Anticipatory governance and stakeholder engagement in financial crisis management: evidence from Vietnam’s banking sector

Purpose This study aims to examine how anticipatory governance mechanisms and stakeholder engagement influence government bailout effectiveness and financial market stability during banking crises, with particular focus on implications for commercial bank board oversight and internal risk management frameworks. Design/methodology/approach Partial least squares structural equation modelling analysed survey data from 237 Vietnamese stakeholders, comprising financial experts, policymakers and business leaders, collected during 2022–2023. Measurement invariance was established through the MICOM procedure before pooling heterogeneous stakeholder groups. Findings Anticipatory governance significantly enhances government trust and bailout scope whilst directly influencing financial market stability. The scope of government bailouts positively influences government trust. Government trust fully mediates the bailout scope–stability relationship, indicating that intervention effectiveness operates through confidence-building mechanisms rather than direct resource provision. Public engagement positively influences government trust yet demonstrates negative moderating effects on the anticipatory governance–trust and bailout scope–trust relationships, suggesting coordination-efficiency trade-offs during crisis response. Anticipatory governance exerts a significant direct effect on financial market stability beyond its indirect trust-mediated pathway. Taken together, these relationships describe a single crisis-governance transmission mechanism linking anticipatory capacity, intervention design, government trust and stability. Originality/value This study advances corporate governance literature by demonstrating how macro-level anticipatory governance mechanisms shape micro-level board decision-making and bank risk management during crises, providing actionable insights for commercial bank governance structures in emerging market contexts.