Abstract
<jats:p>This study consolidates composite and pillar-level evidence on how environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance is associated with stock price crash risk in Vietnam. Using an unbalanced panel of 192 listed firms from 2018 to 2024, comprising 1,260 firm-year observations, we examine NCSKEW and DUVOL with firm fixed effects, firm-clustered standard errors and parallel mediation through profitability and asset efficiency. Composite ESG is strongly associated with lower crash risk. Introducing return on equity and total asset turnover reduces the ESG coefficient from -6.976 to -2.573 for NCSKEW and from -5.020 to -1.419 for DUVOL. Product-of-coefficients estimates indicate that the two financial channels jointly transmit 63.1% and 71.7% of the respective total associations, and cluster-bootstrap intervals exclude zero. Pillar-level analysis reveals different mechanisms. The social pillar has the largest mediated component, accounting for 81.4% of its NCSKEW association and 90.2% of its DUVOL association. Governance retains the largest direct residual after the financial channels are introduced, consistent with an additional monitoring and transparency mechanism, while environmental performance follows a hybrid pattern. Quadratic terms are insignificant, one-year lag estimates are weak, and system GMM removes the direct composite ESG coefficient while preserving a negative profitability effect. The consolidated evidence supports a cautious conclusion: stronger ESG profiles coincide with lower contemporaneous crash risk mainly through better operating fundamentals, while governance also provides a distinct informational shield.</jats:p>