Firm Characteristics and Cash Holdings Speed of Adjustment: Evidence from Vietnam

The study investigates the existence of an optimal level of cash and the firm characteristics influencing the decision to hold cash, and the adjusting speed of the cash holdings to the target level. It highlights the heterogeneity of cash adjustment speed in the Vietnam market. The research employs the 417 samples of Vietnamese non – financial listed firms in the period of 2010 to 2019. The study uses the Pool OLS model, Fixed effect model (FEM), Random effect model (REM), and GMM model. According to the research findings, there is an optimal amount of cash at which the firm’s value is maximized in Vietnamese listed firms, and the majority of the firms in the sample retain cash over the target level. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that firms actively modify their cash holdings to the optimal level with an adjustment speed of less than one owing to adjustment cost constraints. This speed varies between groupings of enterprises with different characteristics, underlining the heterogeneity of the adjustment speed even more. Small deviation firms adjust more rapidly than large deviation firms. Large free cash flow (FCF) firms adjust more readily than small FCF firms, and fiscal deficit firms modify more rapidly than firms with a financial surplus.