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The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating roles of innovation intensity and lenders’ monitoring on the relation between financial slack and performance.

This study adopts an empirical method using data from firms listed in both the Compustat S&P500 and Boardex for the period 2010 to 2019 to analyze the effects of innovation intensity and lenders’ monitoring on the relation between financial slack and performance.

The authors find that financial slack is positively related to performance, and this relation is stronger as innovation intensity increases. Furthermore, we demonstrate that lenders’ monitoring strengthens the positive relationship between financial slack and performance.

First, this study focuses on the effects of financial slack, research and development (R&D) intensity and lenders’ monitoring on financial performance. Future research might extend this study by investigating the effects of these variables on non-financial performance. Second, the data and results do not provide insights into the reasons for firms to accumulate financial slack. Future research might conduct a longitudinal field study to understand why firms build financial slack. Finally, this study only uses R&D intensity and lenders’ monitoring as the moderating variables. Future studies might incorporate other contingency variables such as firms’ budgeting and budget-based compensation systems to provide useful insights into the relationship between financial slack and performance.

This study provides important insights into the value of financial slack for firms that invest heavily in R&D activities. This study also provides useful insight into the benefits of lenders’ monitoring to mitigate managers’ unethical behavior.

This study provides useful insights for companies that invest heavily in innovation activities by showing that financial slack is beneficial for this company and lenders’ monitoring is needed to discipline managers in using the slack resources.

This study is the first to investigate the moderating effects of innovation intensity and lenders’ monitoring on the relation between financial slack and performance. Previous studies focus their investigations on the direct effect of financial slack and performance.

The authors examine the impact of asymmetric information on firm's financing decisions, the feedback effect of changes in capital structure on the level of asymmetric information, and the speed of adjustments in capital structure on its target leverage.

The authors extract the data on 280 non-financial firms listed in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) from the DataStream. The authors implement the generalized method of moments (GMM), complemented by the fixed effect model (FEM) to estimate the model coefficients.

The authors find that asymmetric information significantly affects the financing decisions; and that on average, firms adjust 26% of the total debt toward their target capital structure. The negative effect from the difference between the observed and target changes in leverage on asymmetric information confirms that capital structure changes act as a signal for future profitability and helps the management to lower its level of asymmetric information.

The findings offer fresh insight into the effect of asymmetric information on financing decisions, as well as the speed of adjustment of capital structure toward its target leverage, in the context of the firms working in emerging markets like Pakistan. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the impact of asymmetric information on financing decisions that incorporate firm's age, size and the global financial crises 2007–2008. The authors construct an asymmetric information index using both accounting and finance measures of asymmetry.

This study considers a contracting problem between a fairness concerned entrepreneur (EN) and a fair-neutral venture capitalist (VC) to explore the effects of asymmetry, agency conflicts and fairness concerns.

The authors construct the model by assuming the EN's risk aversion degree is private information, which is more realistic but ignored in most studies. Under the principal–agent framework, the authors solve the VC's optimal contracting models by identifying the ranges of feasible solution, where the optimal solutions of these models are explicit and nicely reconcile the “private equity” puzzle. Moreover, validity of the optimal solutions is verified by numerical simulations.

In accordance with empirical evidence, information asymmetry lowers the optimal equity share that the VC provides to EN but raises EN's profit due to lower effort disutility and information rent. Moreover, the authors find that the fairness concerns is beneficial for the EN, where it not only increases the EN's optimal equity share, but also enhances the certainty equivalence of the EN's utility regarding its profit. Relative to the benchmark model where the EN's risk aversion degree is common knowledge, the EN's efforts recommended by the optimal contract is less sensitive to the EN's fairness concerns degree when the EN does not actually announce its risk aversion degree.

First, the authors incorporate asymmetry to study a two-period contracting problem and explore how it affects the equity shares allocated to the contractual parties. Second, the authors incorporate fairness concerns and analyze its effect regarding the decision-makings and profits.

In this paper, the author examines how capital structure (relative to target) affects firm innovation.

The author uses cross-sectional OLS regressions (for each year of data) to determine whether a firm is above or below its target debt level (in that year) and then uses fixed effects OLS regressions with panel data to examine the impact of having leverage above or below the firm's target on its innovation activity.

The author shows that firms with below-target debt innovate more in terms of number of patents granted and have better quality innovations in terms of citation counts of patents and in terms of economic value of patents. The results hold for sample splits based on firm age, firm size and access to external finance. The author also shows that the findings are not driven by the negative correlation between leverage and innovation measures. Overall, the results indicate that it is not the actual level of leverage that impacts innovation; the relevant factor that impacts firm innovation is whether a firm is above or below its leverage target.

The author extends the literature on financing innovation by linking leverage target with firm innovation. Findings of this paper also provide supporting evidence that capital structure plays an important role on firm innovation and supplements prior literature that shows the importance of debt in financing firm innovation.

Foreign subsidiaries incur substantial institutional conformity costs because they have to respond to host-country institutional pressures (Slangen & Hennart, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to study this type of cost from institutional and regulatory perspectives. The authors argue that these costs decrease when the host country adopts concepts of international regulations that multinationals may be familiar with due to their own home country regulation experience. This prior regulatory experience gives foreign subsidiaries an advantage of foreignness (AoF), which can offset their liability of foreignness (LoF).

This study compared the returns on assets of 35 domestic firms with those of foreign subsidiaries in the Brazilian energy industry between 2002 and 2021, using regression dynamic panel data.

The existence of a relationship between the international regulatory norm and the Brazilian regulator has transformed the LoF into an advantage of foreignness to compete with local energy firms. The results also suggest that the better the regulatory quality of the subsidiary’s country of origin, the better its performance in Brazil, as it can reduce compliance costs. Finally, the greater the psychic distance between Brazil and the foreign subsidiary’s home country, the worse its performance.

The research suggests that one of the keys to competitiveness in host countries is local regulatory ties. Prior international regulatory experience gives foreign subsidiaries an asset of foreignness (AoF). This result complements the current institutional and regulatory foreignness studies on emerging economies (Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Mallon et al., 2022) and the institutional asymmetry between home and host country (Mallon & Fainshmidt, 2017).

This research suggests that one of the keys to competitiveness in host countries is local regulatory ties. Prior international regulatory experience gives foreign subsidiaries an asset of foreignness (AoF). This result complements the current institutional and regulatory foreignness studies on emerging economies (Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Mallon et al., 2022) and the institutional asymmetry between home and host country (Mallon & Fainshmidt, 2017). The practical implication is that the relationship between conformity costs, capital budget calculation and strategic planning for internationalization will be related to the governance quality of the home country of multinationals. The social implication is that a country interested in attracting more direct foreign investment to areas that need foreign technology transfer and resources may consider adopting international regulatory standards.

The social implication is that a country interested in attracting more direct foreign investment to areas that need foreign technology transfer and resources may consider adopting international regulatory standards.

This research discuss firm and local regulator tie is one of core competitiveness in host countries (Yang and Meyer, 2020). This study also complements the current institutional and regulatory foreignness studies in emerging economy (Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Mallon et al., 2022). Second, prior regulatory experience of multinational enterprise in similar environment can affect its foreign affiliate performance (Perkins, 2014). Third, this study confirms current literature that argues that knowledge and ability to operate in an institutionalized country can be transferred from parent to affiliate. In the end, this study investigates whether AoF persists when host governments improve the governance of their industries.

The purpose of this study is to measure mutual funds' manager performance by attributing it to their abilities to choose better securities (selectivity effect) and to allocate these securities better than their benchmarks (allocation effect). The study enables the authors to examine the relative contributions of the commonly known asset-pricing factors in mutual funds' performance.

To examine managers' ability to steer funds' returns, the authors conduct a two-dimensional holdings-based analysis using factor-specific decomposition of funds' excess returns into their ability to select and allocate securities better than their benchmarks. Subsequently, the authors conduct an analysis of the covariance (ANCOVA) due to these factors in explaining funds' excess returns over time.

While managers' ability to choose better securities than the benchmarks (the selectivity effect) appears modest, some funds (especially the winners) allocate securities in their portfolios better than their benchmarks (the allocation effect) based on their exposures to certain factors (e.g. the momentum factor for the winner funds). However, although funds consistently gain through their ability to predict the size and value factors well, they do not consistently possess the skills to predict the momentum factor.

Although the paper analyzes all the available diversified funds, the sample excludes several other categories, such as thematic and international funds. Further, the analysis is based on equity-oriented Indian funds. Broader studies of changes in factor exposures and the inclusion of more factors apart from those conventionally used may shed more light on the managers' ability to maneuver these factors.

The results show that mutual fund managers lack persistence in their performance, even though some of them could predict specific factors well. Since the activity in active mutual funds could not lead to superior performance over time, investors could be better off by selecting cheaper passive funds for their long-term investments.

The paper presents a novel approach to studying funds' performance by conducting a two-dimensional holdings-based analysis to capture the relative contributions of common asset-pricing factors in the cross-section as well as over time.

Recognizing the severity of COVID-19 on the US economy, the authors investigate the behavior of US-listed firms towards leverage speed of adjustment (SOA) during the pandemic. While prior evidence (based on an international study) shows that firm leverage increased during the pandemic leading to a higher SOA toward leverage ratios, leverage for US firms during the same period reduced drastically. Yet there is a dearth of empirical studies on the behavior of US-listed firms' SOA during the pandemic. The authors fill this void.

The study includes US-listed non-financial and non-utility firms for the period 2015Q1-2021Q4, covering a total sample of 45,213 firm-quarter observations. The authors’ empirical strategy is based on the generalized method of moments (GMM) and firm-fixed effect methodology, controlling for firm- and quarter-fixed effects.

Three main findings are established: (1) while the SOA toward book target increased during the pandemic, SOA toward market target increased significantly only for less valued and cash-constrained firms; (2) firms in states most impacted by the pandemic adjusted faster towards target ratio; and (3) while the emergence of the pandemic and the overall firm-level risk increased (decreased) the deviation from book (market) target, firm-level risk partially mediated the effect of the pandemic on how far firms deviated from target ratio.

This study enhances our understanding of leverage adjustment during the crisis and shows that risk avoidance motive and the market value of firms are key determinants of convergence rate during the crisis and further demonstrates that market leverage is more sensitive to market dynamics. As such, caution must be taken when dealing with and interpreting market leverage SOA.

Although prior evidence based on international study provides insights into how firms behave toward their leverage ratios because of the pandemic, little is known about how US firms react to the pandemic in terms of the target ratios, particularly (1) since the USA is one of the severely affected countries and (2) firms in the USA reduced their leverage ratios as against what prior evidence shows. The authors provide evidence to explain how and why US firms reacted toward their SOA during the pandemic.

This research intends to investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the firm's leverage and its adjustment speed.

This study applies dynamic panel data modeling by using a partial adjustment model. The study is based on secondary data of the non-financial firms that are listed on the Pakistan stock exchange. For the analysis purpose, the study applies the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique and uses a newly developed text-based measure of economic policy uncertainty.

The results show the negative impact of EPU on leverage decisions but a positive impact of EPU on leverage speed of adjustment for both, short-run and long-run economic policy shocks. Additional analysis reveals that the negative influence of long-run policy shocks on leverage decisions is moderated through profitability, and the negative influence of short-run policy shocks on leverage is moderated through firm size, tangibility and available growth prospects. However, the significant positive impact of EPU on the leverage speed of adjustment in both short and long-term policy shocks indicates that the speed of adjustment for these firms is not affected by policy shocks.

This research contributes to the existing literature on capital structure dynamics,by investigating the impact of EPU on firm financing decisions and estimating the adjustment speed of capital structure in a developing market context. The study also extends the existing literature by applying the concept of long-run and short-run economic policy uncertainty in the capital structure dynamic framework. Additionally, the new news-based measure of EPU is used. Moreover, it also looks into the COVID-19 effect on the relationship.

This study empirically documents the effect of ambiguity on stock returns in a major emerging market along with the ambiguity attitudes under various market conditions.

Ambiguity is measured as the volatility of return probability distributions extracted from high frequency intraday data via a method developed by Brenner and Izhakian (2018). The impact of ambiguity is then tested on stock market returns.

The results show that ambiguity is a priced factor in Turkish stock market with a positive premium that is distinct from risk premium. In contrast with the findings in the US market, the investors in Turkey show an increasing level of ambiguity aversion as expected probability of favorable returns deviate from the mean value. The investors are effectively ambiguity neutral in lateral markets. The results are robust to testing with higher moments, sentiment measures and under recession conditions.

This study contributes to empirically documenting ambiguity and ambiguity aversion in a major emerging market along with the opportunity to observe international differences in ambiguity attitudes.

This study seeks to identify the main determinants of the optimal capital structure by reexamining the interpretation of the conventional set of explanatory variables used as proxies for the costs and benefits of debt in the context of the dynamic tradeoff theory.

The authors isolate the variation in leverage due to different targets from that caused by deviations by aggregating the data across a dimension identifying firms with similar targets – credit rating category.

Contrary to theoretical priors, large and profitable rated firms have lower targets. The authors show that size and profitability proxy for non-financial risk and that, for rated firms, non-financial risk is positively correlated to the optimal leverage. The benefits of a better rating outweigh the costs of foregone tax shields for firms with relatively low non-financial risk. The authors find support for that theory in institutional trading – institutional investors do not punish highly rated firms when credit downgrades occur.

This paper contributes to the capital structure literature by developing a new approach based on data aggregation. This study is the first, to the authors’ knowledge, to find a positive effect of the firm's non-financial risk on target leverage among rated firms. The authors argue that the benefit of a better credit rating is an increasing function of the rating itself. The authors also contribute to the literature on the impact of credit ratings on the capital structure choices of the firm.