Cash Holding Policy and Competitive Strategy

[Purpose] We investigated the relation between competitive strategy and cash holding process, focusing on the level of cash holdings, the speed of adjustment in cash, and the direction of SOA. [Methodology] From 2002 to 2017, empirical analysis was conducted targeting the domestic capital market. Here, the research methodology of Bentley et al.(2013) was used for the competitive strategy, and the method of Opler et al.(1999) was used for the cash holding policy. [Findings] we find that competitive strategy is associated with cash holding process including cash holding levels, speed of adjustment in cash, and the direction of SOA. Firms pursuing differentiation strategy is negatively associated with cash holding level, which indicates the strategy partially affect the cash holding level. Secondly, we find that average firms’ SOA is 37.7% and the SOA of firms with competitive is 43.8.%. Lastly, we find that asymmetry speed of adjustment in cash depending on the direction of deviation from the target as we expected. [Implications] This study contributes to expanding the perception of the field of management accounting research in that it empirically analyzes the strategy execution premium as the relationship between the competitive strategy measurable by corporate financial information and the cash holding policy, which is one of the operational processes.