Investigating the Relationship Between Liquidity, Credit Policies and Stock Returns with the Mediating Role of Competitiveness: Evidence from Companies Listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange

The current research was conducted to investigate the effect of liquidity on credit policies and the role of company competitiveness characteristics on the sensitivity of credit policies to the liquidity of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In addition, the effect of company credit policies on excess stock returns and the effect of firm competitiveness on the sensitivity of excess stock returns to credit policy were studied. For this purpose, after extracting the financial information of 142 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange for the period 2008-2020, the multiple regression model was used with the combined data model. The results of the regression models indicated that corporate credit policy was significantly affected by cash flows and the company's competitiveness in the market affected the sensitivity of credit policies to cash flows. In addition, regarding the effect of credit policies on the company's excess stock returns, the results indicated that credit policies had a significant impact on the company's excess stock returns. However, in terms of competitiveness, the impact of credit policies on excess stock returns was decreased.