Narrow Results

This paper examines the impact of profitability, stock price performance and growth opportunity on the capital structure of firms in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In contrast to Kayhan and Titman (2007), it is found that firms in these three Chinese-dominated economies strongly prefer debt to equity or internal fund financing. They also take advantage of stock price appreciation by issuing more shares. An adjustment model for debt ratios is estimated. The results suggest that the leverage ratios of these firms slowly adjust toward their target levels. Deviations from the target due to the pecking order and market timing effects are found to be significant.

In today’s dynamic economy, banks should focus on improving their dynamic performance to stay competitive. Using a dataset for the period 2007–2013, this paper evaluates the dynamic performance of ASEAN-5 banks through a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, called the dynamic slacks-based measure (DSBM) model. The DEA results indicate that banks in Malaysia perform better than those in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Frontier projections through DEA indicate that banks in the ASEAN-5 countries underutilize their long-term assets, resulting in inefficiencies. Furthermore, this study finds that capital structure as a whole is positively related to bank performance.

This study examines the impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 Global economic crisis on the capital structures of Korean non-financial listed companies. Using a panel data covering 1,159 Korean listed non-financial firms from 10 industrial sectors over a 31-year period (1985–2015), this study investigates the patterns of firms’ capital structures before and after the crises and identifies their speeds of adjustment toward the optimal leverage. This study finds different effects of the two crises on both capital structures and adjustment speeds. The average debt ratio fell significantly after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The distance between the optimal and the observed debt ratios shrank after the Asian crisis, while the speed of adjustment increased two-fold. Unlike the Asian financial crisis, the global economic crisis of 2008 had a positive effect on companies’ debt ratios and the speeds of adjustments toward the optimal leverage. Our empirical analysis shows that, on average, the Korean non-financial listed companies decreased their debt ratios over the entire period of observation, with the leverage being the highest before the Asian financial crisis and lowest after the global economic crisis. Our results also show that the debt ratios of Korean chaebols were higher than that of non-chaebols. Moreover, we find that the high level of leverage of Korean firms was associated with tangible assets, income variability, size and age of the firm, non-debt tax shield and uniqueness.

We examine the determinants of bank capital structure using a large sample of banks in the world. We find that banks determine their capital structure in much the same way as non-financial firms, except for growth opportunities. We also provide evidence that country-level factors, such as the legal system, bank-specific factors and economic conditions influence banks’ capital decisions through their impacts on bankruptcy costs, agency costs, information asymmetry and liquidity creation. The results show that, besides the direct effects, there are indirect impacts of country-level factors on the decision of bank capital. Our results have potential policy implications for the on-going regulatory reform.

This paper presents a general approach to deriving valuation models and the relevant cost of capital formulas independent of a particular tax environment. The value of a levered firm depends to a large extent upon the amount and value of the tax shields. The latter in turn differs from country to country and even from firm to firm, depending on its particular situation. It is subject to change with every change in the tax system of the country where the firm is located. Therefore, in an international environment a general approach is needed, which can be altered for any given situation. At the same time personal taxes play an increasing role in the valuation of companies. Therefore, their consideration is integrated into the models derived. Finally, the resulting generalized versions of the Modigliani/Miller- and Miles–Ezzell-Formulas for adjusting the cost of capital to changes in leverage are applied to the situation of a corporation located in Germany after the Tax Reform Act of 2000.

Islamic banks do not pay interest on customers' deposit accounts. Instead, customers' funds are placed in profit-sharing investment accounts (PSIA). Under this arrangement, the returns to the bank's customers are their pro-rata shares of the returns on the assets in which their funds are invested, and if these returns are negative so are the returns to the customers. The bank is entitled to a contractually agreed share of positive returns (profits) as remuneration for its work as asset manager; however, if the returns are zero or negative, the bank receives no remuneration but does not share in any loss.

In the case of Unrestricted PSIA, the investment account holders' funds are invested (i.e., commingled) in the bank's asset pool together with the bank's shareholders' own funds and the funds of current account holders. In that case, the bank's own funds that are invested in the asset pool are treated the same as those of Unrestricted PSIA holders for profit and loss sharing purposes; however, the shareholders also receive as part of their profit the remuneration earned by the bank as asset manager (less certain expenses not chargeable to the PSIA holders). This remuneration (management fees) represents an important source of revenue and profits for Islamic banks.

From a capital market perspective, this arrangement presents an apparent anomaly, as follows: shareholders and Unrestricted PSIA holders share the same asset risk on the commingled funds, but shareholders enjoy higher returns because of the management fees. On the other hand, competitive pressure may induce the bank to forgo some of its management fees in order to pay a competitive return to its PSIA holders. In this way, some of the PSIA holders' asset risk is absorbed by the shareholders. This phenomenon has been termed "displaced commercial risk" [2].

This paper analyzes this phenomenon. We argue that, in principle, displaced commercial risk is potentially an efficient and value-creating means of sharing risks between two classes of investor with different risk diversification capabilities and preferences: wealthy shareholders who are potentially well diversified, and less wealthy PSIA holders who are not. In practice, however, Islamic banks set up reserves with the intention of minimizing any need to forgo management fees.

In this paper, we study the financing of high uncertainty projects. High uncertainty is defined as the lack of knowledge of whether growth options exist. In this paper, we will describe this uncertainty by a probability distribution which describes the arrival of a growth option at a deterministic time. Once the option arrives, an additional uncertainty exists since it is not certain that it is profitable to exercise it. We value the corporate securities with contingent claims valuation both for a whole equity-financed firm and a debt-equity-financed firm. Unlike traditional capital structure models, we find nonconvex value functions for the firm vis-a-vis the debt coupon under specific parametrizations. High and low leverage can yield similar firm value maximizing policies.

In this paper, the results of a survey on capital structure decisions of Hong Kong listed firms are reported. It is found that Hong Kong firms conformed more to the "pecking order" principle than a target long term debt-equity mix in their financing decisions. Financial managers' preferences over alternative capital raising instruments are also investigated. The degree of information asymmetry and firm size are found to have impacts on the ranking of some factors governing capital structure decisions. However, signaling motivation does not play a role in managers' financing decisions.

This study investigates the empirical relationship between the use of derivatives by Korean banks and risk. In doing so, we employ two alternative measures of proxy for firm risk: systematic risk and ex ante earnings volatility.

Contrary to the general concerns about the risk-increasing role of the use of derivative products, our results indicate that banks' derivatives are, on average, associated with two measures of risk in negative ways. The evidence is consistent with the conjectures that derivative use reduces noise related to exogenous factors and hence decreases firm risk. This suggests that equity market participants, on average, perceive derivative activities by banks as a sign of banks' efforts to reduce risk.

The cross-sectional technique of extreme bounds analysis (EBA) is used to identify the determinants of capital structure in a sample of Indonesian shareholding companies. Additional results are presented based on variable deletion and nonnested model selection tests. The results of traditional EBA show that the only robust variable is liquidity, but the results of restricted EBA add three more robust variables: profitability, tangibility, and income variability. However, variable deletion and nonnested model selection tests lend support only to size and liquidity. The conclusion is that most of the variables that appear important in studies of capital structure may not be important at all. From a policy perspective, the finding that some firm-specific factors are relevant to corporate capital structure confirms that financial reform has eliminated the distortions of corporate financial policies and financial markets caused by the previously dominant role of state banks.

Much research has been conducted on the accuracy of the pecking order theory and the trade-off theory. Neither theory on its own has seemed to hold sufficient explanatory power to accurately describe capital structures. Chou et al. [Sun Yat-Sen Management Review, 19, 225–227 (2011)] proposed the signal factor hypothesis (SFH) which encompasses and integrates the two theories. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we verified the predictions of the SFH, proving that companies from Taiwan and China with low information symmetry have higher debt ratios than those with high information symmetry, and that profitability has a negative influence on capital structure regardless of the degree of the information asymmetry.

This study examines whether and how US bank holding companies that early adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 133, “Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities,” experience changes in their external financing activities relative to banks that did not early adopt the standard. Consistent with predictions, the study shows that early adopters hold higher and experience greater changes in their leverage compared with nonearly adopters. In addition, early adopters experience greater shifts in weights of liabilities other than insured deposits in banks’ funding mix. This finding is consistent with banking literature which states that banks have shifted towards nondeposit debts to finance their balance sheet growth.

We develop a simultaneous determination model of capital structure and stock returns. Specifically, we incorporate the managerial investment autonomy theory into the structural equation modeling with confirmatory factor analysis to jointly determine the capital structure and stock return. Besides attributes introduced in previous studies, we introduce indicators affecting a firm’s financing decision, such as managerial entrenchment, macroeconomic factors, government financial policy, and pricing factors. Empirical results show that stock returns, asset structure, growth, industry classification, uniqueness, volatility, financial rating, profitability, government financial policy, and managerial entrenchment are major factors of the capital structure.

This paper investigates the implications of government borrowing for corporate financing and capital structure of the firms. In doing so, we explore the effects of government debt, macroeconomic and firm-specific factors on firm’s choice of financing and capital structure. We draw on the 10-year data (2007–2017) of 225 non-financial firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) and employ the system Generalized Method of Moments (system-GMM) for estimation. Our key findings suggest that the government borrowing and debt financing for the Vietnamese listed companies have a negative relationship. Specifically, the short-term corporate leverage structure is influenced more strongly than the long-term leverage structure. We also define the threshold for the association between government borrowing and corporate financing decisions by capturing a U-shaped relationship i.e., Crowding out Kuznets Curve (CKC). Furthermore, macroeconomic factors also show a statistically significant impact on corporate financing decisions. Our findings have profound implications for the fiscal and public policymakers, investors as well as corporate finance managers and firms.

This paper examines the impact of trade credit on the speed of capital structure adjustment toward target leverage using an integrated dynamic partial adjustment model. Trade credit is an important substitute for debt financing and gives firms a low-cost means of adjusting leverage toward the target capital structure in China. We measure trade credit by accounts payable. Using the public listed company data from 1998 to 2016, we find that trade credit accelerates capital structure adjustment. The asymmetric impacts on the capital structure adjustment speed in different situations are also evidenced. The positive impact of trade credit on the speed of capital structure adjustment is more pronounced for over-levered firms. The trade credit also accelerates the speed of capital structure adjustment more quickly for high market share firms. Our results imply that firms use trade credit to save cash flow and restore the leverage level to the target capital structure in China.

The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss how to use the active and interdisciplinary approaches to teach corporate finance. First, I describe the content and structure of the book entitled Corporate Finance and Strategy: An Active Learning Approach [Lee, CF, AC Lee, JC Lee and M Lee (2022). World Scientific]. Second, I discuss how the interdisciplinary approach is used to integrate corporate finance and strategy with other subjects. Third, I discussed how I require students to write three projects to make this course become active instead of passive to learn corporate finance. Finally, I discuss how students can benefit from active and interdisciplinary approach to learn finance.

This study aims to identify the role of contextual variables, especially the interest rate, in affecting the relationship between a firm’s capital structure and firm value. This study investigates the capital structure of Pakistani-listed firms in light of rising interest rates, declining “Domestic credit to the private sector” and emerging Islamic banking in the country. The study uses GMM (Two-Step) to examine the linear, and dynamic Panel threshold model to examine the quadratic relationship between leverage firm value and how other contextual variables affect this relationship. The study found that there is a negative relationship between leverage and firm value in the presence of the majority of contextual variables. Except for tax, depreciation, and free cash flow, leverage shows a negative relationship with firm value in presence of all other contextual variables. Further results show that there is a quadratic relationship present between leverage and firm value. Also, the interest rate and inflation has a negative effect on firm value in long term, while in short term this relationship is positive. The study supports the pecking order & Trade-off theory but does not support the agency theory. The study is using new methodologies, just as the panel threshold model which is never used before for Pakistani industries. The panel threshold model is using some variables for the first time in research. Previously only size and debt were used in panel threshold models, this time we used debt, firm value, profitability, tax, and tangibility, which will be a significant contribution to the literature.

This paper investigates the empirical relationship between profitability and leverage ratios using a sample of Taiwan-listed firms. Like the U.S. evidence, we do find such a negative profitability-leverage relationship for the full sample. Although the profitability effect is still negative for passive firms that do not issue any security, it is positive for firms that issue both equity and debt but do not invest in fixed assets. Furthermore, while the dual issuers without investment adjust their leverages toward their targets the fastest, passive firms do so the slowest. Overall, our results on the profitability effect on leverage are consistent with the dynamic trade-off hypothesis that accounts for costly adjustments.

A common view is that organizational slack diminishes firm performance by providing management the opportunity to invest in pet projects or to engage in empire-building. An opposing perspective argues that organizational slack enhances innovation by enabling firms to invest in promising new R&D projects as soon as they are discovered, or to maintain R&D during operating shortfalls. In this paper, we identify empirically a context within which organizational slack enhances firm performance. Recent research indicates that firms that proactively manage their R&D functions by frequently and substantially modifying R&D expenditure over time are superior performers. I find that higher levels of organizational slack increase the positive relationship between R&D expenditure volatility and firm performance. Evidence presented herein suggests that firms with superior access to discretionary funds held as slack use these resources to fund nascent R&D projects and to mitigate uncertainty, thus driving more commercially valuable innovation. This is one of the few studies providing empirical evidence of the practical value of organizational slack.

The early years are seen as a crucial period for the survival of ventures and yet only a limited number of studies have focused on successful new ventures when studying capital structure. Furthermore, only a few studies have included longitudinal data, tracking ventures over time, or have elaborated on the difference between short-term and long-term debt ratios when studying capital structure. In this paper, hypotheses are developed, based on capital structure theories and literature on new venture financing, and are tested on longitudinal empirical data. Results of multivariate analysis, through structural equation modeling, reveals that: (1) asset structure assists in explaining the variance in capital structure; (2) explained variance in dependent variables is decreasing for each of the four years studied; and (3) multi-group analysis reveals that the determinants influence short-term and long-term debt differently in the first four years of venture existence. Implications of this study suggest that determinants of capital structure in new ventures require theorizing of its own and demand special attention in entrepreneurial policy-making.