Determinants of Capital Mobilization and Profitability of Listed Tourism Service Enterprises in Vietnam

This study examines the determinants of capital mobilization behavior and profitability of listed tourism service enterprises in Vietnam over the period 2019–2024. Panel data of 27 enterprises is used, with two dependent variables: Debt to equity ratio (DE) - representing the ability to mobilize capital; and (ii) ROE - representing the ability to generate profits. The main explanatory variables in the model include revenue growth, enterprise size, proportion of fixed assets, current solvency, and efficiency of using business capital. At the same time, the study uses a number of dummy variables to test the differences between the COVID-19 pandemic period, industry groups, and TSBQ size groups. OLS, FEM, and REM regression models are applied, combined with Hausman, autocorrelation, and heteroscedasticity tests to ensure the robustness of the results. The results indicate that higher profitability in the previous period has a negative and statistically significant effect on subsequent financing reliance, suggesting that firms with stronger internal performance tend to reduce dependence on external debt. In contrast, the contemporaneous effect of financing reliance on profitability does not yield a uniform conclusion across the full sample and is found to be conditional on industry characteristics. Furthermore, operating capital utilization efficiency exerts a strong, positive, and stable impact on ROE, while higher short-term liquidity is associated with a modest decline in profitability. Other firm-level characteristics do not show statistically significant effects on either financing reliance or profitability. This study contributes empirical evidence to the tourism sector—an industry that remains underexplored in the Vietnamese context—and highlights the asymmetric relationship between capital mobilization and capital use.