Investigating the realtionship between sales growth and firm performance in perspective of finance and corporate governance : A study on Ho Chi Minh stock exchange
Abstract
The thesis provides an initial quantitative assessment on the relationship
between sales growth and performance in association with the investigation about the
effects of cash flow, investment opportunities and corporate governance on sales
growth – firm performance relation. The sample of 197 Vietnamese listed companies
on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange is tested in order to provide appropriate answers for
four questions: (1) What is the relationship between sales growth and firm
performance? (2) Does the presence of cash flow and poor investment opportunities
have negative effect on sales growth – firm performance relation? (3) Does strong
governance moderate the negative effect of cash flow and poor investment
opportunities? (4) For the weak governance firms, does the presence of cash flow and
poor investment opportunities not only effect sales growth – firm performance
relation but actually reduce the firm performance?
By using panel regression model, the paper discovers many worthy points.
Firstly, it is indicated that sales growth has positive effect on firm performance for
firms without cash flow, investment opportunities and governance effects. Secondly,
neither the interaction of cash flow and poor investment opportunities nor corporate
governance categories have any impacts on the linkage of sales growth and firm
performance of Vietnamese firms which is contrary to other researches of foreign
firms. Finally, there is an unexpected direct correlation between investment
opportunities and firm performance that requires further study for clearer
understanding. As a result, this study offers arguments for additional researches of
Vietnamese companies on the issues of sales growth, performance, cash flow and
corporate governance.