Impact of ownership structure and corporate governance on capital structure - The case of Vietnamese non-financial firms in HOSE
Abstract
The study attempts to examine how ownership structure, corporate governance have impact on capital structure decision in non – financial listed firms on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) over period 2012 – 2014. Ownership structure is indicated by managerial ownership and state ownership due to special characteristics of Vietnamese market. Board composition (number of non – executive director), board size and CEO duality are factors of corporate governance following Bansal (2005). Besides that, other firm’s characteristics are also taken into account. Panel data is collected from 117 non –financial companies listed in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange with 351 observation. By using Random effect model (REM) with robust, the findings showed that managerial ownership had the negative relationship with leverage while the state ownership was confirmed to have a positive relation to leverage. In case of corporate governance, CEO duality is found to have a statically significant positive relation while the number of non – executive is confirmed to have a significant negative relation to leverage. It affirmed that CEO’s role and function of non – executive directors in corporate governance and decision of capital structure. We can conclude that ownership structure and corporate governance have a certain impact on decisions of capital structure. Finally, the study shows that Vietnamese firms have adopted corporate governance practices gradually.