• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.801-808
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• 2020

The purpose of the study is to find the factors that influence the financial leverage of Vietnam firms. The dependent variable is the financial leverage and the independent variables are firm size, asset structure, liquidity, growth opportunities, profitability, and firm age. The data are collected from Vietnam firms' annual financial reports in the period from 2010 to 2019. The study uses a sample of 448 Vietnam listed firms in the period. We also employ a panel regression model with pooled OLS and fixed effect to analyze the firms' financial data. The results of the model showed that financial leverage (FL) has a negative relationship with some factors such as asset structure (AS), liquidity (LQ), growth opportunities (GRW), profitability (ROA), and firm age (AGE) in the fixed effect regression. It means that when liquidity, profitability, and firm age increase, firms' financial leverage will decrease. While firms' financial leverage has still a positive relationship with the firm size (SIZE) in the model. As a result, when firm size increases, financial leverage will increase, too. The results showed that models are fit for the research and can be used to predict future findings. It is also useful for enterprises, financial advisors, investors, as well as the financial managers.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.167-181
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• 2020

The relationship between corporate board attributes and dividend payout is already established yet mediating role of leverage in not been examined in Malaysian market. Therefore, this study aims to examine the mediating effect of financial leverage on the relationship between corporate board attributes and the dividend pay-out policy. A sample of 203 non-financial firms listed on the BURSA Malaysia between 2005 and 2018 were analysed using SmartPLS 3.0. The findings show that there is a partial mediating effect of financial leverage on the relationship between board members age, board diversity and dividend pay-out policy. Financial leverage also mediates the relationship between number of women on board, CEO-duality and dividend pay-out policy. However, financial leverage doesn't mediate the relationship between board size and dividend pay-out policy. This study offers insights to policy-makers to develop a better corporate governance as well as a guidance to firms in the construction and implementation of their corporate governance policies in relation to financial leverage. This study also shed light on the influence of efficient corporate board attributes on dividend pay-out policy and financial leverage for firm growth. This study concludes that corporate board attributes impact capital structure and thus, firms may change its payout policy.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.804-813
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• 2020

This paper finds that Korean zero-leverage firms are not homogeneous. By conducting both univariate and multivariate logit regression analysis, this paper finds that Korean zero-leverage firms have zero leverage as either a consequence of financial constraints or because of a strategic decision to mitigate under-investment incentives and preserve financial flexibility. There are two distinct groups of unlevered firms with different levels of constraints as measured by their dividend policy, namely dividend payers and non-payers. Importantly, this paper finds new evidence that these two groups have different motives for selecting a zero leverage policy. Firms in the first group (non-payers) have zero leverage, mainly due to financial constraints. They rely heavily on their internal funds and consequently invest in fewer growth opportunities than their levered counterparts. Firms in the second group (payers) deliberately avoid debts and preserve financial flexibility to mitigate investment distortions, as predicted by the under-investment and financial flexibility hypotheses.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.133-142
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• 2022

This study examines the relationship between debt maturity structure and bankruptcy risk. There are various studies of leverage's effect on bankruptcy risk. Debt maturity, however, has not received the attention it deserves, especially in emerging markets with a high degree of information asymmetry. Using Vietnamese listed company data and various estimations, we find that leverage is positively associated with the likelihood of default. Importantly, short-term leverage shows a significantly positive effect on bankruptcy risk, while long-term leverage does not show significant results. The findings highlight that rollover risk firms are exposed to when using short-term debt increases bankruptcy risk. Meanwhile, firms do not cope with this risk in case of long-term debt adoption. High information asymmetry in emerging markets may be the main reason for the difference. The result is robust for subsamples of firms in different financial conditions, in concentrated and competitive industries, as well as for manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. We also find that firms in a better financial situation and concentrated industries experience a higher short-term leverage effect than their counterparts. We, however, do not find a significant difference in the impact between manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. This paper is among the first to examine the relation between debt maturity and bankruptcy risk in Vietnam.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2011

We try to find the determinants of fisheries firms' capital structure during the years from 1992 to 2007 in this paper. We also have a comparative analysis of capital raising behavior in pre and post-IMF financial crisis. Regression analysis is used for this empirical study. Dependent variable is leverage ratio and independent variables are firm size, operating risk, proportion of tangible asset, non-debt tax shield effect, sales growth ratio, profitability and dummy variable. We compared the characteristics of fisheries industry with that of manufacturing industy. The determinants of fisheries firms' capital structure and correlation between pre and post-IMF financial crisis are roughly same as the hypothses except a little difference. As a peculiar difference, corrlation between fisheries firms' operating risk and leverage ratio is (+) in the pre-IMF financial crisis, but (-) in the post-IMF financial crisis. Proportion of tangible asset has a (+) correlation with leverage ratio in pre and post-IMF financial crisis, but in case of manufacturing industy, (-) correlation shows in the pre-IMF financial crisis. Because, in the pre-IMF financial crisis, high proportion of tangible asset doesn't play a role of a collateral, but only increase the bankruptcy probability. Non-debt tax shield effect and leverage ratio have (-) correlation in all industry and all period, but only (+) correlation in case of fisheries industry in the pre-IMF financial crisis. Sales growth ratio has no significant relationship with leverage ratio in fisheries industry, and this is not coincide with our hypothsis. We have a limitation of the sample size of fisheries firms and sample period in this study. Further study is required to classify the fisheries industry with in-shore fisheries, deep sea fisheries and cold storage industry.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.909-917
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• 2020

The research aims to analyze the firm-specific and macroeconomic factors that affect insurance company's financial performance. The research explores the variables that influence the financial performance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)' insurance companies. The analysis for determining financial performance considers the following variables: the firm's age, retention ratio, capital adequacy, underwriting risk/loss ratio, financial-leverage, reinsurance dependency, and macro-economic factors such as GDP per capita, inflation rate considered as independent factors. The return-on-asset (ROA) is the key measuring indicator; it is regarded as the dependent variable for financial performance measures. The research focuses on secondary information obtained from insurance companies' financial statements. The researcher targeted 18 insurance companies listed on the UAE stock exchanges for study purposes. The research examines the overall factors that influence the financial performance of an insurance company. For analysis of data, software package of social sciences (SPSS version 20) is used. The studies used correlation and multiple linear regression analysis to determine financial performance and their effects. The analysis suggests that there are important and constructive relationships between the size, capital adequacy, and reinsurance dependency, while loss ratio, retention ratio, and financial leverage indicate a major negative relationship. And there's no link between GDP per capita and inflation.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.23-31
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of financial leverage on firm's profitability in the listed textile sector of Bangladesh. Research design, data and methodology: A sample of 22 DSE listed textile firms has been used to conduct the study. In this study, firm profitability is measured by Return on Equity (ROE) and both short term debt and long term debt are used as the as proxies of financial leverage. Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed Effect (FE), and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) models have been used to test the relationship between financial leverage and profitability of firms. Result: This study finds a significant negative relationship between leverage and firm's profitability using the Pooled OLS method. The result is also consistent with the fixed effect and GMM method. This result implies that firm's profitability is negatively affected by the firm's capital structure. Conclusion: The study concludes that maximum textile firms use external debt as a source of finance as they don't have sufficient internally generated funds. This study recommends that firm should give more emphasize on generating fund internally to meet up their financing needs.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.7-16
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• 2020

Purpose: Prior studies empirically examine how financial flexibility is related to required returns by using realized returns and considering cash holdings as net debts, but they fail to find consistent results. Conjecturing that inappropriate proxy of required returns and aggregation of cash and debts caused the inconsistent results, this study revisits this topic by using a refined proxy of required returns and separating cash holdings from debts. Research design, data and methodology: This study uses a multivariate regression model to investigate the relationship between required returns on cash holdings and financial leverage. The required returns are estimated using the return decomposition method by vector autoregression model. Empirical tests use US stock market data from1968 to 2011. Results: Empirical results reveal that both cash holdings and leverage are positively related to required returns. The positive relation is stronger in economic downturns than in economic upturns. Conclusions: Three major findings are drawn. First, risky firms prefer large cash balance. Second, information shocks in the realized returns caused failure of prior studies to find consistent positive relationship between leverage and realized returns. Third, cash and leverage are related to required returns in the same direction; therefore, cash cannot be considered as negative debts.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.63-82
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• 2022

Purpose - Drawing on relational institutional theory, we explored how demographic similarity between board members of a firm and newly emerged political elites led to firms' increased financial resource acquisition such as leverage ratio and decreased export intensity amidst the Asian financial crisis. We also studied how a firm's leverage ratio and export intensity can further affect firm profitability and financial credit rating. Design/methodology - We revisited and explored a unique, unprecedented crisis that affected most Korean firms: the Asian financial crisis that coincided with a governmental shift from a conservative to a liberal party. We collected demographic information from 432 listed Korean firms' board members and 43 political elites of the Blue House from 1998-2000 to create a demographic similarity measurement. We collected firms' financial information, built panel data, and used ordinary least squares regression to test our theory. Findings - Our results showed that demographic similarity between a firm's directors and newly emerged politicians had a positive association with a firm's leverage ratio but a negative association with a firm's export intensity. A firm's leverage ratio had a negative relationship with firm performance measured by firm profitability and financial credit rating. A firm's export intensity showed a positive effect on firm performance. Originality/value - We highlighted that during an economic crisis that coincided with a governmental shift and change of leading political actors, firms exerted efforts to survey the environment and build new external stakeholder relationships to cope with the changing landscape. We proposed that in an emerging market like Korea where low levels of trust and favoritism are prevalent across society, one of the relational institutional strategies that firms can employ is the selection of directors with similar demographic characteristics to political elites based on factors including birthplace and school affiliations. We examined the efforts of firms to build political networks with newly empowered political elites during a financial crisis, and the consequences of establishing such networks. We highlighted that during a financial crisis, the demographic similarity between a firm's board members and newly emerged politicians can provide firms with access to financial resources but can also result in poor management and reduced effort to enhance its international competitiveness.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.25-37
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• 2016

This study aims to investigate the determinants of dividend payout of Oil and Gas industry of Pakistan using secondary data from published annual reports from 2008 to 2014 listed on KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange). Dividend payout can be affected by profitability, firm size, financial leverage, sales growth, investment opportunities, liquidity, business risk, and ownership structure. Panel data technique used due to panel characteristics of available data with ordinary least square regression model to find out the impact of set of explanatory variables on the dividend payout using the Stata. Financial leverage, sales growth and business risks are the most significant variables of the study where financial leverage and business risk have significant negative effect on dividend payout while sales growth has favorable positive impact on dividend payout. Results revealed significant positive link of profitability and firm size with dividend payout whereas government ownership is negatively associated with dividend payout. Investment opportunities, liquidity and managerial ownership showed insignificant relationship with dividend payout. This Suggests that dividend payout policy is dependent on business strategies including both investment and financing decisions. Financial managers should consider these factors while formulating dividend policy of the firm.