Corporate Leverage and Product Differentiation Strategy*

Generic Strategy and Capital Structure: the Impacts of Product Differentiation on Financial Leverage

This study examines the relationship between product differentiation and financial leverage. It argues that product differentiation is associated with investments in firm-specific assets that have lower liquidation value than general assets. Debt investors need to charge a higher interest rate to cover the risk of default, making the firm resort to equity financing and resulting in low financia...

Leverage and corporate performance: International evidence

Article history: Received 5 December 2011 Received in revised form 10 July 2012 Accepted 10 July 2012 Available online 20 July 2012 This paper analyzes the effect of financial leverage on corporate operating performance and how this effect varies across countries. Results for 10,375 firms in 39 countries indicate that the performance of firms with greater leverage is significantly reduced compa...

CEO Traits, Corporate Performance, and Financial Leverage

This study uses a random effect panel model to examine the impact of CEO traits and compensation on earnings performance and financial leverage for the 729 listed US companies in ExecuComp over the period of 2001– 2010. The results indicate that CEO cash compensation has a negative relationship with earnings performance, but that it has a positive impact on financial leverage. Moreover, for CEO...

Financial leverage changes associated with corporate mergers

We empirically examine whether firms increase financial leverage following mergers. Firms could increase financial leverage either because of an increase in debt capacity or because of unused debt capacity from pre-merger years. We find that financial leverage of combined firms increases significantly following mergers. A cross-sectional analysis shows that the change in financial leverage arou...

8 Real Determinants of Corporate Leverage