The Effects of Governance-Related Regulatory Reform: Ownership Structure and Earnings Management in Vietnamese Listed Firms

The purpose of this study is to examine how the influence of the internal corporate governance mechanism, namely ownership structure, on firms’ earnings management (EM) practices and insider choices between accrual-based and real EM changed after regulatory reform in Vietnam. The author considers the role of three ownership types, managerial, state and foreign, and assess how the relation between ownership structure and EM was affected by the Code of Corporate Governance reform. The study relies on a comprehensive sample of 4,408 firm-year observations of 596 firms listed on either the HOSE or HNX between 2008 and 2016. The study finds a significant effect of the reform on the relation between ownership structure and EM. Thus, the reform mitigated agency problems of managers and foreign investors in Vietnamese listed firms. The study contributes to the literature as it provides a more complete picture of the effects of managerial, state and foreign ownership on EM where the protection of minority investors is generally weak and legal enforcement is low in a developing economy.