Thanh Phu Ngo

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The issue of firm resilience to systemic shocks is gaining importance in emerging markets, where weak institutions force companies to rely on social capital as a proxy for legitimacy and resources. Yet it remains to be seen whether social capital functions as a uniform shield or as a more selective, context-dependent anchor under extreme stress. The study examines whether four components of firm social capital: CSR disclosure, CEO networks, political connections, and bank connections, are associated with firm performance in the crisis and recovery phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. The study estimates pooled OLS models with sector and year fixed effects and one-year lagged social capital measures using an unbalanced panel of 338 firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2024, with the post-crisis recovery period (2022–2024) as the reference category. During the recovery period, the composite social capital index is positively related to both operating performance and market valuation. Our results show that CEO networks are positively related to operating performance during the crisis, whereas bank connections are significantly and negatively related to market valuation. Political connections are not significantly related to performance during the crisis, but are strongly related to higher market valuation during the recovery. These results suggest that the value of social capital is not monolithic but depends on the particular relational channel and the phase of the crisis, with practical implications for managers, investors and policymakers in emerging markets.

Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the University of Economics and Law, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (VNU – HCM).