The Impact Of Ownership Structure On Debt Financing Of Japanese Firms With The Agency Cost Of Free Cash Flow

This paper, using 833 observations of listed Japanese firms between the years 1992 to 2000, explore the implications of the free cash flow hypothesis concerning the disciplinary role of ownership structure in corporate capital structure policy. The results show (1) the sensitivity of ownership structure to leverage depends on growth opportunities and free cash flow. (2) Keiretsu classification affects relations between ownership structure and leverage. Overall, the results generally support the free cash flow hypothesis.

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, University of Hamburg, language: English, abstract: Why would companies hold cash in their bank accounts, when cash itself does not produce any further value like an investment in a machine does? The academic literature finds different concepts for the reasons of corporate cash holdings. While Keynes (1936) proposes a transaction- and precautionary-motive to hold cash, Jensen (1986) states that managers have a vested interest to accumulate cash, because it exempts them from capital market disciplining. However, country-specific factors and reforms in Japan might also induce the companies to save up liquid assets. The aim of this paper is to study the development, determinants and valuation of Japanese corporate cash holdings in the period from 1988 to 2021, based on the approach of Bates et al. (2009). Furthermore, I want to study how the roles of theoretical cash holding motives and corporate governance (reforms) in Japan are reflected in the three objects of research from above. Since the variables only proxy the theoretical motives, the object of this paper is not to create clear boundaries but to give an insight in the possible forms of their appearing. Therefore the next chapter gives a comprehensive overview about the academic literature regarding the theoretical background for corporate cash holdings and the current state of research of the interaction between corporate governance and cash holdings in Japan. The motives and findings from this section are revisited when explaining the results of the empirical part in this paper. The empirical part is divided in three main parts. The first part discusses the development of corporate cash holdings in general and for different kinds of companies. In the subsequent part, I put a focus on the factors that determine the cash holdings and how they serve as proxies for the theoretical motives, as discussed before. The last part shows how investors in Japan value cash holdings in general. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings.

This book carefully examines the effects of changes in the corporate governance structure on corporate behavior or company performance, using micro-data from listed companies in Japan. The author found that in Japan the introduction of stock options had neither a positive impact on profitability nor the negative side effects of promoting risk-taking behaviors. Furthermore, he found that corporate diversification and division of corporations showed negative impacts on profitability. The corporate governance structure of Japan has exhibited a large change from the second half of the 1990s to the present. There have been institutional reforms involving enterprise law, such as the introduction of stock options and the removal of the ban on holding companies. With respect to the ownership structure of a company, discernible trends are that the equity holdings of financial institutions and business corporations have fallen while the presence of foreign stockholders has risen. These trends are often pointed out as signs that the Japanese corporate governance structure has been approaching the American model and that this will energize Japanese firms. The author contradicts common academic theories, however, and concludes that the formation of the corporate governance which emphasizes the agency problem between shareholders and corporate managers is inadequate. He suggests that an institutional arrangement for a corporate governance system that values a variety of stakeholders' interests is greatly needed and concludes that perspectives on maximizing surplus values for various stakeholders and distributing the surpluses appropriately among the stakeholders will become increasingly important for the purpose of managing corporations.

Financial markets, the banking system, and the real estate, commodity and energy markets have, since 2007, been experiencing higher integration, more volatility and have undergone several shocks. More coordination is needed between G20 and market authorities. Regulators, banking supervision agencies and politicians are worried about economic growth and financial crisis. This book covers seven aspects related to financial economic issues, along with some connected topics. The first covers risk assessment, corporate governance and value creation through an appropriate risk management system. The second covers international investments, market correlation, institutional holdings and market reactions during crisis. The third part is devoted to empirical and quantitative analysis of the observed economics and finance issues. The fourth part is devoted to the role of debt in financial crisis and its impact on financial markets and the world economy. The fifth part is devoted to debt policy, free cash flows and the structure of governance. The sixth part deals with management control and the importance of communication. The last part covers Islamic finance as an alternative to conventional finance for the debt solution, the importance of the energy sector and the role of financial innovations.

This book brings together research works, ideas, critical reviews and strategic proposals encompassing various ethical and corporate governance issues in workplaces and organizations around the globe. For the most part, organizations are managed by policies, guidelines and systems. Good ethics and solid corporate governance help to tie these three elements together so that an effective and successful organization is established. Alongside corporate governance, ethics play an integral role in ensuring the long term survival of businesses. Multidisciplinary in approach, this book provides a platform for scholars and researchers from various backgrounds and interdisciplinary expertise to showcase their research work, ideas, critical review and strategic proposals on the ethical aspects, governance and risk management issues in organizations. The book includes discussions of ethical issues in a variety of organizations around the globe including the non-profit and non-governmental sector and also provides readers with ideas, guidelines and strategic recommendations for handling such issues.

This volume of "International Finance Review" focuses on the Asia-Pacific financial markets. A total of 22 original papers, not published elsewhere, have been selected from a competitive field. These papers utilize a variety of methods, including theoretical, empirical and qualitative to highlight a range of issues across the region. Several papers offer combinations of these different categories and among the empirical papers, there are a wide variety of datasets analyzed. While China does play a significant part in the analysis of five of the papers in this volume (this is to be expected given its importance in the region), a host of other countries are also considered. This ensures the volume is truly international in its scope. These papers each serve to contribute to the knowledge on a particular issue related to the financial markets within this region and for this volume, three main issues have been identified: integration, innovation and challenges. Articles are contributed by experts in their fields. It is truly international in scope.