The Impact of Corporate Governance on Cash Holdings in the Context of Oman

The Impact of Corporate Governance on Cash Holdings in the Context of Oman

This study investigates the impact of corporate governance (defined as companies’ ownership structure and board of directors’ characteristics) on cash holdings in the context of Oman. This study leverages a quantitative panel pooled regression on a dataset of Omani non-financial firms from 2009-2015. The findings of this study are generally in line with the predictions of Agency Theory and Mentoring and Busyness Hypotheses. The analysis demonstrates that a large stockholder size has a significant positive relationship with cash holding. Meanwhile, a positive (but insignificant) relationship was also found between institutional ownership and cash holding. Furthermore, state ownership was found to exhibit a significant negative relationship with cash holding. In terms of the board of directors’ traits, this study’s findings suggest that board sizes have a positive (but insignificant) relationship with cash holding. Furthermore, busy and independent boards were found to have a significant positive relationship with cash holding. The above findings suggest that boards with such traits are less effective in providing oversight on managers’ actions, which would then increase Omani non-financial firms’ cash holdings.