In today’s global marketplace, few consumers would bat an eye at a Central European retailer selling products manufactured in the US from raw materials purchased in Asia and Africa. Recently, Finnish connoisseurs of local craft beer were shocked to discover that even their local microbreweries were getting in on the act, albeit somewhat involuntarily. Strict regulations that govern the sale of alcoholic beverages in Finland essentially prevent the smallest breweries from distributing their products in the local market. Ironically, the only way for these small businesses to reach their local customers is through internationalization – setting up an online store across the border and serving the Finnish market from abroad. Drawing on the context of alcohol policy in Finland as an illustrative example, this study demonstrates how global markets can offer small businesses a way to counter unfavorable or discriminative local public policy. The study also illustrates the potential impact that businesses can have on policy by drawing public attention to its shortcomings, and offers implications for practitioners by highlighting the importance of thorough evaluation of policies for possible inconsistencies and outlining possible indicators that such inconsistencies may be present.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the variables of Current Ratio (CR), Return-on-Equity (ROE), Return-on-Assets (ROA), Debt-to-Equity Ratio (DER), and Firm Size (FS) on Dividend Policy (DP) in real estate and property companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period 2016-2019, looking at nine real estate companies in Indonesia. The research methodology uses an explanatory analysis approach and linear regression. Based on the eligibility and homogeneity of the data, the number of sample companies selected was nine companies. The company’s financial statement data derived from primary data obtained on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, such as current ratio (CR), return-on-equity (ROE), return-on-assets (ROA), debt-to-equity ratio (DER) and firm size and dividend policy variables. The data analysis procedure is first to transform financial data from the original ratio data into interval data and, then, transform it to ordinal data. Furthermore, the validity and reliability process are ignored because the data is primary. Finally, regression testing is part of the hypothesis testing stage. The results of this study showed that the CR, ROE, and firm size had no positive and significant effect on dividend policy. In contrast, DER and ROA have a positive and significant impact on dividend policy.

We provide one of the first investigation on the impact of the degree of total leverage to the dividend policy of bank. We use a large sample of US bank holding companies from 2000:Q1 to 2017:Q4 to shed light our research question. Our empirical analysis provides consistent evidence that banks with high degree of total leverage (i.e. banks with a relatively high fixed-to-variables costs) are less likely to pay dividends, and they spend a lower fraction of incomes to pay back shareholders, suggesting a higher conservatism in dividend policy of banks subject to high degree of total leverage. The evidence remains unchanged with alternative econometric approaches, alternative measures of dividend policy and degree of total leverage. We further document that this higher conservatism is strengthened for a sample of banks with low franchise value during the financial crises. Our result suggests that the conservatism in dividend policy of banks with high degree of total leverage seems to be related to the precautionary motives aimed at preserving corporate resources under financial distress. Our study contributes to the literature of cost structure and dividend policy by pointing out that the impacts of the degree of fixed-to-variable expenses to dividend policy are extended to the case of banks.

The relationship between corporate board attributes and dividend payout is already established yet mediating role of leverage in not been examined in Malaysian market. Therefore, this study aims to examine the mediating effect of financial leverage on the relationship between corporate board attributes and the dividend pay-out policy. A sample of 203 non-financial firms listed on the BURSA Malaysia between 2005 and 2018 were analysed using SmartPLS 3.0. The findings show that there is a partial mediating effect of financial leverage on the relationship between board members age, board diversity and dividend pay-out policy. Financial leverage also mediates the relationship between number of women on board, CEO-duality and dividend pay-out policy. However, financial leverage doesn’t mediate the relationship between board size and dividend pay-out policy. This study offers insights to policy-makers to develop a better corporate governance as well as a guidance to firms in the construction and implementation of their corporate governance policies in relation to financial leverage. This study also shed light on the influence of efficient corporate board attributes on dividend pay-out policy and financial leverage for firm growth. This study concludes that corporate board attributes impact capital structure and thus, firms may change its payout policy.