International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

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 Volume 13, Issue 6 (June 2026), Pages: 192-203

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 Original Research Paper

Leadership demographics and financial performance: Evidence from Vietnam’s transport sector

 Author(s): 

Ngoc Thanh Pham 1, Thi Tu Oanh Le 2, *

 Affiliation(s):

1Faculty of Human Resource Management, University of Labor and Social Affairs, Hanoi, Vietnam
2Faculty of Accounting, University of Labor and Social Affairs, Hanoi, Vietnam

 Full text

    Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2823-2204

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 
https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.06.018

 Abstract

This study aims to analyze the trends and effects of the gender and age of company leaders on financial performance. Data were collected from 54 transportation companies listed on the Vietnamese stock market during the period from 2017 to 2023. Financial performance is assessed using indicators such as Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Tobin's Q ratio. Sequential regression methods, including OLS, FEM, and REM, are employed to determine the most appropriate model. FGLS and SGMM regressions are applied to address issues such as heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, endogeneity, and dynamic effects in panel data. The results indicate that the gender of the Chairman of the Board (COB) is associated with lower ROA but higher ROE and Tobin’s Q. Conversely, the gender of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) negatively affects all three indicators, particularly ROE. Older chairmen are associated with higher ROA and ROE, while older CEOs are associated with higher Tobin’s Q but lower ROE. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the combined influence of both CEO and COB characteristics on the financial performance of listed Vietnamese transportation companies. This research also extends the understanding of Upper Echelons Theory (UET), Behavioral Finance Theory (BFT), and Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) by providing empirical evidence on how the gender and age of COBs and CEOs relate to corporate financial performance. The findings have important implications for improving the financial performance of Vietnamese transportation companies and provide a solid empirical foundation for shareholders and firms when considering key attributes in recruiting, appointing, hiring, or training chairmen and CEOs.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

Corporate governance, Financial performance, CEO characteristics, Board leadership, Vietnamese transportation firms

 Article history

Received 20 January 2026, Received in revised form 15 June 2026, Accepted 22 June 2026

 Acknowledgment

No Acknowledgment. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

Pham NT and Le TTO (2026). Leadership demographics and financial performance: Evidence from Vietnam’s transport sector. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(6): 192-203

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