Keywords
Citation
(2013), "2012 Awards for Excellence", Managerial Finance, Vol. 39 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/mf.2013.00939aaa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2012 Awards for Excellence
Article Type: 2012 Awards for Excellence From: Managerial Finance, Volume 39, Issue 1
The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for Managerial Finance
“Intra-industry conformity in dividend policy”
Tom Van CaneghemHogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium and Antwerp Management School, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium
Walter AertsUniversity of Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of intraindustry conformity tendencies on dividend policy among a large sample of US firms.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores mimetic influences on dividend policy. Consistent with prior institutional research, the paper measures mimetic pressures as institutional prevalence or the pervasiveness of a feature of dividend policy within a firm's relevant environment.
Findings – The results reveal a significantly positive relationship between the lagged density of firms in the industry that pay a dividend and the probability of a focal firm paying a dividend. Moreover, for firms paying a dividend, results indicate that higher similarity in dividend payout among firms in the same industry induces more conformity between a focal firm and average industry practice. Overall, results are consistent with imitation in dividend policy.
Research limitations/implications – The results support the view that future research on dividend policy should value social and behavioral factors more explicitly in order to arrive at a more overall and consistent explanation of firms' dividend policy. Moreover, the results also illustrate the relevance of alternative theories in explaining dividend policy.
Practical implications – The results show that intra-industry benchmarking of dividend policy plays a significant role in the USA.
Originality/value – This study documents the relevance of social imitation mechanisms behind dividend payout behavior and therefore adds to the current knowledge of the impact of behavioral processes on dividend policy.
Keywords Greece, Dividends, Organizational theory, United States of America
www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03074351111134718
This article originally appeared in Volume 37 Number 6, 2011, pp. 492-516 Managerial Finance
The following articles were selected for this year's Highly Commended Award
“Does merger structure matter?”
Grace Qing Hao and John S. Howe
This article originally appeared in Volume 37 Number 12, 2011, Managerial Finance
“Ex ante variables and carve-out parent returns”
Thomas H. Thompson
This article originally appeared in Volume 37 Number 10, 2011, Managerial Finance
“The effect of analyst coverage on accounting conservatism”
Jerry Sun and Guoping Liu
This article originally appeared in Volume 37 Number 1, 2011, Managerial Finance
Outstanding Reviewer
Dr Robert KunkelUniversity of Wisconsin Oshkosh, USA
Dr Peppi KennyWestern Illinois University, USA