The Impact of Foreign Ownership on Capital Structure: Empirical Evidence from Listed Firms in Vietnam

The study aims to probe the impact of foreign ownership on Vietnamese listed firms' capital structure. This study employs panel data of 288 non-financial firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange (HOSE) and Ha Noi stock exchange (HNX) in 2015-2019. In this research, we applied a Bayesian linear regression method to provide probabilistic explanations of the model uncertainty and effect of foreign ownership on the capital structure of non-financial listed enterprises in Vietnam. The findings of experimental analysis by Bayesian linear regression method through Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique combined with Gibbs sampler suggest that foreign ownership has substantial adverse effects on the firms' capital structure. Our findings also indicate that a firm's size, age, and growth opportunities all have a strong positive and significant effect on its debt ratio. We found that the firms' profitability, tangible assets, and liquidity negatively and strongly affect firms' capital structure. Meanwhile, there is a low negative impact of dividends and inflation on the debt ratio. This research has ramifications for business managers since it improves a company's financial resources by developing a strong capital structure and considering foreign investment as a source of funding.