Determinants Affecting Profitability of Firms: A Study of Oil and Gas Industry in Vietnam

The oil and gas industry is widely known as a vital engine of Vietnam development, stimulating researchers to examine the association of various factors with this industry. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between different variables affecting profitability of the firms in the oil and gas sector in Vietnam. The total of 203 samples were collected from 29 companies listed on Vietnam Stock Market during a 6-year period from 2012 to 2018. Informed by prior research, this investigation employs financial leverage (FL), government ownership (GOV), dividend payout (DIV), fixed assets to total assets (FA) and exchange rate (EXR) as independent variables, while the profit is described by return-on-assets (ROA). The study results show that there are four factors that have an impact on ROA, namely, leverage, government ownership, dividend, and exchange rate. Whereas leverage and exchange rate have negative influence on ROA, government ownership and dividend payment have a positive effect. The findings of this study suggest that high debt ratio in capital structure and the negative effect of exchange rate on their companies' efficiency can adversely affect the profit of enterprises. Also, plausible extent of government ownership and dividend payment could also be considered to optimize corporate performance.