• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.687-714
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• 2009

In this paper, we study empirically the relations between financial constraints and dividend adjustment speed of innovative small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) listed on Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. Determinants suggested by the major theories of dividends, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend payout policy of Kosdaq SMEs. Lintner's dividend adjustment model indicates that Kosdaq SMEs have long run target payout ratio, and that Kosdaq SMEs adjust partially the gap between actual and target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner (1956) dividend adjustment model, past DPS has more effect than current EPS. These results suggest that Kosdaq SMEs maintain stable dividend policy which maintain past DPS level without corporate special reasons. Dividend adjustment speed of innovative Kosdaq SMEs is more fast than that of uninnovative Kosdaq SMEs, and dividend adjustment speed of financial unconstrained innovative Kosdaq SMEs is faster than that of financial constrained innovative Kosdaq SMEs. Futhermore, dividend adjustment speed of innovative Kosdaq SMEs classified by Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of unclassified innovative Kosdaq SMEs. The former is linked with financial policies and services like credit guaranteed service, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, past DPS and current EPS suggested by the Lintner's dividend adjustment model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed, and financial constraints explain also partially. Therefore, if managers of innovative Kosdaq SMEs can properly understand of the effects of financial constraints on dividend smoothing, they can maintain constantly dividend policy. This is encouraging result for Korea government as it has implemented many policies to commit to innovative Kosdaq SMEs.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2018

Many paddy cultivating farmers in the country are forced to use their limited resources to produce adequate food for their family, leading to the degradation and reduction in potential of these resources. The yield levels of paddy at the farmers' level and in the Front Line Demonstrations (FLDs) conducted in the farmers' fields is not at par with potential yield of the paddy variety. The gap between potential yield of crop variety and yield realized in FLDs refers to Research gap and the yield gap between FLDs and due to farmers' practice refers to Extension gap. The earlier studies conducted in India in general and in Andhra Pradesh in particular highlighted the existence of both research and extension gaps with reference to paddy. It is essential that, the narrowing of both research and extension gaps is not static, but dynamic considering the influence of technological interventions in boosting paddy yields at FLDs level and at farmers' level and also with the improvement of the yield potential of paddy varieties. This calls for integrated and holistic approaches to address these two gaps and with this background, the researcher aimed at this in depth study. The findings revealed that, research gaps are high with reference to weed management and pest management and extension gaps are high with reference to farm mechanization followed by fertilizer management. Reliable source of seed, capital use and frequency of meetings with Scientists or Agricultural Officers significantly influence the extension gaps in paddy. Farmers also prioritized socio-economic and technical constraints and the analysis infers that, it is high time now for the farmers to adopt the planned technological interventions on scientific scale to minimize the extension gaps to the extent possible. As the enabling environment in the State of Andhra Pradesh is highly encouraging for the farmers with relevant policy instruments in the form of subsidized inputs, free power, credit at concessional rates of interest, constructing irrigation projects etc., the adoption of the proposed technological interventions significantly contribute to minimizing both research and extension gaps in paddy cultivation in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.67-93
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The innovative SMEs is defined as the firms with high level of R&D intensity which is measured by (R&D investment/total sales) ratio, according to Chauvin and Hirschey (1993). The R&D investment plays an important role as the innovative driver that can increase the future growth opportunity and profitability of the firms. Therefore, the R&D investment have large, positive, and consistent influences on the market value of the firm. In this point of view, we expect that the innovative SMEs can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. And also, we expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Aivazian et al.(2006) exert that the financial unconstrained firms with the high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms. We collect the sample firms among the total SMEs listed on Korea Securities Market and Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange during the periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. The total number of firm-year observations of the total sample firms throughout the entire period is 5,544, the number of firm-year observations of the dividend firms is 2,919, and the number of firm-year observations of the non-dividend firms is 2,625. About 53%(or 2,919) of these total 5,544 observations involve firms that make a dividend payment. The dividend firms are divided into two groups according to the R&D intensity, such as the innovative SMEs with larger than median of R&D intensity and the noninnovative SMEs with smaller than median of R&D intensity. The number of firm-year observations of the innovative SMEs is 1,506, and the number of firm-year observations of the noninnovative SMEs is 1,413. Furthermore, the innovative SMEs are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints, such as the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms. The number of firm-year observations of the former is 894, and the number of firm-year observations of the latter is 612. Although all available firm-year observations of the dividend firms are collected, deletions are made in the case of financial industries such as banks, securities company, insurance company, and other financial services company, because their capital structure and business style are widely different from the general manufacturing firms. The stock repurchase was involved in dividend payment because Grullon and Michaely (2002) examined the substitution hypothesis between dividends and stock repurchases. However, our data structure is an unbalanced panel data since there is no requirement that the firm-year observations data are all available for each firms during the entire periods from January 1999 to December 2007 from the KIS Value Library database. We firstly estimate the classic Lintner(1956) dividend adjustment model, where the decision to smooth dividend or to adopt a residual dividend policy depends on financial constraints measured by market accessibility. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between current payout rato and target payout ratio each year. In the Lintner model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), and independent variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t). We hypothesized that firms adjust partially the gap between the current dividend per share(DPS_t) and the target payout ratio(Ω) each year, when the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) deviate from the target payout ratio(Ω). We secondly estimate the expansion model that extend the Lintner model by including the determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory. In the expansion model, dependent variable is the current dividend per share(DPS_t), explanatory variables are the past dividend per share(DPS_t-1) and the current earnings per share(EPS_t), and control variables are the current capital expenditure ratio(CEA_t), the current leverage ratio(LEV_t), the current operating return on assets(ROA_t), the current business risk(RISK_t), the current trading volume turnover ratio(TURN_t), and the current dividend premium(DPREM_t). In these control variables, CEA_t, LEV_t, and ROA_t are the determinants suggested by the residual dividend theory and the agency theory, ROA_t and RISK_t are the determinants suggested by the dividend signaling theory, TURN_t is the determinant suggested by the transactions cost theory, and DPREM_t is the determinant suggested by the catering theory. Furthermore, we thirdly estimate the Lintner model and the expansion model by using the panel data of the financial unconstrained firms and the financial constrained firms, that are divided into two groups according to level of financial constraints. We expect that the financial unconstrained firms can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, because the former can finance more easily the investment funds through the market accessibility than the latter. We analyzed descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and median to delete the outliers from the panel data, conducted one way analysis of variance to check up the industry-specfic effects, and conducted difference test of firms characteristic variables between innovative SMEs and noninnovative SMEs as well as difference test of firms characteristic variables between financial unconstrained firms and financial constrained firms. We also conducted the correlation analysis and the variance inflation factors analysis to detect any multicollinearity among the independent variables. Both of the correlation coefficients and the variance inflation factors are roughly low to the extent that may be ignored the multicollinearity among the independent variables. Furthermore, we estimate both of the Lintner model and the expansion model using the panel regression analysis. We firstly test the time-specific effects and the firm-specific effects may be involved in our panel data through the Lagrange multiplier test that was proposed by Breusch and Pagan(1980), and secondly conduct Hausman test to prove that fixed effect model is fitter with our panel data than the random effect model. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The determinants suggested by the major theories of dividend, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend policy of the innovative SMEs. Lintner model indicates that firms maintain stable and long run target payout ratio, and that firms adjust partially the gap between the current payout ratio and the target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner model, the past dividend per share has more effects to dividend smoothing than the current earnings per share. These results suggest that the innovative SMEs maintain stable and long run dividend policy which sustains the past dividend per share level without corporate special reasons. The main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs is faster than that of the noninnovative SMEs. This means that the innovative SMEs with high level of R&D intensity can adjust dividend payment faster than the noninnovative SMEs, on the ground of their future growth opportunity and profitability. The other main results show that dividend adjustment speed of the financial unconstrained SMEs is faster than that of the financial constrained SMEs. This means that the financial unconstrained firms with high accessibility to capital market can adjust dividend payment faster than the financial constrained firms, on the ground of their financing ability of investment funds through the market accessibility. Futhermore, the other additional results show that dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs classified by the Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of the unclassified SMEs. They are linked with various financial policies and services such as credit guaranteed service, policy fund for SMEs, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, the past dividend per share and the current earnings per share suggested by the Lintner model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed of the innovative SMEs, and also the financial constraints explain partially. Therefore, if managers can properly understand of the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of innovative SMEs, they can maintain stable and long run dividend policy of the innovative SMEs through dividend smoothing. These are encouraging results for Korea government, that is, the Small and Medium Business Administration as it has implemented many policies to commit to the innovative SMEs. This paper may have a few limitations because it may be only early study about the relations between financial constraints and dividend smoothing of the innovative SMEs. Specifically, this paper may not adequately capture all of the subtle features of the innovative SMEs and the financial unconstrained SMEs. Therefore, we think that it is necessary to expand sample firms and control variables, and use more elaborate analysis methods in the future studies.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.121-148
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• 2018

This paper examines the role of accounting conservatism on investment expenditure for non-financial Korean listed firms around the 2007-2008 global financial crisis using a differences-in-differences design. Specifically, this paper examines the association between an ex ante classification of firms by their level of accounting conservatism prior to the credit crisis and the ex post magnitude of the decline in investment. Consistent with prior literature, this study found that firms experienced a decline in their investment when hit by the financial crisis (Campello et al. 2010). And also this study found that firms with more conservative financial reporting experienced a smaller decline in investment activity following the financial crisis than did firms with less conservative financial reporting. Together, the results suggest that negative shocks to the supply of external finance hampers firm-level investment and that conservative financial reporting can lessen the sensitivity of firms' investment to such negative shocks. Next, this study shows that the magnitude of our findings is greater for firms more likely to suffer from underinvestment (as opposed to overinvestment). Firms that are financially constrained or have greater demand for external finance are more likely to experience underinvestment. Consistent with the predictions, this study finds stronger benefits of conservatism for firms that face relatively greater costs in raising external capital (i.e., financially constrained firms) or that have a relatively greater need to do so (i.e., firms that lack internal financial resources). This study also finds that the role for conservatism is greater in firms with a higher level of information asymmetry, consistent with the notion that conservatism mitigates financing frictions arising from information problems.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.70-119
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• 2021

This paper analyzes the changes in financial reform during the Kim Jong-un era based on North Korean literature. We find that North Korea has systematically and functionally separated the central bank from commercial banks since the Kim Jong-un era began. In addition, enterprises have been allowed to withdraw cash from bank accounts and make inter-enterprise cash payments. In other words, nowadays non-cash currencies with passive money can partially serve as active money with purchasing power. With the systematic and functional separation of the central bank and the commercial bank, the issuance of the central bank changed to a money supply method through the commercial bank, and changes in the currency distribution structure have allowed commercial bank's credit creation function to be implemented. This means that the banking system and the monetary·payment system of the socialist planned economy are changing in the way of the market economy. Reforms in the financial sector are believed to have been necessary to support changes in the economic system and to restore the function of the public financial sector. These changes have progressed in terms of the level of reform, but they are still considered similar to the period of the former Soviet Union's Perestroika or to the early period of China's reform and opening. Although North Korea's financial reform is superior in terms of enacting the banking law, it is insufficient in terms of realizing the functions of commercial banks. In addition, it is assessed that institutional constraints such as maintaining a planned economy, and the lack of confidence in public finances limit the effectiveness and development of the financial system. It should be noted that these results are based on literature published in North Korea. In other words, there is a limit in the fact that such recent changes have been carried out on a trial basis in some areas, or have been carried out in a full-scale manner with a blueprint, since Kim Jong-un's inauguration.