to business and society in Vietnam. Information on CSR reflects a firm’s commitment to ethical behavior in its activities and reputation. However, it is questioned whether the information disclosure has any relationship with firm performance. Employing panel regression of about 200 listed firms on the Vietnam Stock Exchange and space-based measurement of CSR disclosure, the study confirms a positive impact of CSR disclosure on firm performance. Firms use CSR disclosures to indirectly improve their performance. Firms that disclose CSR with greater degree of information experience higher marginal profitability. This finding supports stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, and signaling theory in using CSR disclosure as a tool to improve firms’ reputation and transparency, maintain long-term operation, and hence improve financial performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, firms that engage more in CSR will suffer less from the pandemic than firms that do not. Thus, the study implies a promising CSR picture for corporations in Vietnam. Investors, policy makers and any related authorities can utilize these findings to get more insight into the business through CSR disclosures.

Corporate governance has been widely applied in developed countries to promote accountability, transparency, and efficiency within corporations. In Vietnam, as the country transitions toward integrating international standards, corporate governance has become an emerging and critical area of focus. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and corporate financial distress. The study utilizes the dataset of about 500 listed companies in the Vietnam stock exchange during 2014–2022. Feasible generalized least squares regression (FGLS) is employed to account for the heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation problems. Regression results show that frequent board meetings and more gender-diverse boards improve corporate financial health, while an increase in board members and duality roles have negative effects. Duality is often associated with increased agency problems, inefficient capital usage, and higher risk levels that reduce financial health. However, the impact is different in complex firms measured by book-to-market ratio and operating cycles. In complex firms, duality proves valuable by providing unified leadership and enabling active, clear management strategies. This can be explained by the fact that clear and flexible strategies outweigh the benefits of separation between the chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Acknowledgment
The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Banking Academy of Vietnam.