The Impact of Former Top Managers Legal Scandals on Stock Prices of Companies

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to study the impact of a scandal with the Vice Chairman of the Founding Board - VCFB (former member of the Board of Directors - BoD) and the former General Manager of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) on the daily returns of shares of 9 sectors of the Vietnam’s stock market. The event study method is used for each industry with many different event windows. Research results show that the announcement of an arrest warrant is an entirely unexpected event for the stock market because no industry reacts significantly in the days before the event. The reaction of industries was strongest 5 days after the event for the Banking and Finance industries and 2 days after the event for non-financial industries. The conclusion of the study shows that although the information is directly related to one bank - ACB, its spillover effects have covered all nine industries including the financial and non-financial industries on the Vietnam stock market (VST). The nature of cross-ownership among commercial banks in Vietnam (CB Vietnam) explains that negative information only creates a spillover effect within the industry but does not have a competitive effect in this industry. Social networks amplify herd mentality and spillover effects, negatively impacting the financial and non-financial industries in the stock market.