Impacts of Financial Constraints on Firm Value for KONEX Listed Firms

Purpose: This study empirically investigates what factors contribute to corporate value in the Korea New Exchange (KONEX) market and determines whether financial constraints contribute any effect on it. Research design, data and methodology: A fixed-effect panel regression model was utilized to analyze financial constraints on firm value for KONEX listed firms through the fiscal period from 2013 to 2020. Results: we find that firms' research and development, volatility, size, and sales growth give significant impacts to firm value, but the significance and direction are different. In addition, no significant relationship exists between the largest shareholder's equity ratio and firm value in all models. The debt-to-equity ratio did not show a significant relationship with corporate value. A significant negative relationship was found between R&D and corporate value in the entire sample. Volitility exhibited a positive relationship with corporate value in the entire sample and financially unconstrained companies. Firm size presented a significant negative relationship with company value in all models. Sales growth showed a significant negative relationship with corporate value in financially constrained companies. Conclusions: No difference is found between financially constrained and unconstrained companies in the KONEX market. We can infer that KONEX companies have a large difference with KOSPI or KOSDAQ. Further analysis is needed on the differences among these markets.