The dissertation''s research objectives are to explain theories about agency costs and business performance; Recommendations are proposed to reduce agency costs to improve operational efficiency of listed companies in Vietnam.
Trang 1INTRODUCTION
1 Rationales
The stockholders - manager relationship is actually a principal – agent one in
essence For the sake of financial management purpose, the agent must act in the
principal’s interest and shareholders’ wealth maximization is always considered the
ultimate purpose of a firm’s operation The principal is entitled to the firm’s assets
while the agent is authorized by the owners to have certain control over the firm’s
assets to create benefits for the owners
Recently, operating deficiencies of joint-stock companies led to enormous damages
upon their owners as well as the economy As a result, challenging questions are
raised for academists and policymakers: How can joint-stock companies’ owners
administrate agency costs? How can agency costs of Vietnamese joint-stock
companies be identified and measured? Is there a feasible agency cost management
model for Vietnamese joint-stock companies?
Construction-listed companies play an important role in our economy due to their big
scale and provision of investment goods Nonetheless, from 2011 to 2016, the effects
of economic downturn on construction companies caused their inventories and
receivables to increase dramatically as a result of slower liquidation and payment
collection, hence sharp decline of their profitability Besides, their administration
expenses also rose while asset turnover improvement did not meet expectation, hence
operating efficiency deteriorated So that, the topic:”Study on impact of agency cost
on firm performance of listed- companies in Vietnamese stock maket” is selected to
study
2 Research Objectives
- Interpreting the theoretical issues of the impact of agency cost on firm
performance
- Using quantitative method to study the effects of agency cost on the firm
performance of construction-listed companies in Vietnamese stock market to
find out the problems of agency cost of construction-listed companies
- Proposing recommendations for the limiting agency cosy tom improve firm performance of construction -listed companies
3 Scope of research
The study was conducted at 736 construction enterprises listed in two different Vietnamese stock exchanges, which are Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Unlisted Public Company Market(UPCOM) during the period of 6 years from 2010 to 2016 Besides, with the same duration, the impact of agency cost on firm performance of 108 construction-listed companies is studied
Based on goal of corporation (the final goal of business is maximizing the owners’ asset value), two variables are choosen, which reflect the financial efficiency
to measure the firm performance In details, ROA and ROE to reflect the firm performance in book value
The total asset turnover (TAT) and the proportion of management cost by total asset are choosen to be proxies of agency cosst
3.Methodology
Financial reporting data was collected from Stokplus company and several websites: https://www.vndirect.com.vn/portal/home.shtml; http://www.cophieu68.vn/; http://cafef.vn/;
Quantitative method is used to test hypothesis reflecting the relationship between agency cost and firm performance On the other hand, comparative, descriptive statistics, analysis, summary method are used to conclude this relationship
4 New contributions of the Thesis
Theoretical and conceptual framework is used to illustrate the role of agency cost and its impact on firm performance On the other hand, the relationship between agency
Trang 2cost, ownership structure and firm performance is highlighted in theoretical
framework to depict the principles of corporate governance
Based on result of the study, there exist negative impact of agency cost on firm
performance in some industries in vietnamese stock market
There is existence of relationship between agency cost on firm performance in
construction-listed companies in Vietnamese stock market
Besides, state ownership impact firm performance arcording to inverted U Shape
Suggestions are information transparency and exercutive payment improvement
information transparency will limit asymetric information and increase firm
efficiency
Exercutive payment plays important role to encourage managers It will
give managers an incentive to work harder, to persuade a target of corporation
(maximize the wealth of stockholders)
CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Agency cost and the application of agency cost theory in business administration has received attention of academists in finance and economics for long
- Adam Smith addressed the potential conflict between owners and managers
in his discussion of joint-stock companies’ operating efficiency
- In 1932, agency problem was firstly mentioned by Berle and Means in their research of corporate ownership
- In 1973, the article “The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal’s Problem” by Ross introduced an economic theory of agency problem The author explained the essence of agency problem as efforts to establish an appropriate system
of compensation motives to align managers’ behaviors with owners’ interest
- In 1973, Mitnick introduced a fundamental theory of organizational agency
at American Political Science Association and in-depth studies of various aspects of agency theory
- In 1976, Jensen and Meckling developed measurement of agency problem in business enterprises as agency cost in their paper “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure”
- Agency problem can also arise in pyramid ownership structure (Claessens et al., 2002)
- In 2003, Morck and Yeung claimed that agency problem in “family-run” companies was as serious as it was in publicly traded companies
- In 2007, Ding et al claimed that agency problem in state-owned companies was less serious than it was in privately held companies
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW OF DOMESTIC STUDIES
In spite of numerous international studies of agency costs, research of agency costs in Vietnam, especially in the context of Vietnamese publicly traded companies, is highly limited Most the relevant studies in Vietnam just concentrated on review of theoretical framework and empirical studies based on internationally established works The only noteworthy article was probably “A study of agency costs of Vietnamese
Trang 3joint-stock companies” by Vu Duy Hao and Tran Minh Tuan (2013), which specified several
types of agency costs of Vietnamese listed joint-stock companies Nevertheless, the
work generally focuses on literature review of agency costs
In practice, the agency problem is yet to be particularly studied in the context of
business enterprises with proportionally large state ownership Meanwhile, for
privately owned enterprises, there are still troubles with the separation of ownership and
administration, which makes the agency problem even more complicated
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODOLOGY
1.3.1 Research gap
- Recently, modern theories of agency problem and corporate governance of
developed industrial Western countries are apparently yet to be comprehensively
understood and reflected in practice
- In practice, the relationship between shareholders and managers is not
appropriately resolved yet either
- Vietnamese studies of agency problem and corporate governance just provided
the basic knowledge of agency costs
- There is no in-depth research of agency problem for Vietnamese listed
companies of a certain industry so far
Therefore, it is necessary to have a study of agency costs’ influence operating
efficiency of listed companies
1.3.2 Research questions
- How to identify agency costs of a business enterprise and their impact on the
firm’s operating efficiency?
- Is there an empirical relationship between agency costs, ownership structure
and firm value?
- How can managers reduce firm’s agency costs?
1.3.3 Model and research methodology
This research based on the research of Ang et al (2000) and Singh và Davidson (2003)
to choose the proxies of agency cost such as The total asset turnover (TAT) and the
proportion of management cost by total asset
To exercute empirical research, the research contribute models regarding impact of agency cost on firm performance:
a Model 1
For all listed companies in Vietnamese stock companies
ROA it = β 1 + β 2 Salass it + β 3 Exsa it + β 4 Size it + β 5 Lev it +β 6 Age it + β 7 Industry i (1) ROE it = α 1 + α 2 Salass it + α 3 Exsa it + α 4 Size it + α 5 Lev it +α 6 Age it +α 7 Industry i (2)
b Model 2 ROA t = β 1 + β 2 Salass t + β 3 Exsa t + β 4 FCF t + β 5 Size t + β 6 Lev t + β 7 Age t + e t (1) ROE t = β 1 + β 2 Salass t + β 3 Exsa t + β 4 FCF t + β 5 Size t + β 6 Lev t + β 7 Age t + e t (2)
c Model 3
ROAit = β1 + β2Salassit + β3Exsait +β4FCFit + β5Sizeit + β6Levit + β7Ageit + εit ROEit = β1 + β2Salassit + β3Exsait +β4FCFit + β5Sizeit + β6Levit + β7Ageit + δit
Trang 4CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF IMPACT OF AGENCY COST ON FIRM
PERFORMANCE
2.1 The fundamentals of agency costs
2.1.1 The concept and classification of agency costs
2.1.1.1 The concept of agency costs
The concept of agency costs can be explained as the costs which arise when
there is lack of unanimity of managers’ and owners’ goals or managers’ and
debtholders’ goals In the former case, the agent is the manager working for the firm’s
owners As the firm’s owners can hardly supervise the managers’ behaviors on a
regular basis, information asymmetry arises, which gives way for moral hazards and
adverse selection In the latter case, the agent acts on the behalf of the lender and
assures financial obligations to be met, and agency costs arise when the managers and
borrowers do not follow the contract in using their funds or invest in highly risky
projects which affect interest and principal payment schedule
2.1.1.2 Classification of agency costs
- Monitoring Cost
- Bonding Cost
- Residual Loss
2.1.2 The relationship between corporate governance and agency costs
According to previous researches, a firm with good corporate governance can
reduce agency costs and improve operating efficiency (Black and Kim, 2012; Liu et
al., 2015) Following the legal framework changes of South Korean business
enterprises in 1999, Black and Kim (2012) found evidence of positive firm value
effect of increasing number of Board of directors’ independent members Similarly,
Liu et al (2015) documented positive impact of board of management’s independence
on firm’s operating efficiency of companies listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen (China) from 1999 to 2012
2.1.3 Agency costs administration in business enterprises
Based on legal framework of the economy and administration norms of the company, there are several approaches to agency cost administration as follows:
- Organizational system-based approach
- Internal control
- External control
- Legal-based system
2.1.4 Indicators of agency costs
According to Khidma and Rehman (2014), there are 7 indicators to evaluate agency costs, which are free cash flow, asset turnover, operating expense ratio, administration expense ratio, advertising expense ratio, earnings volatility and total expenses
Besides, Ang et al (2000), Davidson et al (2006), asset turnover and administration expense-to-sales ratio are two significant indicators to assess agency costs These two indicators are also widely used in studies of the relationship between state ownership and agency costs in foreign countries (Xu, Zhu and Lin, 2002; Singh and Davidson, 2003)
Return on Asset (ROA) Return on equity (ROE)
2.3 The relationship between agency cost, ownership structure and operating efficiency
With awareness of ownership structure diversity of publicly traded companies, many academists have touched upon the relationship between agency costs, ownership structure and operating efficiency of these firms
Besides, state ownership may be assumed to have negative influence on operating efficiency as it can lead to mandatory administration system and consumption of huge amount of capital Foreign ownership may also affect firm’s
Trang 5operating efficiency according to theories of agency problem
2.4 The influence of agency costs
In the sense of business administration, agency costs may have both positive
and negative influences on Vietnamese companies’ operations
2.4.1 Positive impact
- The existence of agency costs is an obvious evidence of the company’s
development in terms of both firm size and professionalism in control system
- Agency costs arise to maintain an efficient principal-agent relationship
Agency cost, as a part of firm’s costs in operations, proves the efficiency and
professionalism of labor market
- As long as agency costs are properly administrated, they can help to
improve firm’s operating efficiency and profitability, which maximizes shareholders’
value
- Agency costs assure fairness for both parties of agency contract on the basis
that each of them bears a part of the costs
2.4.2 Negative impact
- Firm’s administration expenses increase
- One of the sources of agency costs is the existence of supervisors and
constraints of the agents’ behaviors, which makes the firm’s operating system more
multi-layered and complicated
- Another common negative effect of agency cost is the manipulation of the
management’s power
CHAPTER 3 EMPIRICAL RESULT OF IMPACT OF AGENCY COST ON
FIRM PERFORMANCE OF LISTED COMPANIES 3.1 The operating efficiency of Vietnamese listed companies from 2010 to 2016 3.1.1 Operating efficiency of listed companies
The overall performance of companies listed on Vietnam’s Stock Exchange was fairly good in 2010 and 2011 as their average ROA and ROE in this period were higher than before despite the downward trend (ROA and ROE in 2011 were lower than in 2010) This trend continued in 2012 and 2013 In 2014, ROA recovered and increased in 2015 while ROE reached the bottom in 2014 but increased substantially
in 2015 Besides, the annual values of Salass variable were highly unstable, peaking
in 2011 (1.306) and hitting the bottom in 1.204 in 2015 Meanwhile, the administration expense-to-sales ratio tended to rise over time The Size variable followed similar trend Finally, the financial leverage variable increased during
2010-2013 but dropped thereafter
3.1.2 Operating efficiency of construction companies
From 2010 to 2016, construction companies in Vietnam had their ups-and-downs From 2010 to 2014, due to financial crisis, they faced a lot of challenges as decreasing cash flows and operating efficiency However, since 2014, listed construction companies in Vietnam improved their performance as real estate markets recovered The recovery of real estate markets, together with more investment in infrastructure for transportation, better conditions for input price negotiation and participation in BOT, BT projects, helped leading firms in the industry to improve their profitability
3.2 Agency cost of Vietnamese listed construction companies from 2010 to 2016 3.2.1 Sales-to-assets
The total assets turnover of construction companies decreased throughout
2008-2015, then increased in 2016 During the economic downturn, their inventories and receivables increased dramatically as a result of slower liquidation and payment
Trang 6collection, hence substantially lower profitability
3.2.2 Administration expense
Although fixed assets turnover was not high, the administration
expense-to-sales ratio of construction firms tended to increased from year to year, especially
throughout 2008-2016, which partly explains profitability decrease during this period
These firms need to cut down this expense in order to enhance their profitability
3.3 Empirical testing of agency costs‘ influence on operating efficiency of listed
Vietnamese construction companies
To test for the effect of agency costs on firms‘ operating efficiency, the industry
effect was integrated into the model The construction companies were selected as
case study for firms listed on Vietnam’s Stock Exchange
3.3.1 Empirical testing of agency costs‘ influence on operating efficiency of listed
Vietnamese companies
This research uses panel data analysis This method helps to deal with the
absence of unobservable firm-specific variables Two following regression models are
estimated:
ROA it = β 1 + β 2 Salass it + β 3 Exsa it + β 4 Size it + β 5 Lev it +β 6 Age it + β
ROE it = 1 + α Salass it + α Exsa it + α Size it + α Lev it +α Age it + α
Industry i + δit
The regression’s outcomes:
a) The effect of agency costs on firms’ operating efficiency
Salass
0.017**
*
0.021**
*
0.026**
*
0.039**
*
0.044**
*
0.065**
*
-0.147**
*
-0.200**
-0.261**
*
-0.518**
*
Size
0.009**
*
0.011**
*
0.030**
*
0.017**
*
0.019**
*
0.067**
*
Lev
-0.170**
*
-0.169**
*
-0.178**
*
-0.137**
*
-0.146**
*
-0.183**
*
-0.006**
-0.016**
*
0.030**
0.049**
Trang 7Biến phụ thuộc
Constant
-0.133**
*
-0.174**
*
-0.537**
*
-0.366**
*
-0.409**
*
-1.303**
*
b) Regression results, using instrumental variables
c) Financial leverage’s influence on the relationship between agency costs and firms’ operating efficiency
VARIABL
Salass
0.037
***
0.027
***
0.043
***
0.065
***
(0.00 6)
(0.00 4)
(0.01 4)
(0.01 0)
Exsa
-0.250
**
-0.203
***
-0.433
-0.510
Trang 8***
(0.10 9)
(0.04 6)
(0.31 2)
(0.16 1)
Salass *
Lev
-0.020
(0.00 9)
(0.02 8) Exsa *
-0.147 (0.19
5)
(0.67 7)
Size
0.031
***
0.066
***
(0.00 6)
(0.01 9)
Lev
-0.158
***
-0.226
***
(0.02 5)
(0.07 9)
Age
-0.006
***
-0.016
***
(0.00 1)
(0.00 2)
Constan
-0.567
-1.239
(0.14 1)
(0.45 6)
Observa
3.3.2 Empirical testing of agency costs‘ influence on operating efficiency of listed Vietnamese construction companies
In this part, the influences of agency costs and ownership structure on operating efficiency of Vietnamese listed construction companies from 2010 to 2016 The sample includes 101 firms of construction industry which are listed on Hanoi’s Stock Exchange (HNX) and Ho Chi Minh City’s Stock Exchange (HoSE) The panel data are unbalanced as there are some missing data of certain variables in a few years
3.3.2.1 The effect of agency costs on firms’ operating efficiency
Regression models:
ROAit = β1 + β2Salassit + β3Exsait +β4FCFit + β5Sizeit + β6Levit + β7Ageit + εit ROEit = β1 + β2Salassit + β3Exsait +β4FCFit + β5Sizeit + β6Levit + β7Ageit + δit The results are presented in the following table:
Biến phụ thuộc
Hệ số cắt 0.6392***
(0.1694)
0.1641**
(0.0723)
1.0150*
(0.5511)
0.0667 (0.1877)
(0.0078)
0.0298 (0.0064)
0.1284***
(0.0253)
0.1202*** (0.0188)
Trang 9Exsa -0.4557***
(0.0584)
-0.3812***
(0.0518)
-1.0479***
(0.1898)
-0.8494***
(0.1564)
(0.0087)
-0.0064 (0.0082)
-0.0021 (0.0283)
-0.0028 (0.0258)
(0.0064)
-0.0013 (0.0027)
-0.0324 (0.0207)
0.0032 (0.0070)
(0.0262)
-0.1424***
(0.0168)
-0.1103 (0.0851)
-0.1297***
(0.0455)
(0.0038)
0.0274***
(0.0034)
0.0942***
(0.0125)
0.0955***
(0.0107)
Kiểm định
Hausman
chi2(6) = 15.16 Prob > chi2 = 0.0190
chi2(6) = 15.64 Prob > chi2 = 0.0159
3.3.2.2 The influence of ownership structure on firm performance
Research models:
ROAit = β1 + β5SO + β6SO2
+ β7FO + β8SO2 +β9Sizeit + β10Levit + β11Ageit + εit (3.5) ROEit = β1 + β5SO + β6SO2
+ β7FO + β8FO2 + β9Sizeit + β10Levit + β11Ageit + δit (3.6) The results are shown in the following table:
Biến phụ thuộc
Hệ số cắt 0.5481***
(0.1911)
0.1209 (0.0768)
1.2002*
(0.6126)
0.1113 (0.2036)
(0.0581)
0.0641*
(0.0359)
0.7844***
(0.1864)
0.2543**
(0.1010)
(0.0685)
-0.0359 (0.0529)
-0.7782***
(0.2196)
-0.1920 (0.1534)
(0.1048)
-0.1809**
(0.0905)
-1.0151***
(0.3362)
-0.4307 (0.2666)
(0.2951)
0.4929**
(0.2434)
1.8234*
(0.9461)
1.1661 (0.7086)
(0.0073)
-0.0003 (0.0031)
-0.0401*
(0.0234)
0.0009 (0.0082)
(0.0293)
-0.1373***
(0.0194)
-0.1673*
(0.0941)
-0.1080** (0.0538)
(0.0042)
0.0308***
(0.0038)
0.0956***
(0.0136)
0.1027*** (0.0118)
Kiểm định Hausman
chi2(7) = 37.55 Prob > chi2 = 0.0000
chi2(7) = 29.06 Prob > chi2 = 0.0001
3.3.2.3 The simultaneous effects of agency costs and ownership structure on operating efficiency
Research models:
ROAit = β1 + β2Salassit + β3Exsait + β4FCFit + β5SO + β6SO2
+ β7FO + β8SO2 +β9Sizeit +
β10Levit + β11Ageit + εit
ROEit = β1 + β2Salassit + β3Exsait + β4FCFit + β5SO + β6SO2
+ β7FO + β8FO2 + β9Sizeit +
β10Levit + β11Ageit + δit
Biến phụ thuộc
Hệ số cắt 0.5370***
(0.1731)
0.1412*
(0.0754)
0.7549 (0.5660)
0.0178 (0.2009)
(0.0517)
0.0458 (0.0325)
0.4686***
(0.1690)
0.2225** (0.0914)
(0.0602)
-0.0304 (0.0471)
-0.5051**
(0.1970)
-0.2033 (0.1376)
Trang 10FO -0.3927***
(0.0914)
-0.2098***
(0.0804)
-1.0796***
(0.2989)
-0.5384**
(0.2395)
(0.2566)
0.4983**
(0.2166)
1.9827**
(0.8391)
1.1828*
(0.6363)
(0.0076)
0.0284***
(0.0064)
0.1183***
(0.0250)
0.1147***
(0.0188)
(0.0568)
-0.3777***
(0.0513)
-1.0272***
(0.1857)
-0.8534***
(0.1544)
(0.0085)
-0.0039 (0.0082)
0.0138 (0.0278)
0.0050 (0.0256)
(0.0065)
-0.0002 (0.0029)
-0.0231 (0.0213)
0.0057 (0.0078)
(0.0255)
-0.1568***
(0.0176)
-0.1393*
(0.0835)
-0.1852***
(0.0493)
(0.0038)
0.0266***
(0.0034)
0.0879***
(0.0123)
0.0941***
(0.0105)
Kiểm định
Hausman
chi2(10) = 38.5 Prob > chi2 = 0.0000
chi2(10) = 25.23 Prob > chi2 = 0.0049
CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Discussion of results
According to the research results, listed Vietnamese companies incurred agency costs in practice However, the effect of agency costs on firms’ operating efficiency vary across industries
In case of listed construction companies, free cash flow and ownership structure variables were used to investigate the influence of agency costs on operating efficiency
The regression results of panel data show that agency costs have negative relationship with operating efficiency, which is similar to the theory of agency problem and relevant international and Vietnamese empirical studies before Regarding the effect of ownership structure, foreign ownership was proven to have U-shaped relationship with operating efficiency Therefore, it is necessary to increase the proportion of foreign ownership in ownership structure of construction companies Besides, total assets turnover and administration expense ratio were proven to be appropriate indicators of agency costs of Vietnamese business enterprises
In addition, state ownership was found to have reverse U-shaped relationship with operating efficiency The optimal level of state ownership was detected to be about 45% - 50%
The regression results also show that firm size and financial leverage have negative effects on operating efficiency Therefore, listed companies of construction industry need to reduce debt financing, reorganize administration system and improve