Corporate restructuring and firm performance in Vietnam: The moderating role of digital transformation

PLoS One. 2024 May 20;19(5):e0303491. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303491. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

In the digital age, firms should continually innovate and adapt to remain competitive and enhance performance. Innovation and adaptation require firms to take a holistic approach to their corporate structuring to ensure efficiency and effectiveness to stay competitive. This study examines how corporate restructuring impacts firm performance in Vietnam. We then investigate the moderating role of digital transformation in the corporate restructuring-firm performance nexus. We use content analysis, with a focus on particular terms, including "digitalization," "big data," "cloud computing," "blockchain," and "information technology" for 11 years, from 2011 to 2021. The frequency index from these keywords is developed to proxy the digital transformation for the Vietnamese listed firms. A final sample includes 118 Vietnamese listed firms with sufficient data for the analysis using the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach. The results indicate that corporate restructuring, including financial, portfolio, and operational restructuring, has a negative effect on firm performance in Vietnam. Digital transformation also negatively affects firm performance. However, corporate restructuring implemented in conjunction with digital transformation improves the performance of Vietnamese listed firms. These findings largely remain unchanged across various robustness analyses.

MeSH terms

  • Commerce*
  • Humans
  • Information Technology
  • Vietnam

Grants and funding

This study is funded by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam under Grant B2023-MBS-08 The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.