Modern investment theory has empirically proved that stock returns can be explained by several factors such as market risk, firm size, and book-to-market ratio. Other unknown factors affecting stock returns are also believed to still exist yet to be found. We believe that one of such factors is the operational efficiency of firms in transforming inputs to outputs, considering the fact that operations is a fundamental and primary function of any type of businesses. To support this belief, this study intends to empirically study the relationship between firm efficiency and stock price performance. Firm efficiency is measured using data envelopment analysis (DEA) with inputs and outputs obtained from financial statements. We employ cross-efficiency evaluation to enhance the discrimination power of DEA with a secondary objective function of aggressive formulation. Using the CAPM-based performance regression model, we test the performance of equally weighted portfolios of different sizes selected based upon DEA cross-efficiency scores along with a buy & hold trading strategy. For the empirical test, we collect financial data of domestic firms listed in KOSPI over the period of 2000~2016 from well-known financial databases. As a result, we find that the porfolios with highly efficient firms included outperform the benchmark market portfolio after controlling for the market risk, which indicates that firm efficiency plays a important role in explaining stock returns.

This objective of this study is to enrich the literature by the debt ratio and enterprise performance of Joint stock companies of Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited (Vinacomin). The debt ratio is an important index of capital structure, and it influences and decides the enterprise performance. Therefore, the determination of reasonable debt ratio level is beneficial to the stable operation of Vinacomin’s enterprises. Based on the research conclusion about the effect on capital structure of debt ratio from domestic and foreign scholar, collecting data from 2014-2018 of Vinacomin’s enterprises as a research sample, the article conducts research on the relationship between debt ratio and business performance of Vinacomin, as measured by return on total Assets. In addition, the study uses free cash flow, company size , growth opportunity, investment opportunities, operating costs to sales ratio as control variables.The study shows the debt ratio of Joint stock companies of Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited has a negative effect on the enterprise performance. Furthermore, the research results of the article are references for Vinacomin’ enterprises in the course of production and business activities, determining a reasonable debt ratio, and improving the operational performance of enterprises.

This study examines the association between governance quality at country level and stock market performance. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability and absence of violence, rule of law, regulatory quality, and voice and accountability on all-share index of the stock markets of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This study is anchored on two theories – the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and Institutional Theory. The study employs panel data spanning from 2006 to 2017. The findings show that political stability and absence of violence and rule of law exhibit a significant positive impact on stock market performance, while regulatory quality and voice and accountability have a significant, but negative relationship with stock market performance. The results imply that quality of governance in terms of rule of law and political stability devoid of violence have strong impact on stock market returns. Similarly, improved stock market returns are largely dependent on the efficiency of the institutional environment of market as investors are always wary of the inherent risks associated with the uncertainty of the market. This study has crucial policy implications for the government of the GCC countries and stock market participants.

The study aims to investigate a close relation between macro and non-macro variables on stock performance of tourism companies in Korea. The sample used in this study includes monthly data from January 2001 to December 2018. The stock price index of the tourism companies as a dependent variable are obtained from Sejoong, HanaTour, and RedcapTour as three leading Korean tourism companies that have been listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. This study assesses the tourism stock performance using the quantile regression approach. This study also investigates whether global crisis events as the Iraq War and the global financial crisis as non-macro variables have a significant effect on the stock performance of tourism companies in Korea. The results show that the oil prices, exchange rate and industrial production have negative coefficients on stock prices of tourism companies, while the effects of tourist expenditure and consumer price index are positive and significant. We estimate the result of quantile regression that non-macro determinants have statistically a significant and negative effect on tourism stock performance because the global crisis could threaten traveler’s safety and economy. Overall, empirical results suggest that the effects of macro and non-macro variables are statistically asymmetric and highly related to tourism stock performance.

The research aims to study the relationship between export performance and stock return of Vietnamese fishery companies. To conduct this study, quarterly data was collected for period from 2010-2018 of 13 fishery companies listing in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX). The export performance was measured by export intensity, export growth and export market coverage. In addition, interest rate, exchange rate, GDP, firm size, profitability, and financial leverage were considered as the control variables in the research model. Panel data analysis with Generalized Least Squares model was employed to estimate the predictive regression. The findings indicated that export intensity and export growth have a significant and positive relationship with stock returns. However, export market coverage has not a significant relationship with stock return at the 0.05 level. Profitability, financial leverage, and exchange rate have a positive relationship, while interest rate and GDP have no relation to stock return at the 0.05 significance level. The findings imply that investors should consider the export intensity instead of export growth and export market coverage as selecting stock of fishery exports firms to invest; managers should increase export intensity to increase company’s stock price or firm market value.

The study aims to examine the impact of productivity in addition to the policy of increasing the foreign investors’ ownership rate on the performance of businesses which were listed on Vietnam's stock exchange market from 2010 to 2017. With the database of 3.961 observations, the study employs a statistical method – multiple regression to estimate the relationship between labor productivity, foreign ownership as well as other firm-level characteristics and firm performance. Research findings show that increasing labor productivity and increasing foreign ownership rates help increase firm performance. In addition, except for financial leverage, variables such as liquidity and firm size have positive effects on firm performance measured by Tobin’s Q. These findings have theoretical contributions and practical implications for managers, investors and government in Vietnam. Managers should pay attention to improving labor productivity through employing incentive mechanisms, building a good working environment, investing in technology, etc. in order to enhance the firm performance. Investors could utilize the labor productivity and foreign ownership indicators to select stocks of good companies for investment. For Vietnamese government, relaxing the limit of foreign ownership and accelerating the divesting of State capital in Stateowned enterprises could help increase the investment scale of foreign investors and resulting in positive effects on the firm performance.