Firm - specific determinants of capital structure: Evidence from Vietnam during the period of 2007 - 2011

We analyse the relationship between four key firm- specific indicators of capital structure of 85 Vietnamese non- financial listed firms during the period from 2007 to 2011, and the extent to which the Financial Crisis between 2008 and 2009 affects them. The regression results of OLS estimation point out that the level of long- term debt and total debt increase as Vietnamese firms have higher growth opportunities, larger size as well as more tangibility. In contrast, companies which gain more profits are likely to use their retained earnings to fund their operation activities, rather than issuing more debt. These findings are generally consistent with most of previous literature. When dummy variable is added into our model to examine the effect of Financial Crisis, we see that the relationship between determinants and the leverage of Vietnamese firms unchanged, except for the case that companies with higher market-to-book value tend to reduce their long- term debt from 2008 to 2009.