1 ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOREIGN OWNERSHIP AND FIRM PERFORMANCE ON VIETNAMESE LISTED COMPANIES Nguyen Thi Hoa Hong Lecturer, Faculty of Business Administration, Foreign Trade University, Vietnam hongnth@ftu.edu.vn Nguyen Thanh Loan Student, Faculty of Business Administration, Foreign Trade University, Vietnam thanhloan.tln14@gmail.com Abstract The study examines the effect of foreign ownership on business performance by using panel data of 710 firms listed on Vietnam stock market during the period of 2013 to 2016. This paper applies Fixed Effect Model (FEM) and Heckman two-step. Empirical results show that foreign ownership initially negatively affects firm performance in terms of Tobin’s Q, but when foreign ownership reaches above 24.4%, the correlation becomes positive. Foreign institutional or individual ownership also have the U-shaped relationship with business performance of listed companies. In addition, this paper points out the different impacts of foreign ownership on the performance of firms by size and by industry. Keywords: Firm performance, Fixed Effect Model (EFM), foreign ownership, Heckman two-step, Vietnam. Acknowledgements This paper is the result of research group “Corporate Restructuring” from Foreign Trade University, Vietnam.