Corporate capital structure and firm performance: evidence from Bangladesh

Article

Rashid, Afzalur and Hoque, Ariful. 2011. "Corporate capital structure and firm performance: evidence from Bangladesh." Academy of Taiwan Business Management Review. 7 (2), pp. 59-72.
Article Title

Corporate capital structure and firm performance: evidence from Bangladesh

ERA Journal ID211566
40538
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsRashid, Afzalur (Author) and Hoque, Ariful (Author)
Journal TitleAcademy of Taiwan Business Management Review
Academy of Taiwan Business Management Revie
Journal Citation7 (2), pp. 59-72
Number of Pages14
Year2011
PublisherTaiwan Institute of Business Administration
Place of PublicationTaipei, Taiwan
ISSN1813-0534
Web Address (URL)http://www.jtiba.com/
Abstract

This study examines whether corporate capital structure reduces agency costs and increases firm economic performance in Bangladesh, an emerging economy. By using two measures of agency cost, expense ratio and asset utilization ratio (or asset-turnover ratio), as well as two measures of performance, return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q, analyses are carried out from an observation of 94 non-financial listed firms at Dhaka Stock Exchange. This study reveals that capital structure in the form of debt and equity neither reduces the agency cost nor improves the firms' economic performance. The implication of this study is that corporate governance mechanisms that work well in some developed economies may not work well in some emerging economies. Many firms, who are in fact very poor in terms of performance, may have employed debt to exercise control, but debt cannot reduce the dysfunctional behaviour of firm. This study contributes to the literature by providing a new avenue of knowledge on corporate capital structure in an emerging economy.

Keywordscapital structure, performance
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020350799. Strategy, management and organisational behaviour not elsewhere classified
Public Notes

Copyright Taiwan Institute of Business Administration.

Byline AffiliationsSchool of Accounting, Economics and Finance
University of South Australia
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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