Corporate cash holdings and promoter ownership

We examine the relationship between corporate cash holdings and promoter ownership for a sample of Indian non-financial firms. Consistent with the arguments of the ‘efficient monitoring hypothesis’, our results broadly suggest that promoter ownership is negatively associated with cash holdings, thereby highlighting the role of large owners in preventing cash accretion in an emerging market context. Indicating prominent influence of corporate ownership on cash management, we find that corporate non-promoter ownership is also negatively related with cash holdings. With regard to promoter ownership of foreign entities, our results suggest that cash holdings share a U-shaped relationship with ownership of foreign promoter corporations. In addition, our findings provide weak evidence to support a more pronounced negative association between cash holdings and promoter ownership for group-affiliated firms as compared to non-affiliated firms since the former faces lower financial constraints on account of access to internal capital markets. Finally, we perform long-term effect analysis in order to reinforce robustness of our results.     

Corporate cash holdings,uncertainty avoidance,and the multinationality of firms

We examine the relationship between uncertainty avoidance, multinationality and firm cash holdings. We develop several hypotheses from corporate finance and multinational firm theory, positing that cultural factors as well firm multinationality influence corporate cash holdings. In particular, firms in countries with high uncertainty avoidance hold more cash as a way to hedge against undesired states of nature. At the same time, firm multinationality moderates the effects culture has on the firm's holdings of liquid assets. Based on a large panel of firms in fifty countries, we present evidence consistent with these hypotheses. Firms in countries with high levels of uncertainty avoidance tend to hold more cash. Against commonly held views in cash management, the degree of multinationality of the firm is positively correlated with holdings of cash. At the same time, the effect of national culture on firm's cash holdings is lower for multinationals. These results are economically significant.     

Foreign Ownership and Corporate Cash Holdings in Emerging Markets

This article examines the link between foreign ownership and corporate cash holdings. We utilize a data sample of firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange covering the period 2007–2015. Employing different econometric techniques for panel data, we find that higher foreign ownership is associated with more corporate cash holdings. This finding suggests that foreign investors in the Vietnam stock market are subject to precautionary motive and agency motive forcing firms to hold more cash. However, the outcome suggests potential agency problems because managers might subsequently use this cash reserve for their own advantages. These problems are even more pronounced in emerging markets where investor protection mechanism is weak. Accordingly, this highlights the importance of a monitoring mechanism to refrain corporate managers from investing in value‐destroying projects.     

高管的银行背景、所有权性质与企业现金持有决策

本文分析高管的银行背景是否影响企业现金持有决策,以及这种影响在国有企业和民营企业之间是否存在显著差异。基于中国非金融类上市公司2003－2013年的数据,检验发现,那些聘请具有银行背景的人士担任高管的企业具有显著更低的现金持有水平和更快的现金持有调整速度。相对于国有企业,高管银行背景对企业现金持有决策的影响在民营企业显著更强。上述研究结论有助于揭示社会资本在促进企业发展中的具体运行机制,为上市公司做出更优的现金持有决策具有重要的启示意义。     

股权结构、股东保护与上市公司现金持有量

我国上市公司的治理结构一直是各方关注的焦点，尤其是股权结构、中小股东保护等问题。本文选取了2000年上市公司样本991个，定义了基于股权结构的股东保护变量，并在此基础上研究了股东保护与现金持有量之间的关系。研究结果表明，上市公司现金持有量差异较大，并且在股东保护较好的情况下，现金持有量相对较小，二者之间呈现负相走的关系。由于影响现金持有量的因素较多，我们选取了相当数量的影响因素作为控制变量，检验在其进入模型的情况下，对股东保护与现金持有量之间关系的影响；结果表明，股权结构影响下的股东保护与现金持有量具有负的线性相关性。     

Alignment or entrenchment? Corporate governance and cash holdings in growing firms

This study contends that the association between corporate cash holdings and corporate governance is subject to the investment environments that firms face. For example, firms with an abundance of investment opportunities have a strong incentive to hold cash in order to maintain their competitive positions. Shareholders accept high levels of cash holdings in such growing firms if corporate governance can protect their interests. This study examines the effects of corporate governance on cash holdings for a sample of high-tech firms. The results show that CEO ownership, the directorship of venture capitalists (VCs), and independent directors play critical roles in corporate cash policy. In addition, the boards are more effective when the firms' CEOs are also their founders or when VCs hold a large stake of company shares. The effects of corporate governance are more significant in younger firms while the effects of firm-specific economic variables are more significant in older firms in the sample.     

The financial determinants of corporate cash holdings: Evidence from some emerging markets

This paper investigates corporate cash holdings in developing countries. In particular, we look into the effect of capital structure and dividend policy on cash holdings in Brazil, Russia, India, and China and compare our results with a control sample from the US and the UK. Our sample contains 1992 firms across these countries for the period 2002–2008. We employ Instrumental Variables analysis to control for the endogeneity of the financial policies (cash holdings, capital structure, and dividend policy). Our results show some evidence that capital structure and dividend policy affect cash holdings. There are similarities between developed and developing countries on the factors determining corporate cash holdings. The results of our cross-country model provide evidence that capital structure, dividend policy, and firm size are important factors in determining cash holdings. Finally, we show that firms operating in countries with low shareholder protection hold more cash.     

公司治理机制对公司现金持有量的影响——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

本文以我国部分上市公司为样本实证研究了公司治理机制对公司现金持有量的影响。结果表明,公司治理机制并未对公司现金持有量形成显著影响,从公司现金持有量的视角为我国上市公司治理机制的不完善性提供了经验证据。     

The Masculinisation of Ethical Leadership Dis/embodiment

Using a worldwide sample, we examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance has an impact on the value of cash holdings. We find that investors assign a higher value to cash held by firms that have a high CSR rating. This result is consistent with the idea that CSR policies are a means for managers to act in the shareholders’ interests by mitigating conflicts with stakeholders. Finally, we reveal that CSR performance has a positive impact on the value of cash holdings only for firms which operate in countries where shareholders are well protected from expropriation by managers and in countries where the institutional quality is high.     

非国有股东超额委派董事与企业现金持有

基于持股权与控制权非对等配置逻辑，文章以2009—2019年A股国有上市企业为研究主体，实证检验非国有股东超额委派董事对企业现金持有水平的影响。研究发现，非国有股东超额委派董事显著提高参股国企的现金持有水平，且随着超额委派比例增加更加显著；进一步地，该正向作用在中央层级企业及市场化进程较高地区表现更为显著；明晰其作用机理，发现其通过抑制超额持现所致的过度投资行为、迫使无效耗散的现金尽快回流进而提高持现水平；此外，非国有股东超额委派董事和超额委派比例均有助于优化现金二次配置，促使企业将超额现金用于发放现金股利及进行创新投入，并最终提升现金持有价值和企业价值。文章结论不仅印证和延伸混改推进过程中非国有资本在高层治理维度所发挥的积极作用，更为进一步深化混合所有制改革及完善中小股东保护体系提供借鉴。     

现金持有量决策具有战略效应吗?——基于现金持有量的平均效应与区间效应的研究

文章根据掠夺理论来考察现金持有量是否具有增加产品市场业绩的战略效应。研究结果表明,就平均效应而言,现金持有量能够增加企业的产品市场业绩;就区间效应而言,现金持有量的战略效应呈现出随着现金持有水平的提高而逐渐增加的趋势。进一步地检验结果表明大量持有现金引起的投资是造成现金持有量的区间效应呈增加趋势的主要原因,且最终也增加了企业价值。文章还发现行业的竞争强度以及整体财务状态也会影响现金持有量的战略效应。     

Cash holdings and corporate governance in family-controlled firms

This study examines the association between corporate governance and cash policy within family-controlled firms. Family businesses are complex, because, in addition to dealing with common business requirements and opportunities, they must consider the needs and desires of the family owners. The results of this study show that the impact of corporate governance, with its separation of control rights and cash flow rights, director-ownership-in-pledge ratio and proportion of independent directors on cash policy, differs between family-controlled and nonfamily-controlled firms. Separation of seat control rights and cash flow rights, as well as chair duality, significantly affects the cash policy within different levels of cash holdings in firms.     

Corruption and cash holdings: Evidence from emerging market economies

We examine the effect of corruption on cash holdings and cash value using a panel data set of 4236 firms from 16 emerging market economies. We find that the cash holdings are positively related to the corruption and by managing their cash holdings upwards, the firms can benefit in the corrupt environment by trading cash. Furthermore, cash holding adds value to the firms. However, it is insignificant when the firms are operating in high corruption environment with low investor protection. Overall, the evidence suggests that corruption play an important role in shaping the cash policies of firms in emerging markets.     

Variation in Corporate Governance and Firm Valuation – an International Study

In this paper, we investigate the types of firms that are likely to deviate from common practice in corporate governance of their home countries and examine how the deviation is correlated with firm value. Our results show that firms with higher institutional holdings, lower insider holdings, and higher sales growth are more likely to deviate from common practice in civil law countries, whereas, in common law countries, especially in the USA, firms with lower institutional holdings, higher insider holdings, and lower sales growth are likely to deviate from common practice. We document a strong positive correlation between governance deviation and firm value in civil law countries. This relationship is robust to different testing and sample selection methods. The results, however, are mixed for US firms and not significant in other common law countries. Using the deviation from common practice as a proxy of firm‐level impact on corporate governance, our results provide evidence that firm‐level effect matters in governance quality and the effect varies across countries.     

Outside directors,firm life cycle,corporate financial decisions and firm performance

We investigate whether directors with multiple outside board directorships are related to corporate financial strategy across firm life cycle stages. Using a large sample of firms from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, we find that when the number of directors with multiple board seats increases, firms' level of cash holdings rises, capital expenditure declines, selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses increase, and firm performance decreases. We further demonstrate how the relationship varies across different stages of their life cycle. Our findings have significant implications for policy makers, regulators and stockholders in GCC countries and in other emerging markets.     

Why Greater Cash Holdings and Short-Term Debt Simultaneously Persist? The Case of Transition Economy

This study observes and explores a puzzle in Chinese firms whereby both cash holdings and short-term debt simultaneously account for more than 20% of total assets for at least two consecutive years over the sample period. This phenomenon conflicts with the principle of corporate value maximization, and is not clearly explained by the classical theories in corporate finance. Based on the implications in the extant literature and discussions of institutional constraints of the transition economy in China, this paper develops four hypotheses that are involved with agency conflicts between the largest shareholders and creditors and the formation of this puzzling financial structure. The empirical analyses suggest that the largest shareholders with tunneling motives seek to hold more cash to serve their private interests and/or the consequent operational deficit of the listed corporations. To the ends, these corporations tend to manage the timing of short term debt financing to increase cash reserves temporarily at the end of year. Essentially, greater cash holdings on the balance sheet of these corporations related with the puzzle become a misleading signal for potential creditors, possibly contributing to the refinancing of short-term debt of these listed firms for the following year. Hence, the puzzling financial structure is connected with the timing of debt financing and adverse selection of creditors. This study enriches the stream of literature on cash holdings and debt maturity, and provides new evidence on the impact of agency problems of the largest shareholders on the association between cash holdings and debt maturity in the context of a transition economy.     

Anticorruption,political connections,and corporate cash policy: Evidence from politician downfalls in China

We examine how firms change their cash policies in response to the downfall of corrupt politicians in China. We find that firms connected to their local government increase cash holdings when high-profile politician downfalls occur in the government. Consistent with the precautionary saving argument, the effect is stronger for firms that have greater investment opportunities or face greater financial constraints. Compared to unaffected firms, affected firms save more cash out of cash flows and have a higher marginal value of cash holdings. Overall, we show that the collapse of firms' political connections has significant impacts on those firms' financial policies.     

Economic policy uncertainty and cash holdings: Evidence from BRIC countries

This paper examines the effect of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) on cash holding decisions of firms in BRIC countries. Our focus is on the firms in BRIC countries, a particularly interesting group of countries to consider given their increasingly important role in the world economy. By using firm-level data through the 10 years period of 2006–2015, we find that firms prefer to hold more cash when uncertainty increases after controlling for firm level variables with industry and year fixed effects. The results are robust to alternative control variables, EPU calculations and selection of sub-samples. In addition to the country specific EPU levels, global EPU also has a significant positive impact on corporate cash holdings.     

Governance mechanisms, investment opportunity set and SMEs cash holdings

This study analyses the effect of firm characteristics and governance mechanisms on cash holdings for a sample of UK SMEs. The results show that UK SMEs with greater cash flow volatility and institutional investors hold more cash; whereas levered and dividend paying SMEs with non-executive ownership hold less cash. We also find that ownership structure is significant only in explaining the cash holdings for firms with high growth investment opportunities, and leverage is only significant in explaining the cash held by firms with low growth investment opportunities. Our findings suggest that internal governance mechanisms are more effective for SMEs with high growth investment opportunities, while external governance mechanisms, such as capital market monitoring, are more effective for firms with low growth investment opportunities.     

股权结构与企业股利政策选择关系:理论与实证分析

本文从公司治理视角出发,以中国上市公司为样本,对股权结构与企业股利政策关系进行了理论与实证分析。结果表明,管理者持股比例、股权集中度(包括第一大股东持股比例)与现金股利支付率显著正相关;国有股比例与现金股利支付率正相关;法人股比例和流通A股比例对现金股利支付率的影响可能是负向的,且极不显著。