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Building upon the framework of the tradeoff model of capital structure and motivated by the equity market timing theory, we examine whether equity misvaluation is a source of adjustment “costs” that will affect a firm’s leverage adjustment speed toward target. We also investigate whether the quality of a firm’s long-term growth options will influence the decisions of managers to exploit the mispriced equity to converge to the optimum. Using a sample of listed Taiwanese firms during 1992–2014 and employing the market-to-book decomposition as developed by Rhodes-Kropf, Robinson, and Viswanathan (2005), we find that overleveraged and overvalued firms demonstrate faster adjustment speed than overleveraged but undervalued firms. Furthermore, controlling for the misvaluation status, high-growth firms converge to target faster than their low-growth counterparts. The effect of growth options on the relation between equity mispricing and adjustment speed does not mirror the effect of financing deficits. With the detailed financial information of the local companies across a rather long time series, this study provides incremental inputs to the literature of capital structure from the determinants of target leverage, the estimation of leverage adjustment speeds, to the identification of the sources of adjustment costs in an emerging market where institutional environment is strikingly different from the US.

This paper aims to investigate the non-homogeneity in the speed of adjustment (SoA) of the capital structure of manufacturing companies. It also attempts to study the key determinants that accelerate the speed of adjustment towards the target leverage level.

Using the dynamic panel fraction (DPF) estimator on the partial adjustment model, the study captures the heterogeneous SoA of 2,866 firms across eight prominent sectors of the Indian manufacturing industry from 2009 to 2020. To ensure robustness, the empirical inferences of DPF are cross-verified with the estimates of panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE).

The authors find a combination of the capital structure's slow, moderate and rapid adjustment speed along with the relevance of trade-off theory. Interestingly, the lowest and fastest SoA is recorded by the dwindling textile sector and expanding food and agro sector, respectively. Profitability, firm size, asset tangibility and non-debt tax shields are the key firm-specific parameters that impact the SoA towards the target.

Availing the rarely employed estimator ‘DPF’ and the objective of documenting diverse and non-uniform adjustment speeds across the Indian manufacturing sectors marks a novel addition to capital structure literature.

This paper aims to conduct bibliometric analysis on the studies dealing with capital structure’s speed of adjustment (SoA) and identify the prominent themes while suggesting future research directions in the area. The existing reviews broadly focus on the capital structure, which provides the scope for conducting a review on this sub-aspect of capital structure.

This study uses a three-stage process to conduct this review: identification of academic journals, selection and analysis of target papers. This study uses a combination of bibliometric tools and a system thinking approach to assess the current status of publications and emerging themes within the literature.

This study has found a progressive evolution of SoA in capital structure research from 1984 to 2021. Studies largely focus on implementing the dynamic models to analyse the impact of adjustment costs, dynamic economic conditions, corporate governance practices and other variables on the firms’ adjustment speed and financial decisions. The network analysis of citations, keywords and clusters gives further knowledge on the intellectual structure of the data.

This study is highly dependent on the papers available within the SCOPUS database. Studies not included herein are not part of this analysis, which may or may not bear an effect on the study’s findings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the application of systems engineering concept of “system thinking approach” to identify literature gap and suggest directions for forthcoming research is the first of its kind, thus adding a novel and multidisciplinary aspect to this study.

This paper seeks to analyze the family firm's capital structure decisions, focusing on the speed of adjustment (SOA) as well as on the effect of distance from the target capital structure on the SOA towards target short-term and long-term debt ratios in unlisted small and medium-sized family firms.

Methodologically, we use dynamic panel data estimators to estimate the effects of distance on the speeds of adjustment towards those targets. Data for the period 2006–2014 were collected for two research sub-samples: one sub-sample with 398 family firms; the other sub-sample contains 217 non-family firms.

The results show that the deviation from the target debt ratios impacts negatively on the speeds of adjustment towards target short-term and long-term debt ratios in unlisted family firms. These results suggest that family firms, deviating from target debt ratios, face deviation costs, i.e. insolvency costs, inferior to the adjustment costs, i.e. transaction costs. Therefore, family firms stay away from the target debt ratios for a long time than do non-family firms.

The research sample comprises a low number of family firms, therefore for future research we suggest increasing the size of the sample of family firms to get a deeper understanding of family firms' SOA towards capital structure. Additionally, we suggest the analysis of other potential determinants of the speed of adjustment towards target capital structure.

The results obtained suggest that the distance from the target short-term and long-term debt ratios can be avoided if these firms do not depend almost exclusively on internal finance to adjust towards target capital structure. Moreover, for policymakers, we suggest the creation/promotion of alternative external finance sources, allowing reduced transaction costs that contribute to a faster adjustment of small family firms towards target capital structure.

The most previous research focusing on capital structure decisions have focused on listed family firms. To fill this gap, this study examines the speed of adjustment towards target debt ratios in the context of unlisted family firms. Moreover, transaction costs are a function of debt maturity, therefore this study examines separately the speeds of adjustment towards target short-term and long-term debt ratios. This paper shows that the adjustment costs (i.e. transaction costs) could hold back family firms from rebalancing its capital structure.

This paper aims to test the empirical validity of the dynamic trade-off theory in its symmetric and asymmetric versions in explaining the capital structure of a panel of publicly listed US industrial firms over the period from 2013 to 2019. It analyzes the existence of an adjustment of leverage toward its target level and whether the speed of this adjustment is influenced by the debt measure, the model specification or/and the fact that the actual debt ratio is higher or lower than its long-term target level.

This paper uses a quantitative research methodology using panel data analysis under the partial adjustment model and the error correction model using the generalized moment method in first differences and in systems to explore the dynamic nature of firms’ capital structure behavior.

The results show that the effects of the conventional determinants of leverage are globally consistent with the trade-off theory predictions. The dynamic versions confirm that firms exhibit leverage-targeting behavior. Although this speed of adjustment (SOA) depends on the debt and model specifications, it is around 60% on average. The estimated SOA is higher for the market leverage measure compared to the book leverage. The asymmetric adjustment model reveals that firms are more sensitive to reducing leverage than increasing it when they are away from their target; overleveraged firms exhibit approximately 5% faster adjustment than underleveraged firms when book leverage is used.

The originality of this research paper lies in its development and test of an asymmetric model to allow the leverage adjustment speed to vary depending on whether the firm’s debt ratio is above or below its target level and the methodological approach as well as the different model specifications used and the insights generated through the application of rigorous econometric techniques.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate governance on the speed of adjustment (SOA) of capital structure in a developing market, Pakistan.

The study's sample includes 173 non-financial enterprises that were listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) between 2011 and 2020. The capital structure of the sample companies is determined by the ratio of total debt to total debt plus the market value of equity. Corporate governance is measured by board size, independence, CEO duality, management ownership, blockholders ownership and institutional ownership. A two-step difference GMM model was used to achieve the study's objectives.

Through applying the reduced form model approach, we discovered that corporate governance variables have a considerable negative impact on the speed of targeted leverage adjustment in sample firms. Additionally, to check the robustness of results, the two-stage technique used to examine this corporate governance-SOA relationship. Furthermore, we discovered that smaller enterprises modify their capital structure more than larger firms. Furthermore, corporations prioritize short-term debt adjustment above long-term debt adjustment.

The study's findings provide further information to company managers and investors on the relationship between corporate governance quality and the pace of adjustment towards targeted leverage across Pakistani enterprises. Furthermore, this study adds new information from growing countries such as Pakistan to the existing literature, which can help regulatory authorities and policymakers improve the quality of corporate governance. It is commonly known that improving the quality of corporate governance practices improves the firm's capital structure, which benefits all stakeholders.

In the context of developing economies, the academic literature lacks research that examine the impact of corporate governance on dynamic capital structure decisions. This study intends to fill this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of national culture on leverage speed of adjustment (SOA) across countries.

We use a partial adjustment model to estimate the impact of national culture (assessed using Hofstede's six cultural dimensions) on leverage SOA.

We find that culture does significantly affect the degree to which firms deviate from target debt level and the speed of adjustment (SOA) of leverage. High power distance, individualism and masculinity are associated with a slower SOA, while high long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence result in a faster SOA. Additionally, cultural characteristics affect leverage SOA differently when firms are underlevered versus overlevered and when firms have small versus large deviations from the target level of debt. We suggest that these effects can be explained by agency motives.

The results of the study are based on available information for firms from 53 countries.

This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to examine the impact of national cultural traits on leverage SOA in international settings.

This study aims to examine the impact of sustainable practices as proxied by the environmental, social and governance (ESG) score on capital structure. It also investigates whether ESG performance influences the speed of adjustment (SOA) to target leverage in firms.

The sample covers 116 non-financial firms listed on the main stock exchanges from five Southeast ASEAN countries (Bursa Malaysia, Indonesia Stock Exchange, Philippines Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange and Stock Exchange of Thailand) over the period 2012–2019. The study adopts the OLS regression and system-GMM estimators to perform the data analysis.

The authors show that the ESG score is positively associated with book leverage, suggesting that firms increase their debt capital through sustainable practices. However, they find that the ESG score is negatively associated with market leverage across our model estimations. The authors also reveal that environmental, social and governance pillar scores produce about 7.82%, 2.88% and 0.47% SOAs, respectively, higher than the SOA of the traditional SOA without the ESG factor. The aggregate ESG score has about 3.41% SOA higher than the baseline SOA without the ESG factor.

This study is of interest to investors, corporate firms and policymakers. The study demonstrates that the ESG score increases the firm’s SOA to target leverage. By disaggregating the ESG score, the authors establish that ESG pillar scores produce higher SOAs than the traditional SOA (without ESG), with the environmental score inducing the fastest SOA. Practically, the study implies that environmentally sustainable activities reduce environmental transaction costs, benefit firms through better information transparency and enhance a trustful climate between the firm and suppliers of capital. Therefore, this study demonstrates that firms do not only incur the cost of disseminating ESG information but also benefit from lower information asymmetry and a higher SOA with better tax-deductible advantages.

The findings have combined advantages for both stakeholders and directors who monitor and manage the firms’ resources to improve the quality of ESG practices and initiatives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to establish that sustainable practices induce higher debt capital. Secondly, unlike prior research focusing on the cost of capital, the authors examine whether ESG performance affects capital structure patterns. Thirdly, it documents the extent to which sustainable practices influence the SOA towards target leverage in firms. The authors contribute to corporate finance literature that firms reach faster to their target leverage in the presence of ESG performance. Theoretically, through the notion of the stakeholder proposition, the study establishes that the firms’ pursuance of stakeholder goals further enhances the prediction of the trade-off theory.

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 paper aims to theorize that if risk affects costs and benefits of capital structure adjustments, then it should affect the speed at which firms adjust their leverage toward the target. To investigate this hypothesis, the author empirically examines the role of firm-specific and macroeconomic risk on firms’ capital structure adjustments.

The author augments the standard reduced-form partial adjustment model of capital structure by incorporating firm-specific and macroeconomic risk. The two-step robust system-generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator is used to estimate the proposed model for a large panel of UK manufacturing firms. An unbalanced annual panel data set covering the period from 1981 to 2009 is utilized for empirical analysis.

The estimated adjustment speeds indicate that both firm-specific risk and macroeconomic risk significantly affect the speed at which firms adjust their capital structure toward the target. In particular, the author shows that firms adjust their leverage faster toward the target when firm-specific risk is relatively low. This is perhaps because firms face lower costs of adjustment when both firm-specific and macroeconomic risks are low. Overall, the paper provides evidence that different levels and different types of risk exert asymmetric effects on capital structure adjustments.

The results presented in this paper suggest that managers have to carefully consider both the overall state of the economy and the solvency of their own business activities when making their financing decisions. The results also help in explaining why firms time equity and debt markets.

The paper significantly adds to our understanding of asymmetries in adjustment speed across firms and over times. The paper can also be useful to understand why firms would not aggressively act to offset the effects of changes in the market value of equity or gains and losses in earnings.