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The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the debate about the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and public policy in fostering economic development. Specifically, can the capital inflow of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the ability of the subsidiaries to raise funds locally help promote development? This paper addresses this issue by examining the capital structure and financing sources of foreign subsidiaries of MNEs.

This paper integrates the capital structure theories in finance with internalization theory in international business. It uses an original primary dataset collected by a survey of 101 foreign subsidiaries of British MNEs in six emerging economies in the ASEAN region.

There are three significant findings. First, these subsidiaries rely heavily on internal funds generated within the MNEs and less on external debts raised in the host countries. Second, the foreign subsidiary's capital structure is influenced by the home country of origin of the parent firm and the parent firm's financing sources. Third, these subsidiaries have used the financial resources to develop business networks with local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which contribute to economic development of the host countries.

This paper examines the internal capital market within the MNE. It provides theoretical and empirical support for the capital structure theory of the hierarchy financing approach and also for internalization theory by addressing FDI inflows by MNEs and the raising of funds locally. These findings have important implications for public policy, namely the facilitation of MNE entry to encourage economic development.

This paper reports the results of an empirical study of the determinants of capital structure of large Latin American companies. Variations with regard to the country, industry, and size of a company are examined for a sample of two hundred and thirty large companies located in twentytwo Latin American countries. This study is the first to examine the capital structures of this large set of Latin American companies. The results of this study indicate that while size does not seem to be significant, both country and industry are significant determinants of capital structure in Latin America not only in bivariate tests but also in multivariate statistical tests. Multinational and diversified companies, therefore, cannot assume uniformity of capital structure across countries and industries in Latin America and, they must take these differences into account in developing and setting capital structure, financing, evaluation, and management policies for their subsidiaries.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of earnings management on capital structure across firm diversification strategies.

The study focuses on firms operating in the manufacturing sector (diversified and focused). Panel data methodology compares diversification strategies and identifies the impact of diversification strategy with earnings management practices on capital structure decision.

International and product diversified firms have lower levels of leverage than focused firms in their capital structure. Asset-based earnings management is positive for diversified (market/product) firms. Earnings management using discretionary expenditure (project based) is found to be higher for market diversified but product-focused firms. Earning smoothing method is found to be significant for focused firms and shows a negative relationship with capital structure.

This study offers an insight into the relationship between corporate diversification, earnings management and capital structure decisions of manufacturing firms. The results provide an important contribution to accounting and strategy literature. A distinction is made between market- and product-diversified firms and influence of earnings management practices (asset-based, project-based and earnings smoothing (ESM)) on capital structure decisions. Diversified firms (market/product) tend to have lower levels of leverage than focused firms and earnings management practices within firm groups significantly influence the capital structure decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint influence of two factors (companies’ performance and growth) on the company’s capital structure and to determine the conditions for financially sustainable competitive strategies in the coordinates profitability and growth.

The study sample includes 1,996 companies from 6 high-tech industries in Russia (panel data: 7,984 observations). The authors use regression models with random effects and carry out a three-dimensional visualization of the resulting dependencies.

The study found that profitability improves the capital structure (reduces the share of borrowed capital) and, on the contrary, the growth of companies (assets growth or sales growth) increases the leverage ratio. In the case of assets growth, the combined influence of two factors reduces the negative effect of assets growth. The results have shown that the outstripping growth of most high-tech companies requires an increase in debt capital and deterioration in the capital structure and financial stability.

In general, based on the results of this study, the authors have identified groups of fast-growing companies that need financial support, and have defined the main areas of impact (reducing the loan burden and increasing profitability) that will allow these companies to maintain high growth rates and demonstrate advanced development.

The relationships (which the authors identified between the control variables, the studied variables and leverage) were obtained for the first time for a sample of companies in high-tech industries and services in bigger transition country (Russia).

Capital structure has attracted intense debate and scholarly attention in the financial management arena over the past four decades. However, in the context of sub‐Saharan Africa capital structure has received a scant attention. This paper attempts to rectify this position by considering the firm specific factors influencing the capital structure of international joint venture formation based on a sample of 41 firms in Ghana with partners from Western Europe, North America and Asia. The results indicate that size of joint venture, type of joint venture industry and ownership level of joint venture partner have a positive bearing on the capital structure of joint ventures in Ghana.

The purpose of this study is to probe into the influence mechanism of financial opening onto industrial restructuring from the prism of financial development and examine the role of the credit market, capital market and currency market in transmitting the impact of financial opening onto industrial restructuring in both developed countries and developing countries.

In the theoretical model, the indicator of financial opening was introduced in Cobb–Douglas production function formula. Using constant elasticity of substitution utility function, based on Engel’s law, the optimal industrial structure in the economy was concluded. For the empirical analysis, data was collected from 36 developed countries and 34 developing countries during the period 2000 to 2019. Multiple mediator models with bootstrap techniques were used to identify the linkage between financial opening, financial development and industrial restructuring.

First, there is a U-shaped relationship between financial opening and industrial restructuring. Second, financial development plays a mediating role in transmitting the effects of financial opening onto industrial restructuring mainly through the credit market at the global level. Third, developed countries are in a trend of “reindustrialization,” while developing countries show a trend of “premature deindustrialization.” Moreover, for developed countries, the capital market leads to reindustrialization, while the credit market and currency market contribute to deindustrialization. For developing countries, the capital market and credit market lead to deindustrialization, while the currency market contributes to industrialization.

Unlike most previous researches, this paper focuses on examining three-variable relationship between financial opening, financial development and domestic industrial restructuring. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, monetary policy shifts of developed economies have led to an increase in cross-border capital flows, which will lead to the increasing risks for international financial markets and the reallocation of the global value chain. It is of great significance to clarify the linkage between these three variables in the face of a volatile international financial environment.

Using a 10,709 firm-year sample covering the 1998–2007 period, we investigate the determinants of capital structure among 1,491 ASEAN-4 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand) emerging market firms. Building on the work of previous authors, we apply the two-step generalized method of moments (Arellano & Bond, 1991) to develop country-specific dynamic models of target leverage decisions. The right-hand variables incorporate a lagged leverage term that controls for the firms' target adjustment process and the following four explanatory variables: firm size, profitability, tangibility, and nondebt tax shields. The sign and significance of each coefficient provides evidence regarding whether the impact of the associated variable is consistent with the trade-off or pecking order theories. We find that size is negatively associated with leverage among Malaysian, Philippine, and Thai firms but positively associated among Indonesian firms. Profitability is negatively associated with leverage among Indonesian and Malaysian firms but positively associated among Philippine firms. Tangibility is negatively associated with leverage among Malaysian firms but positively associated among Philippine firms. While the impacts of size and profitability are consistent with pecking order theory, the impact of tangibility is not supportive of a specific theory. Of the four variables, size is consistently influential, while nondebt tax shields have no significant impact among firms in any country.

This study aims to find the determinants of the capital structure of Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC). The uniqueness of the case of Islamic banks stems from the fact that they are not only subject to the supervision of financial regulatory bodies that organize the banking sector (e.g. central banks) but also subject to the guidelines of Shari’ah law governing their financial transactions, products and contracts. Such characteristics are expected to have an impact on the capital structure decisions of Islamic banks compared to their conventional counterparts.

To achieve the research purpose, an empirical model was constructed to describe the relationship between leverage and the independent variables. The empirical model was tested through multivariate regression analysis using a panel data approach of 12 Islamic banks in the GCC for the period 2005-2014. Three types of regression analysis were used as follows: ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed-effect and random-effect regressions on panel data.

The research findings show that the leverage of Islamic banks in the GCC is positively related to size of the firm (SIZE) and growth opportunity (GROWTH); and it is negatively related to profitability of the firm (ROA), tangibility of the firm’s assets (TANG) and financial market development (MRKT). The results indicate that larger Islamic banks tend to be relatively more diversified with higher credit ratings, which lower their cost of funding and relatively increase its profitability and the bank’s customer/depositor base. The results also show that higher profitability ratios indicate relatively more internal funds to cover future investments, which leads to less reliance on external funds in the form of debt and/or equity. However, the higher the growth opportunities of Islamic banks, the faster the depletion rate of internal funding, and the more external debt financing is acquired to cover the expansion plans. In addition, the results show that in developed financial markets, savers tend to purchase less traditional depository products, and they prefer to invest directly in the financial markets to avoid higher commissions. The results are in line with the pecking order theory, which states that Islamic banks in the GCC tend to prefer sources of funds that have the least transaction cost and reveal minimal information to competitors. Hence, bank management resort to internally generated funds by its operations rather than acquiring external funds. Furthermore, the results are weakly explained by the agency theory, which states that as the firm assets become more tangible, the required monitoring cost is reduced; and hence, shareholders will have less tendency to raise more debt for the purpose of sharing the monitoring cost with debt holders.

This research study contributes to the theory of capital structure in re-validating the findings of a previous theoretical and empirical study on capital structure in the GCC and abroad. It helps understand the capital structure of Islamic banks in comparison with financial and non-financial firms. Future research is recommended in several areas. In terms of the methodology, it is recommended to conduct the research topic surveying management and financial executives of Islamic banks in the GCC; this will validate the results using a triangular approach supported by the findings of this paper. It is also recommended to apply the research methodology in other parts of the world where Islamic banking exists. Finally, as studies on the capital structure of financial institutions and other regulated sectors are rare, it is recommended to intensify research effort in these sectors to strengthen our knowledge of capital structure.

From a practical perspective, this research bridges the gap between theory and practice in many aspects. The findings can serve Islamic bank executives as guidelines to understand the market and competitive reaction in response to capital structure decisions. On the other hand, research analysts and equity holders can use the findings in their debt and equity research valuations, assessment of the size of dividends and profit distributions, and to make more informed decisions to buy/sell financial securities. Furthermore, the findings help regulatory bodies to issue informed regulations in relation to capital adequacy ratios, reserve requirements, provisions and payout decisions to achieve policy intended purpose. In addition, organizations that are responsible for setting accounting and audit standards for Islamic banks will learn more about the industry practice; and hence, be able to pass practical standards. Moreover, the findings realize the recommendations of international financial regulatory bodies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and other concerned organizations that emphasize the importance of further understanding of financial institution practices, to enable more effective formulation of risk management techniques, which may prevent future financial crisis.

This paper was amongst the few research studies conducted on determinants of capital structure in the GCC and specifically on the Islamic banking sector.

The present study aims to analyse the literature on capital structure theories for the last 21 years to identify the existing gaps and themes for prospective researchers in this domain.

A sample of 183 articles published from 1999 to 2019 in the Scopus database using “capital structure theory” and “leverage” as keywords was analysed on various basis. A citation analysis was also performed to recognize impactful authors and papers.

The findings revealed that though the capital structure research studies were highly focussed on developed economies, with time, research studies in developing markets are increasing. Further, the capital structure research studies were largely conducted by considering all the industries together, whereas the focus on a particular industrial sector was meagre. Almost all the studies were empirical, thus providing scope for primary research. Various forms of regression were popular econometric techniques used in this area of late. This review highlighted the dominance of trade-off theory to elucidate the capital structure of firms, irrespective of the status of the economy. The comprehensive review uncovered the existing gaps and identified major themes evolving in the capital structure domain.

Unlike a traditional review paper, this study classifies sample articles based on several parameters and depicts a graphical presentation of the findings to cover research gaps, avenues, evolving themes, key aspects, impactful authors and their papers, etc. in the capital structure domain. It provides ready-made information available for prospective research studies in this field.

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the trade-off relationship between managerial ownership and corporate debts and whether this relationship is moderated by ownership structure and corporate tax rates, particularly in a transition and emerging market whose unique institutional characteristics considerably differ from those prevailing both in the West and East markets.

This research is semi-empirical in terms of method and practical in terms of purpose. The authors test their hypotheses by using simultaneous equations system methodology with two- and three-stages least squares regression (2SLS and 3SLS) and panel data technics on a sample of 952 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2011-2018.

The findings indicate that, contrary to the current line of research, there is no trade-off relationship between managerial ownership and debt concerning the reduction of agency costs. Likewise, the study finds no convincing evidence that either the controlling shareholder or the corporate tax rate could influence or moderate this interrelationship. The conjecture lies in the fact that the fundamental environmental variations between the Tehran Stock Exchange and the institutional assumptions underpinning the Western models have led to the formation of such unexpected results.

The implications drawn from this study are constrained by two primary limitations. First, the present study is conducted in an Iranian setting; therefore, the data used for the study only contain companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The utilization of listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange is likely to affect the generalizability of the study in an international context. Second, in this study, we were unable to extend the sample time period because of some major deficiencies in the Tehran Stock Exchange library and its supplementary software. The usage of an extended time period could have provided more generalizable results. However, extended time period, per se, may impair the validity of the results as well.

Because the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia capital structure models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the findings of this study could provide substantial implications for the understanding of agency costs and capital structure literature. These significant institutional and ownership differences are the factors affecting firms’ leverage and capital choice decisions. Indeed, this study has laid some groundwork upon which a more detailed evaluation of the Iranian firms’ capital structure could be based. In addition, the examination of such relations may provide the ground for sound decision-making by various interested users of financial and accounting information.