Enterprise Risk Management and Firm Performance Empirical evidence from Vietnam John Kommunuri, Anil Narayan, Mark Wheaton & Lilibeth Jandug Abstract Enterprise risk management (ERM) has emerged as a new model for managing a complex portfolio of risks. Firms are reluctant to adopt ERM because of the difficulty in quantifying the value side of ERM implementation. Our research draws attention to the performance and value effects of ERM implementation in emerging economies using the case of Vietnam. The paper contributes to the current literature on risk management which is intertwined with management accounting. Though Vietnam had experienced rapid economic growth through massive privatization and inflow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), this growth had slowed down in 2009. As with other emerging/transition economies, Vietnam is yet to strengthen its institutional capacity (e.g. legal & market infrastructure) to support its economic expansion. In this study, we test whether firms in Vietnam have proper ERM practices, and that the listed firms could implement at an enterprise level and whether this implementation provides an effective means of improving firm performance and firm value. Our results show strong empirical evidence for the benefits of effective ERM implementation in Vietnam. However, for some firms, ERM implementation has become a costly exercise and has a negative impact on performance. Keywords: Risk management, emerging economies, firm performance, firm value John Kommunuri: [email protected] (Corresponding author) Dr. Anil Narayan: [email protected]Dr. Mark Wheaton: [email protected]Lilibeth Jandug: [email protected]1. Introduction Enterprise risk management (hereafter ERM) has emerged as a new paradigm for managing a complex portfolio of company risks (Leibenberg & Hoyt, 2003; Beasley, Clune & Hermanson, 2005). The increasing complexity of risks, increasing dependencies between risk sources, stricter regulations on the use of risk management, and the use of ERM systems in rating processes caused ERM to be increasingly relevant. Since the establishment of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of Treadway Commission (1985), ERM has become a popular strategy for management and is becoming a comprehensive framework that considers a portfolio of risks and a process that aligns with the business’s strategy. The risk is undoubtedly an inherent part of the corporate strategy of doing business (Dickinson, 2001). In fact, taking risk is fundamental for doing business, but ERM provides tools to manage these risks rationally (Smiechewicz, 2001). According to Bhimani (2009), for most modern organisations, the notion of risk management has become embedded in organisational control practices and forms the definition of management control. Organisational and management practices including management accounting systems of cost control and performance
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Enterprise Risk Management and Firm Performance
Empirical evidence from Vietnam
John Kommunuri, Anil Narayan, Mark Wheaton & Lilibeth Jandug
Abstract
Enterprise risk management (ERM) has emerged as a new model for managing a complex
portfolio of risks. Firms are reluctant to adopt ERM because of the difficulty in quantifying
the value side of ERM implementation. Our research draws attention to the performance and
value effects of ERM implementation in emerging economies using the case of Vietnam. The
paper contributes to the current literature on risk management which is intertwined with
management accounting. Though Vietnam had experienced rapid economic growth through
massive privatization and inflow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), this growth had slowed
down in 2009. As with other emerging/transition economies, Vietnam is yet to strengthen its
institutional capacity (e.g. legal & market infrastructure) to support its economic expansion.
In this study, we test whether firms in Vietnam have proper ERM practices, and that the listed
firms could implement at an enterprise level and whether this implementation provides an
effective means of improving firm performance and firm value. Our results show strong
empirical evidence for the benefits of effective ERM implementation in Vietnam. However, for
some firms, ERM implementation has become a costly exercise and has a negative impact on
performance.
Keywords: Risk management, emerging economies, firm performance, firm value
measurement are now extensively influenced by risk management issues. Also, the association
between risk management, strategic management actions, and cost containment efforts have
become part of the management accounting realm (Bhimani, 2009).
According to Beasley, Clune, and Hermanson (2005), the implementation of ERM aims to
enhance a firm’s shareholder value by supporting the senior management and the Board to
attain an adequate monitoring system and manage the company’s risk portfolio. Despite a
growing consensus that organizations will boost their performance by employing ERM as a
strategic management tool, the empirical evidence confirming the relation between ERM and
firm performance is quite limited (Gordon, et. al., 2009). Of particular concern is that risk
management characteristics in specific organisational (and country) settings have not been the
subject of many research studies (Bhimani, 2009).
The aim of this paper is to empirically test the ERM implementation effects on firm’s
performance and firm value. Unlike many studies that conducted interviews and empirical tests
in developed economies, we are particularly interested in Vietnam, a transitional economy
where limited regulatory requirements are in place for risk management practices. Contrary to
popular belief, our results indicate that in Vietnam, ERM implementation has a less significant
influence on firms’ performance, but the market perceives ERM implementation as a value-
added practice. To the best of our knowledge, our study represents the first empirical analysis
regarding the determinants and the value effects of ERM in a transitional economy.
The prior empirical studies on ERM conclude that ERM generally has a significant positive
effect on firm performance and firm value. However, most studies concentrate on specific
industries and in specific geographical locations (e.g. Hoyt & Liebenberg, 2008 &2011 on
Insurance industry in the U.S; Altuntas, Berry-Stolle & Hoyt, 2011 on industry industries in
Germany). The generalisation of their results is limited due to the concentration of studies in
one particular industry and in developed economies where there are rigorous regulatory
compliance requirements. Though the relevance of performance and value effects of ERM
against a set of code of regulatory requirements in the U.S and European markets exist, in
Vietnam there are no specific regulatory requirements or Stock Market Corporate Governance
guidelines for risk management practices among firms and there is no empirical evidence to
date with focus on the risk management practices. Hence the use of a cross-sectional sample
of 199 firms operating in different industries listed on both Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi Stock
exchanges allows us to identify cross-industry differences regarding ERM implementation
effects. Thus, the aim of this paper is to fill the gap and to contribute to the current literature
on ERM by providing empirical evidence based on the results. We use a linear regression
(OLS) to study the performance and value effects of ERM implementation. The results provide
some insights regarding whether ERM can improve firm performance and create value, with a
special focus on the Vietnamese market, respective industries. We find a statistically significant
positive impact of ERM on firm value. These results confirm the value relevance of ERM.
The paper is organised as follows: section 2 provides a review of related literature, section 3
discusses the relevant hypotheses and research design, section 4 presents findings and
discussion, and section 5 concludes the paper, discusses limitations and provides suggestions
for future research.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), as a process to strategically manage risk, has become an
indispensable aspect of business operations1. COSO (2004, p.2) defines ERM as “a process,
effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy
setting and across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity
and manage risks to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the
achievement of entity objectives.” ERM is a process for total risk management and is the focus
of all strategic management efforts (Moody, 2003) to give companies a long run competitive
advantage. Deloach and Andersen (2000, p.5) states that ERM is “a structured and disciplined
approach: it aligns strategy, processes, people, technology and knowledge with the purpose of
evaluating and managing the uncertainties the enterprises face as it creates value.” The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Principle VI.D.7 states
that “ensuring the integrity of the corporation’s accounting and reporting systems, in particular,
systems of risk management, financial and operational control is of utmost importance.” The
traditional risk management approach directed organizations to manage risks by silos or risk
by risk, but it caused an overlapping and excessive cost in organizations as it did not provide
an overall view of risk reporting to senior managers and board of directors (Lam, 2000).
Ample regulations and some prescriptive frameworks have been introduced to encourage
businesses to pay serious attention to the risks they face, through improved risk management
oversight and ERM implementation. For instance, in the US, the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) has mandated that a publicly traded company’s annual proxy statements
should include a description of the board’s role in risk oversight. The New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) Corporate Governance Statement, section 303A provides an explicit
requirement for registrants’ audit committees to have a written charter outlining the firms’
policies on risk assessment and risk management (NYSE, 2003). The Toronto Stock Exchange
requires the establishment and disclosure of a company’s risk management function. The
Corporate Governance Council of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) has set guidelines for
risk management within Australian publicly listed organisations. For a proper implementation
of ERM, frameworks have also been proposed such as the COSO’s Enterprise Risk
Management- Integrated Framework 2004 and the International Standards Organisation’s ISO
31000:2009 Risk Management-Principles and Guidelines on Implementation as the most
widely used. ERM takes into consideration all enterprise-wide risks with a unified framework
with an objective to achieve forward-looking risk reward perspectives of a company. ERM
frameworks recommend the developing a strong risk culture across all levels of an
organisation, appointment of a Chief risk officer (CRO) or a risk management committee
(Leibenberg & Hoyt, 2003) to make the implementation more effective.
The literature on ERM also has continued to expand in recent years. Some studies have
investigated the determinants that significantly affect the implementation of ERM systems
(e.g., Liebenberg & Hoyt, 2003; Lundqvist, 2015) and suggest that ERM adoption is
determined by firm size, organization complexity, and the Board support. Other studies
investigated on the impact of ERM adoption on firm performance and firm value (e.g. Hoyt
and Liebenberg, 2011; McShane, Nair, and Rustambekov, 2011). Beasley, Branson, and
Hancock (2010) indicate that the adoption of ERM in US firms is fairly immature. In contrast,
Ahmad, Ng & McManus (2014) in their review of the top ASX300 companies in Australia find
an extensive implementation of ERM. Pagach and Warr (2010) find that firms with increased 1 For a detailed description of the progress of risk management over the last five decades and explanation of the challenges of
the future, see Neilson, Kleffner and Lee (2005),“ The evolution of the role of Risk Communication in Effective Risk
Management”
leverage, low cash reserves, and volatile earnings gain from ERM. Their study on 106 US
companies observes a significant decrease in stock price volatility after the implementation of
ERM (CRO appointment as proxy), and the results are pronounced more for firms with positive