The Impact of Financial Restrictions and Institutional Investors on the Sensitivity of Cash Holdings to Asymmetric Operating Cash Flows

Cash management policies have always been one of the most important financial policies in the process of managing companies. Considering the importance of cash management in companies and accounting standards, the presentation of the cash flow statement is considered one of the basic financial statements. Cash flows from operating activities indicate that the main and continuous operations and activities that generate the operating income of the commercial unit have led to sufficient cash flows to repay loans, maintain the operating capacity of the commercial unit, pay dividends, and make new investments. Various research has been conducted regarding the relationship between the sensitivity of cash holdings to cash flows. The results of some studies are also focused on the asymmetry of cash flows. However, investigating the effects of corporate governance mechanisms on the sensitivity of cash holdings under the condition of cash flow asymmetry is an issue that has not been investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the sensitivity of cash holdings to asymmetric operational cash flows, considering the financial constraints and external supervision of institutional owners in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange.

The statistical population consists of all the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the Iranian calendar years 1393 to 1400 (2014 to 2022). The sample consists of 104 companies. To check the stationarity of the research variables, Levin, Lin, and Chu's unit root test was used, and to test the research hypotheses, the combined data regression method was utilized. Moreover, for the evaluation of the goodness of the proposed regression models, some necessary pretests were implemented.

The findings show that companies with higher operating cash flows hold more cash. Financial constraints and institutional ownership do not have a significant effect on the sensitivity of cash holdings to asymmetric operating cash flows. Results from control variables also indicate that the Tobin ratio and the size of the company have a positive and significant effect on cash holdings. However, no evidence was found of a positive influence of the debt ratio on the amount of cash holdings.

Findings indicate that the sensitivity of cash holdings to asymmetric operating cash flows is higher in companies with greater operating cash flows. This result may be due to the pursuit of future profitable opportunities or to reduce liquidity risk in the inflationary, unstable, and dynamic business environment of Iran. Other results show that financial restrictions and institutional ownership, contrary to expectations and existing literature, do not have a significant effect on the sensitivity of cash holdings to asymmetric operating cash flows. This lack of effect may be attributed to the presence of state ownership. The results underscore the need for further research in the future.