Role of dividend policy determinants in multinational and domestic companies, evidence from Iran

In this paper, along with introducing determinants affecting decision making relevant to dividend policy, the impact of these factors on companies which merely sell their products domestically is compared with their impact on companies which, in addition to domestic sales, have exports as well. In this regard, 712 companies were tested during the years 2008 to 2013.
In this study, the ratio of dividend per share to earnings per share (DPS/EPS) was used as a dividend policy index; for expressing the significant difference in dividend policy of multinational and domestic companies, t and “Mann Whitney” tests were applied. For stating the determinants in dividend policy, the variables systematic risk, profitability, free cash flow, sales growth, firm size and leverage were used. For the analysis and interpretation of data, a multivariate linear regression model was implemented as panel data. Research findings demonstrate the existence of significant difference in dividend policy of multinational and domestic companies such that the multinational companies shared more profit compared with their domestic counterparts. Whereas only leverage and profitability were among the determinants in the domestic companies, for multinational companies, in addition to these variables, the variables of free cash flows and sales growth were also among significant factors. Furthermore, the impact of Beta variables and the firm size were not found significant on dividend policy of domestic and multinational companies.

Keywords: dividend policy, long term debt, multinational companies (MCs), domestic companies (DCs).
JEL Classification: G32, G35, H63, F23