Financial Constraints, Stock Returns and R&D in Indian Stock Market

When the accessibility of external finance prohibits a firm from taking the optimum decision related to investment, that firm is called financially constrained. By applying the methodology of Kaplan and Zingales (1997) and Lamont et al. (2001), the current study has created a construct to gauge the level of financial constraints (FC) of the companies which emanate from quantitative information. The study explores whether FC factor is present in the Indian stock market and explores whether the security returns of those firms that are financially constrained move in tandem. The study also attempts to establish the association between security returns and R&D of financially constrained firms. On a sample of 63 R&D reporting companies of S&P BSE 500, traded over the period March 2008 to February 2019, the study used the Fama–French methodology, fixed effect model and the ordered logistic regression. The study finds that firms that are highly constrained earn more returns than low constrained firms. Second, the security returns of firms that are financially constrained move in tandem because these firms are affected by common shocks. This suggests that the FC factor exists in the Indian stock market. Finally, when R&D interacts with the level of FC, then this interaction effect has a negative effect on returns.