Purpose This paper aims to examine how market competition, female leadership and firm size jointly shape corporate performance disparities in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and links corporate performance to inclusive and sustainable business development. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, we conducted multivariate regression analysis with Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to identify the drivers of performance gaps across income groups, chief executive officer gender, firm size and survey waves. We further apply a double machine learning (DML) framework to assess the robustness of the estimated relationships while allowing for nonlinear and heterogeneous effects. Findings Market competition has a limited association with ASEAN firms' performance. Small firms face persistent performance disadvantages, but female leadership partly mitigates these constraints. While gender- and size-based performance gaps can be explained by differences in observable resource endowments, female-led and small firms encounter unexplained barriers to accessing critical resources. The core patterns remain robust under DML, except for the negative association between income level and firm performance. Practical implications The findings suggest that policies aimed at sustainable business development in ASEAN should go beyond aggregate growth promotion. Improving small and medium-sized enterprises' access to finance, digital tools, quality certification and managerial resources, while strengthening support for women-led firms, can help reduce structural performance disparities and enhance inclusive regional competitiveness. Originality/value This research contributes to Asian business and economic studies by providing multi-country firm-level evidence on how competition, gendered leadership and firm size interact to shape corporate performance in ASEAN. Using multiple methods, it delivers a rigorous and policy-relevant assessment of corporate performance disparities.
Tu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.