IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v39y2014i2p207-225.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of product warranties on the capital structure of Australian firms

Author

Listed:
  • Bayan M Arqawi
  • William J Bertin
  • Laurie Prather

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Australian firms’ warranty policies on capital structure. The sample consists of 378 firms and 1727 firm-years for Australian public firms for the period 2006–2010. The results suggest that warranty policies impact on Australian firms’ capital structures. Firms offering product warranties to customers have less leverage than those firms that do not. Firms commit to honour warranty contracts, whether explicit or implicit, by selecting lower leverage levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Bayan M Arqawi & William J Bertin & Laurie Prather, 2014. "The impact of product warranties on the capital structure of Australian firms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(2), pages 207-225, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:39:y:2014:i:2:p:207-225
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896213496258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896213496258
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896213496258?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bradley, Michael & Jarrell, Gregg A & Kim, E Han, 1984. "On the Existence of an Optimal Capital Structure: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 857-878, July.
    2. Ric Battellino & Mark Chambers, 2006. "An overview of the Australian corporate bond market," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Developing corporate bond markets in Asia, volume 26, pages 45-55, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Leland, Hayne E, 1994. "Corporate Debt Value, Bond Covenants, and Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1213-1252, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Stephen A. Ross, 1977. "The Determination of Financial Structure: The Incentive-Signalling Approach," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(1), pages 23-40, Spring.
    6. Appelbaum, Elie, 1992. "Bankruptcy, Warranties and the Firm's Capital Structure," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 33(2), pages 399-412, May.
    7. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    8. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1991. "The Theory of Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 297-355, March.
    9. Maksimovic, Vojislav & Titman, Sheridan, 1991. "Financial Policy and Reputation for Product Quality," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 175-200.
    10. Titman, Sheridan, 1984. "The effect of capital structure on a firm's liquidation decision," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 137-151, March.
    11. Stewart C. Myers, 2001. "Capital Structure," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 81-102, Spring.
    12. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    13. Opler, Tim C & Titman, Sheridan, 1994. "Financial Distress and Corporate Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(3), pages 1015-1040, July.
    14. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    15. Gavin Cassar & Scott Holmes, 2003. "Capital structure and financing of SMEs: Australian evidence," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 43(2), pages 123-147.
    16. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Murray Z. Frank & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2009. "Capital Structure Decisions: Which Factors Are Reliably Important?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 1-37, March.
    18. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Kale, Jayant R. & Meneghetti, Costanza & Shahrur, Husayn, 2013. "Contracting with Nonfinancial Stakeholders and Corporate Capital Structure: The Case of Product Warranties," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(3), pages 699-727, June.
    20. Eugene F. Fama, 2002. "Testing Trade-Off and Pecking Order Predictions About Dividends and Debt," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 1-33, March.
    21. Wolfgang Bessler & Wolfgang Drobetz & Matthias C. Grüninger, 2011. "Information Asymmetry and Financing Decisions," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 11(1), pages 123-154, March.
    22. Deesomsak, Rataporn & Paudyal, Krishna & Pescetto, Gioia, 2004. "The determinants of capital structure: evidence from the Asia Pacific region," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4-5), pages 387-405.
    23. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    24. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    25. Mei Qiu & Bo La, 2010. "Firm Characteristics as Determinants of Capital Structures in Australia," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 277-287.
    26. D. E. Allen, 1991. "The Determinants of the Capital Structure of Listed Australian Companies: The Financial Manager's Perspective," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 16(2), pages 103-128, December.
    27. Titman, Sheridan & Wessels, Roberto, 1988. " The Determinants of Capital Structure Choice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(1), pages 1-19, March.
    28. DeAngelo, Harry & Masulis, Ronald W., 1980. "Optimal capital structure under corporate and personal taxation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-29, March.
    29. Altman, Edward I, 1984. "A Further Empirical Investigation of the Bankruptcy Cost Question," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1067-1089, September.
    30. Kraus, Alan & Litzenberger, Robert H, 1973. "A State-Preference Model of Optimal Financial Leverage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 911-922, September.
    31. Telser, L G, 1980. "A Theory of Self-enforcing Agreements," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 27-44, January.
    32. Warner, Jerold B., 1977. "Bankruptcy, absolute priority, and the pricing of risky debt claims," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 239-276, May.
    33. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    34. Garry Twite, 2001. "Capital Structure Choices and Taxes: Evidence from the Australian Dividend Imputation Tax System," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 2(4), pages 217-234, December.
    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. Jennifer Gippel & Tom Smith & Yushu Zhu, 2015. "Endogeneity in Accounting and Finance Research: Natural Experiments as a State-of-the-Art Solution," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 143-168, June.
    2. Kelvin Jui Keng Tan, 2017. "Why Do Overconfident REIT CEOs Issue More Debt? Mechanisms and Value Implications," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 53(3), pages 319-348, September.

    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. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    2. Mei Qiu & Bo La, 2010. "Firm Characteristics as Determinants of Capital Structures in Australia," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 277-287.
    3. Valeriya Valer’evna Metel’skaya, 2021. "Correlation-and-regression analysis of the influence of macroeconomic factors on capital structure of Russian corporations under crisis conditions," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, December.
    4. Rana El Bahsh & Ali Alattar & Aziz N. Yusuf, 2018. "Firm, Industry and Country Level Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 175-190.
    5. Antonczyk, Ron Christian & Salzmann, Astrid Juliane, 2014. "Overconfidence and optimism: The effect of national culture on capital structure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 132-151.
    6. Chen, Linda H. & Jiang, George J., 2001. "The financing behavior of Dutch firms," Research Report 01E54, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    7. Hang, Markus & Geyer-Klingeberg, Jerome & Rathgeber, Andreas W. & Stöckl, Stefan, 2018. "Measurement matters—A meta-study of the determinants of corporate capital structure," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 211-225.
    8. Shoaib Ali & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "Relationship between Credit Rating, Capital Structure and Earning Management Behaviour: Evidence from Pakistani Listed Firms," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:121, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    9. Maria Angelina Valadares Silva & António Melo Cerqueira & Elísio Brandão, 2017. "The Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Non-financial Listed German Companies," FEP Working Papers 588, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    10. Stavros H. Arvanitis & Irakleia S. Tzigkounaki & Theodoros V. Stamatopoulos & Eleftherios I. Thalassinos, 2012. "Dynamic Approach of Capital Structure of European Shipping Companies," 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. 5(3), pages 33-63, December.
    11. Temimi, Akram & Zeitun, Rami & Mimouni, Karim, 2016. "How does the tax status of a country impact capital structure? Evidence from the GCC region," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 71-89.
    12. Yildirim, Ramazan & Masih, Mansur & Bacha, Obiyathulla Ismath, 2018. "Determinants of capital structure: evidence from Shari'ah compliant and non-compliant firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 198-219.
    13. Viet Anh Dang, 2013. "Testing capital structure theories using error correction models: evidence from the UK, France and Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 171-190, January.
    14. Viet Anh Dang, 2011. "Testing Capital Structure Theories Using Error Correction Models: Evidence From The Uk, France And Germany," Post-Print hal-00732527, HAL.
    15. Mário Santos & António Moreira & Elisabete Vieira, 2014. "Ownership concentration, contestability, family firms, and capital structure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1063-1107, November.
    16. repec:dgr:rugsom:01e54 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Miguel Acedo-Ramírez & Juan Ayala-Calvo & José Rodríguez-Osés, 2013. "Capital structure of small companies in the Spanish footwear sector: relevant factors," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 155-173, June.
    18. Zhang, Dongyang & Liu, Deqiang, 2017. "Determinants of the capital structure of Chinese non-listed enterprises: Is TFP efficient?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 179-202.
    19. Schauten, M.B.J. & Spronk, J., 2006. "Optimal Capital Structure: Reflections on Economic and Other Values," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2006-074-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    20. Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Girma, Sourafel & Shah, M. Eskandar & Williams, Jonathan, 2014. "Dynamic capital structure and political patronage: The case of Malaysia," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 117-128.
    21. Alessandra Amendola & Marinella Boccia & Gianluca Mele & Luca Sensini, 2020. "Tax Policy and Firms' Financial Choices: Empirical Evidence from the Dominican Republic," MIC 2020: The 20th Management International Conference,, University of Primorska Press.

    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:sae:ausman:v:39:y:2014:i:2:p:207-225. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.