Analyzing the moderating effects of corporate governance and profitability on the relationship between financial leverage and growth using a switching regression model

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student, accounting department. Islamic Azad University, Yazd branch, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Islamic Azad University, Yazd branch, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Financial Management, Islamic Azad University, Yazd Branch, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: The main purpose of this article is to analyze the moderating effects of corporate governance on the relationship between the financial leverage of the company and economic growth through switching regression. Capital is one of the most important production factors in any business, and entrepreneurs and producers need capital to produce their products or provide their services. Financing is very important for companies because their survival depends on financing. In recent years, the issue of financing projects and economic enterprises has become one of the main challenges for the development of the private sector and, as a result, an obstacle to the acceleration of economic growth. This has added to the problems of production units and companies, especially in the current situation when economic enterprises are faced with recession and most banks face the problem of providing liquidity. Indeed, the issue of financing companies is a basic prerequisite for increasing national production. Without equipping economic enterprises with sufficient resources, one cannot expect an increase in the national production.
Methodology: This research examines the moderating role of corporate governance in the relationship between financial leverage and the growth of companies. The selected statistical population consisted of the companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange active in five major industries including chemical products, pharmaceutical materials and products, automobiles, basic metals and cement, and lime and plaster groups. For the purpose of sampling, the systematic elimination method was used. By applying the necessary restrictions, 102 qualified companies were selected, and statistical analyses were performed on them. Also, the data required for the research in the theoretical foundations section were extracted by the library method and the databases related to the stock exchange, including the new Revard software and the official website of the Stock Exchange Organization in the period of 2011-2013. By using Evioz 9 and Stata 14 software programs, the non-linear effect of corporate governance on the financial leverage and growth of the company was investigated first, and then the threshold level of the statistical sample was examined by forming a panel regression model.
Results and Discussion: Descriptive results showed that, for ROA and acc variables, intra-group changes are much more than inter-group changes. Therefore, the growth index of companies as well as the acc regressor have more changes over time and have little changes between periods. As for corporate governance (cg) variables, this is the opposite. In other words, corporate governance regressors have had more changes in stages and less change during the studied period. Descriptive statistics of the data for the financial leverage variable (lev) show that this regressor has had almost the same inter-group and intra-group changes during the study period. Therefore, the effect of financial leverage on the growth of companies in a corporate governance regime is negative and significant. This negative relationship arises because the company improves its corporate governance practices and, thus, the management eventually considers debt as a monitoring tool.
Conclusion: Based on the results, with the increase in the level of corporate governance of companies and the rotation of the corporate governance regime from a low-level regime to a high-level regime of governance, the negative effect of financial leverage on the growth of companies is reduced. Regarding this result, it can be argued that an increase in the leverage of companies with a strong corporate governance structure sends a positive message to lenders about the quality of the business unit. This, in turn, reduces the cost of using debts and increases the level of leverage. Also, the comparison of the results of the threshold model with the linear model estimated by the fixed effects method in the relevant tables shows that, according to the acceptance of the hypothesis of the threshold effects of corporate governance in the relationship between financial leverage and the growth of companies, the negative effect of financial leverage on the growth of companies can be at low levels of governance. In this regard, the leverage itself can be used as an effective corporate governance mechanism that regulates managers and forces them to avoid wasting the company's cash flow and direct it towards valuable projects. Therefore, higher leverage reduces the need for a strong corporate governance structure. In general, the results of the research suggest that companies with high governance in Tehran Stock Exchange benefit from the financial leverage better than their lower counterparts.

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References

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The Journal of Economic Policy
Volume 14, Issue 28
March 2023
Pages 285-313

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