Investment Decisions, Liquidity, and Institutional Activism: An International Study

The activism of institutional investors tends more and more toward the supervision and control of the behavior of the managers of big companies. In this article, we present a model based on the creation of an activism index that lets us evaluate such activism’s effect on the sensitivity of the inves...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Bobillo, Alfredo M. (Author) ; Rodriguez Sanz, Juan A. (Author) ; Tejerina Gaite, Fernando (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2009
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2009, Volume: 87, Issue: 1, Pages: 25-40
Further subjects:B investment-cash flow sensitivities
B institutional activism
B Financial constraints
B Firm Performance
B corporate investment
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The activism of institutional investors tends more and more toward the supervision and control of the behavior of the managers of big companies. In this article, we present a model based on the creation of an activism index that lets us evaluate such activism’s effect on the sensitivity of the investment policies of a company in the face of financial variables (such as cash flow and liquidity ratio) and market variables (ownership concentration and value creation index). To test our assertions, we analyze firm-level data for United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany, France, Denmark, and Spain during the period 1995–2004. Our results point to a significant reduction in the sensitivity of company investment decisions in the face of these variables, especially relative to intangible capital, as a result of the neutralizing effect of activism on the high agency costs of free cash flow and on the information asymmetries of the market.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-008-9798-9