IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tei/journl/v12y2019i1p39-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financially Constrained Firms: The Impact Of Managerial Optimism And Corporate Investment - The Case Of Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Dimitrios Maditinos

    (International Hellenic University, Department of Management Science and Technology, Kavala, Greece)

  • Alexandra Tsinani

    (International Hellenic University, Department of Management Science and Technology, Kavala, Greece)

  • Željko Šević

    (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Department of Finance Engineering, Faculty of Business Management, Lithuania)

  • Jelena Stankevičienė

    (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Department of Finance Engineering, Faculty of Business Management, Lithuania)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of managerial optimism on corporate investment regarding the financially constrained firms for the case of Greece. Taking as a fact that managers principally are optimistic and often overconfident an effort is made to highlight the effect of this psychological bias on managerial investment decision – making. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology is based on the approach that the investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms with optimistic managers is more pronounced in financially constrained (equity dependent) firms. Data is gathered from the stock market as well as from balance sheets and cash flow statements for all firms of the sample. Focus is placed on every firm's annual report in order to gather all necessary data for the methodology. Additionally, stock prices are classified on an everyday basis for all firms for the years from 2007 to 2012. Fixed effects panel regression of capital expenditures on several control variables is used among all stocks of the sample's 184 non-financial firms with the highest financial constraints in order to examine the impact of the behaviour of optimistic managers to firm financial constraints. Findings: Constrained firms exhibit a lower profitability, a lower pay-out ratio, a lower excess value, and are more likely to be financially distressed. The empirical findings clearly show that the investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms with optimistic managers is more pronounced in financially constrained (equity dependent) firms. The difference between unconstrained firms and constrained firms is that on one hand unconstrained firms, with more cash flow, tend to use debt in order to increase both their investment as well as their dividend payment, and on the other hand, constrained firms have to choose whether to apportion their cash flow to investment or dividend payments. Research limitations/implications: In this study the regressions that were run were for the whole of the 6-year period of 2007 to 2012. However, testing each year individually could provide researchers with the ability to compare different results, to find out whether there was anything special statistically for each specific year and maybe test the period after the year 2010 when the Greek crisis had started to come up on the horizon. Additionally, supplementary research is proposed regarding the impact of managerial optimism in order to examine its impact on the whole range of decisions that managers have to make. Originality/value: As part of the literature which links psychological and economic variables to test behavioural finance models, this paper is the first to investigate managerial optimism and its impact on corporate investment in Greece. The importance of this study lie in finding how managerial decision making works within a firm, how biased a manager is when he has to make extremely important decisions regarding the firm's future performance and success, and how managerial optimism affects corporate investment decision-making especially in financially constrained firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Dimitrios Maditinos & Alexandra Tsinani & Željko Šević & Jelena Stankevičienė, 2019. "Financially Constrained Firms: The Impact Of Managerial Optimism And Corporate Investment - The Case Of Greece," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 12(1), pages 39-49, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:tei:journl:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:39-49
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ijbesar.teiemt.gr/docs/volume12_issue1/12_01_05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://ijbesar.teiemt.gr/volume12_issue1.php
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 20-43, July.
    2. Beber, Alessandro & Fabbri, Daniela, 2012. "Who times the foreign exchange market? Corporate speculation and CEO characteristics," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 1065-1087.
    3. Enrichetta Ravina & Paola Sapienza, 2010. "What Do Independent Directors Know? Evidence from Their Trading," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Glaser, Markus & Müller, Sebastian, 2010. "Is the diversification discount caused by the book value bias of debt?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2307-2317, October.
    5. Sean Cleary, 1999. "The Relationship between Firm Investment and Financial Status," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 673-692, April.
    6. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2007. "Financial Constraints, Asset Tangibility, and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1429-1460, 2007 12.
    7. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    8. Lin, Yueh-hsiang & Hu, Shing-yang & Chen, Ming-shen, 2008. "Testing pecking order prediction from the viewpoint of managerial optimism: Some empirical evidence from Taiwan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 160-181, January.
    9. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:479-506 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    12. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:5:p:2061-2092 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Hyun-Han Shin & René M. Stulz, 1998. "Are Internal capital Markets Efficient?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(2), pages 531-552.
    14. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    15. Belén Villalonga, 2004. "Does Diversification Cause the "Diversification Discount"?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 33(2), Summer.
    16. Steven N. Kaplan & Mark M. Klebanov & Morten Sorensen, 2012. "Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 973-1007, June.
    17. Markus Glaser & Martin Weber, 2007. "Overconfidence and trading volume," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, Springer;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 32(1), pages 1-36, June.
    18. Hackbarth, Dirk, 2008. "Managerial Traits and Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 843-881, December.
    19. Arturo Bris & Yrjö Koskinen & Mattias Nilsson, 2006. "The Real Effects of the Euro: Evidence from Corporate Investments," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-37.
    20. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    21. Roll, Richard, 1986. "The Hubris Hypothesis of Corporate Takeovers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 197-216, April.
    22. Lang, Larry H P & Stulz, Rene M, 1994. "Tobin's q, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1248-1280, December.
    23. John A. Doukas & Dimitris Petmezas, 2007. "Acquisitions, Overconfident Managers and Self‐attribution Bias," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 13(3), pages 531-577, June.
    24. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1986. "Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 251-278, October.
    25. Adam, Tim R. & Burg, Valentin & Scheinert, Tobias & Streitz, Daniel, 2014. "Managerial Optimism and Debt Contract Design: The Case of Syndicated Loans," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 475, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    26. Huang, Jiekun & Kisgen, Darren J., 2013. "Gender and corporate finance: Are male executives overconfident relative to female executives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 822-839.
    27. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steph Subanidja & Mercurius Broto Legowo, 2019. "Financial Constraints Help the ERP System Success Improving the SMEs’ Performance: An Empirical Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 294-304.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dimitrios Maditinos & Alexandra Tsinani & Zeljko Sevic & Jelena Stankeviciene, 2019. "Financially Constrained Firms: The Impact of Managerial Optimism and Diversification on Firms’ Excess Value: The Case of Greece," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 3-15.
    2. Xin Qu & Majella Percy & Fang Hu & Jenny Stewart, 2022. "Can CEO equity‐based compensation limit investment‐related agency problems?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2579-2614, June.
    3. Stein, Jeremy C., 2003. "Agency, information and corporate investment," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 111-165, Elsevier.
    4. Choi, Paul Moon Sub & Chung, Chune Young & Liu, Chang, 2018. "Self-attribution of overconfident CEOs and asymmetric investment-cash flow sensitivity," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-14.
    5. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Hu, Conghui & Liu, Yu-Jane, 2015. "Valuing diversity: CEOs' career experiences and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 11-31.
    7. Dimitrios I. Maditinos & Alexandra V. Tsinani & Željko Šević, 2015. "Managerial optimism and the impact of cash flow sensitivity on corporate investment: The case of Greece," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 8(2), pages 35-54, October.
    8. Ismail, Ahmad & Mavis, Christos P., 2022. "A new method for measuring CEO overconfidence: Evidence from acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Andreou, Panayiotis C. & Doukas, John A. & Koursaros, Demetris & Louca, Christodoulos, 2019. "Valuation effects of overconfident CEOs on corporate diversification and refocusing decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 182-204.
    10. Otto, Clemens A., 2014. "CEO optimism and incentive compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 366-404.
    11. Pellicani, Aline Damasceno & Kalatzis, Aquiles Elie Guimarães, 2019. "Ownership structure, overinvestment and underinvestment: Evidence from Brazil," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 475-482.
    12. Guo, Jie (Michael) & Li, Yichen & Wang, Changyun & Xing, Xiaofei, 2020. "The role of investment bankers in M&As: New evidence on Acquirers’ financial conditions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    13. Drobetz, Wolfgang & von Meyerinck, Felix & Oesch, David & Schmid, Markus, 2014. "Board Industry Experience, Firm Value, and Investment Behavior," Working Papers on Finance 1401, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance, revised Dec 2015.
    14. Yilei Zhang, 2009. "Are Debt and Incentive Compensation Substitutes in Controlling the Free Cash Flow Agency Problem?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(3), pages 507-541, September.
    15. Yang, Junhong & Guariglia, Alessandra & Guo, Jie (Michael), 2019. "To what extent does corporate liquidity affect M&A decisions, method of payment and performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 128-152.
    16. Alfonsina Iona, 2019. "Modelling the Relation between Managers, Shadow Cost of External Finance and Corporate Investment," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-10, November.
    17. Malcolm Athaide & H. K. Pradhan, 0. "A model of credit constraint for MSMEs in India," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-19.
    18. Alexandridis, George & Chen, Zhong & Zeng, Yeqin, 2021. "Financial hedging and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Jacobsen, Stacey, 2014. "The death of the deal: Are withdrawn acquisition deals informative of CEO quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 54-83.
    20. Maurizio Rocca & Neha Neha & Tiziana Rocca, 2020. "Female management, overconfidence and debt maturity: European evidence," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(3), pages 713-747, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Managerial optimism; investment; financial constraints;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tei:journl:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:39-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kostas Stergidis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dbikagr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.