Influence of Corporate Governance on Dividend Policy in Vietnam

The paper examines the impact of corporate governance (CG), on dividend policy (DP) of enterprises in Vietnam. The paper studies the impact of CG on DP of businesses listed on Vietnam's stock exchange in the period 2008-2018 with 2,937 observations. The data of these companies is collected from the financial statements of businesses and Vietstock data sets, as well as aggregated from the data published on some reputable securities websites. The study used GLS regression method for data collected at listed companies in Vietnam in the period of 2008-2018. The research results have found that CG, the chairman of the board of directors (BOD), and the managing director have a negative effect on the DP. Specifically, companies with strong BODs tend to pay low dividends. At the same time, research shows that factors such as profitability, financial leverage, firm size, and investment opportunities affect DP. This result underscores the importance of corporate governance (both internal and external) to the income distribution decision and provides policy implications for investors and company executives. The study finds solid evidence that alternative theory explains better the relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy. Accordingly, companies with weak corporate governance will pay more dividends.