Productivity and Social Performance of Co-operative Financial Institutions: Evidence from Vietnam

The major intendment of this study was to discover the interactive relationship between productivity and social performance, in which the productivity measured as a ratio of number of active borrowers to number of staff, the social performance is measured through the breadth of outreach and the depth of outreach. This research used the panel data regression method with research data from thirty-six selected CFIs in Vietnam from 2013 to 2018. The study results discovered that the debt-to-equity ratio, equity growth rate, breadth of outreach and return on equity had positive relationships with productivity and that the depth of outreach, loan-to-deposit ratio, non-performing loans ratio and return on assets had negative relationships with productivity. The age of CFIs, debt-to-equity ratio, breadth of outreach had positive relationships with the depth of outreach; the productivity and financial sustainability had negative impacts on the depth of outreach. The depth of outreach, productivity and non-performing loans ratio had positive relationships with the breadth of outreach; the deposit growth ratio had a negative impact on the breadth of outreach. The research had determined the bidirectional interactions and relationship between productivity and social performance. Based on the findings the study offers policy implication and further emphasizes optimal policies to CFIs management that helps the policy makers, CFIs managers and executives in improving the overall productivity and increasing the social performance of CFIs in Vietnam.