The Roles of Foreign Ownership and Growth Opportunity amid the Trade War: Evidence from an Emerging Country

Abstract

In recent years investors tend to divert their investment to emerging economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially during the U.S.-China trade war. The present study adopts the Weighted Least Square (WLS) and PROCESS macro tool to examine the effects of foreign ownership and growth opportunity on financial performance of Vietnamese listed firms over the period 2011-2018. Our findings show that foreign ownership plays as moderator variable in the relationship between short-term and long-term performance of firms. Empirical results also reveal that mediating effects of growth opportunity on short-term and long-term performance are different before and after the trade war. These findings have important implications for investors and managers in the ASEAN countries.