• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.14 no.12
• /
• pp.129-139
• /
• 2016

Purpose - This paper examines the explanatory power of the agency theory in the determination of cash holdings for Korean retail firms. If the agency theory holds, a firm with strong corporate governance structure tends to have low cash holdings. A strong governance structure makes the CEO of this firm to behave in the interests of shareholders and thus the CEO has low incentive to stockpile cash holdings, which can be easily diverted for the CEO's own managerial purposes. We investigate this relationship between corporate governance structure and cash holdings, by using corporate governance scores as a proxy variable that captures the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. Research design, data, and methodology - We adopt the sample of publicly listed retail firms in KOSPI market from 2005 to 2013. Financial and accounting statements are gathered from the WISEfn database. We also use the corporate governance scores published by Korean Corporate Governance Service. The relationship between the corporate governance scores and cash holdings is cross-sectionally estimated based on the ordinary least square method. This estimation method is widely accepted in the existing literature. The sample of large conglomerates, Chebol, and the remainder firms are separately examined as well, to account for the distinctive internal financing environment in these large conglomerates. Results - We mainly contribute to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence against the agency theory of cash policy. Unlike the prediction of agency theory, we confirm statistically insignificant or even positive correlations between the set of corporate governance scores and cash-asset ratios. Almost all the major corporate governance attributes including total score, shareholder rights, board structure, and the quality of information disclosure do not show negative correlations with cash holdings, which poses a strong challenge to the validity of the agency theory in the determination of retail firms' cash holdings. Conclusions - This study presents interesting empirical results with respect to the cash policy in Korean retail firms. Consistent to prior studies, I verify that the agency theory only limitedly explains the level of cash holdings. Future studies may obtain more robust results by examining a longer sample period.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.9-20
• /
• 2020

The study investigates a recent surge of cash literature by using a sample of hospitality firms to gain a new understanding of corporate cash holdings. Past literature states that there is a substantial variation of liquidity across industry groups. Existing literature predominantly refers to US-listed firms and focus on either hotels or restaurants and not the hospitality industry as a whole. Therefore, we provide a comparative study of cash holdings behaviour between hospitality and non-hospitality firms from an emerging market context. Using a sample of public listed hospitality firms from 2002 to 2013, dynamic panel regression techniques are used to study the relationships between firm characteristics and cash levels. Also, the non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was carried out to examine the time and sectoral differences in cash holdings. In addition, the panel regression techniques are used to investigate the relationships between firm characteristics and level of corporate cash holdings. The results reveal that firm characteristics do matter in hospitality firms. We find that firm size, capital expenditures, and liquid assets substitutes are negatively related to cash level. The results support trade-off theory and the pecking order theory. This study incrementally explains the cash holdings behaviour of hospitality firms in emerging market.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.1654-1662
• /
• 2011

This paper investigates how does cash holdings have effect on investment-cash flow sensitivity in korea firms over the period 1981-2009. According to $\"{O}$.Arslan et al.(2006), I expect that financially constrained firms have more cash holdings. and financially constrained cash-rich firms are likely to have less investment-cash flow sensitivity especially in the financial crisis period. Using financial constraint classification variables(firm size, dividend, cash holdings), we divide whole sample firms into financially constrained firms and financially unconstrained firms, and then I compare investment-cash flow sensitivity in pre-financial crisis(1981-1996), financial crisis(1997-1998) and after-financial crisis(1999-2009) period. This paper's findings are as follows: First, under no financial constraint classification conditions, cash-poor firms exhibit greater investment-cash flow sensitivity than cash-rich firms do during 1981-2009 period except financial crisis period. These findings support the hypothesis that firms have more cash holdings less investment-cash flow sensitivity except in financial crisis period. In financial crisis period, cash holdings have no effect on investment-cash flow sensitivity. Second, this paper findings are somewhat different as $\"{O}$.Arslan et al.(2006)'s. Under the financial constraint classification conditions, financially unconstrained firms have more investment-cash flow sensitivity rather than constrained firms have. The reason is that both dividend and firm size are not a complete classification criteria variables. And there exists other possible determinants of investment-cash flow sensitivity. Finally, this paper find that there are common determinants of corporate cash holdings in all periods. This paper suggests that cash flow and market to book ratio are positive determinants of corporate cash holdings but short-term debt, investment and firm size are negative determinants of corporate cash holdings.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.67-77
• /
• 2023

This study investigates the impact of corporate governance (defined as companies' ownership structure and board of directors' characteristics) on cash holdings in the context of Oman. This study leverages a quantitative panel pooled regression on a dataset of Omani non-financial firms from 2009-2015. The findings of this study are generally in line with the predictions of Agency Theory and Mentoring and Busyness Hypotheses. The analysis demonstrates that a large stockholder size has a significant positive relationship with cash holding. Meanwhile, a positive (but insignificant) relationship was also found between institutional ownership and cash holding. Furthermore, state ownership was found to exhibit a significant negative relationship with cash holding. In terms of the board of directors' traits, this study's findings suggest that board sizes have a positive (but insignificant) relationship with cash holding. Furthermore, busy and independent boards were found to have a significant positive relationship with cash holding. The above findings suggest that boards with such traits are less effective in providing oversight on managers' actions, which would then increase Omani non-financial firms' cash holdings.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.1-34
• /
• 2009

We test the effect of corporate cash holdings on firm value by using the KOSPI listed firms over the period between 2002 and 2007 from the agency theories perspective, which has not been the central interest of prior studies. Unlike existing studies, using the manager's ownership ratio or foreign investor's shareholder ratio as a proxy variable for agency costs, we use the individual firm's corporate governance scores by the KCGS to test the effect of agency costs on the value of firm's cash holdings. We find that a firm value is positively related with its cash holdings. We also find that a firm with good corporate governance tends to experience a higher value of its cash holdings, compared with a firm with bad corporate governance. These results are consistent even after controlling for the endogeneity problems between corporate governance and firm value, strongly supporting the agency theory of cash holdings. Therefore, a firm's cash holdings, even from liquidity or precautionary motives, could increase the firm cash value, as long as its managers' interest is shareholders' wealth maximization rather than their private benefits.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.19-44
• /
• 2015

This paper examines the effect of the global financial crisis on corporate investment in Korea. Specifically, the crisis was considered to have possibly constrained firm-level investment as the negative shock to the credit supply dramatically unfolded. As Duchin et al. (2010) demonstrated, if a negative supply-side shock is evident during a crisis period, larger cash holdings before the crisis will lead to fewer constraints to corporate investment, or vice versa. In order to investigate the supply-side effect of the crisis, we use firm-level financial data, including firms listed on the Korean stock market as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. We find that corporate investment declined significantly after the crisis, even if we control for factors associated with the demand side, such as contemporaneous capital productivity and cash flow. More importantly, the decline is positively and significantly related to cash holdings before the crisis, implying the negative effect of a credit supply shock. Small and medium enterprises experienced relatively sharp investment declines compared to those of larger firms, and the relationship between pre-crisis cash amounts and the degree of investment decline is greater than that in large firms. Additionally, we examine whether the negative effect persists up to the present, finding evidence that the cash-investment relationship continues in small and medium-sized enterprises.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.205-221
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of cash holdings on firm value in export companies. To investigate this effect, we analyzed 5,386 samples drawn from export companies listed in the KOSDAQ from 2011 to 2018. During this period, the International Financial reporting Standards have been employed. The research results are as follows. First, the results of a T-test showed that the level of the firm value of export companies with high levels of cash holdings is significantly higher than that of those with low levels of cash holdings. In addition, the level of the firm value of export companies with higher levels of cash holdings than in the previous year is higher than the level might otherwise be. Furthermore, the effects of cash holdings on firm value are similar to those on return on asset. These results suggested that export companies have little used a way of increasing their debt levels in order to increase cash holdings. Second, the results of a multivariate regression analysis presented that the cash holdings of export companies in listed the KOSDAQ significantly influence their firm value. Moreover, a higher level of cash holdings than in the previous year significantly affect firm value. These results proposed that making higher cash holdings than in the previous year might be useful in enhancing firm value. We found that export companies efforts to increase cash holdings positively influence changes in firm value. We also found that Korean export companies maintain their financial stability by obtaining sufficient liquidity specifically in a high uncertainty era like the recent time. We finally firmed an effort to maintain cash holdings as a reasonable choice for export companies.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.61-78
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of cash holdings on internationalization of listed manufacturing firms. We explore moderating effect of managerial ownership between cash holdings and internationalization of firms. We analysed cross-sectional data of 645 listed companies from 2000 to 2013 using the fixed effects estimation. Empirical results showed that the there was a positive significant relation between cash holdings and internationalization of firms This study also found that managerial ownership have a significant negative moderating effects in the pathway between cash holdings and internationalization Cash liquidities can be rapidly induced internationalization. Managerial ownership increase agency cost, therefore, it might have a negative effects on internationalization These results suggest that agency cost with cash holdings is very important for cash management.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.89-120
• /
• 2010

In this paper, we analyse empirically the relations between ownership structure and cash holdings of firms listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. Cash holdings increase as large shareholder's equity holdings increase. Cash holdings increase as the difference between first largest shareholder's and second largest shareholder's equity holdings increase, and cash holdings increase as the ownership concentration increase. Managerial ownership exert a non-linear effects on cash holdings. So to speak, at lower level of managerial ownership, managers hold more cash to pursue their own interests at the expense of minority shareholders, but at higher level of managerial ownership, the interests of managers and shareholders are aligned, and also at highest level of managerial ownership, managers hold more cash to pursue their own interests at the expense of minority shareholders. Cash holdings increase larger in owner-controlled firm than in management-controlled firm. These results support the expropriation of minority shareholders hypothesis that large shareholders can extract private benefits from corporate resources under their control at the expense of minority shareholders. This paper contributes to defining information value of large shareholder's equity holdings on cash holdings for a firms' other stakeholders such as investors and creditors, and to strengthening a legal and institutional safeguard for external minority shareholders. Ownership concentration might have negatively affected the evolution of the legal and institutional frameworks for corporate governance and the manner in which economic activity is conducted. It could be a formidable barrier to future policy reform.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.53-58
• /
• 2022

Purpose: Controlling and minority shareholders sometimes have conflicting interests. Controlling shareholders who do not have adequate monitoring can exhibit a strong tendency to maximize their personal wealth. In this case, cash holdings can be the easiest means for them to pursue their personal interests. This study examined whether the largest shareholder's ownership proportion affected the speed at which firms adjust their cash holdings to target levels in Korean distribution and service companies. Research design, data, and methodology: The study uses regression analysis to examine 834 firm-year samples listed on the KOSPI between 2013 and 2018 in the distribution and service sectors. Results: The largest shareholder's ownership is positively related to a firm's cash holdings adjustment speed. That is, the larger the largest shareholder's ownership, the faster the firm adjusts its cash holdings to achieve the target level. Conclusions: This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence that the cash holdings adjustment speed in Korean service and distribution companies is affected by the largest shareholder's ownership. As the agency problem between controlling and minority shareholders in Korea is a major issue, minority owners' sensitivity to agency costs may help restrict controlling owners' ability to maximize their personal wealth.