Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of dividend policy in an emerging and developing market. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a quantitative approach using 191 Sri Lankan firms and 1,337 firm-year observations as the sample. The authors apply a Binary Logistic Regression model to uncover the determinants of the propensity to pay dividends, and a Fixed Effect Panel Regression to investigate the determinants of dividend payout. Findings The authors identify past dividend decision, earnings, investment opportunities, profitability, free cash flow (FCF), corporate governance, state ownership, firm size and industry influence as the key determinants of propensity to pay dividends. In addition past dividends, investment opportunities, profitability and dividend premium are identified as the determinants of dividend payout. Moreover, there is a feedback between dividend yield and profitability in one lag and between dividend yield and dividend premium in two lags, as short-term relationships. Hence, past dividend decision or payout, profitability and investment opportunities are a common set of determinants with implications for both propensity to pay dividends and its payout. The findings support theories of dividends such as signaling, outcome, catering, life cycle, FCF and pecking order. Practical implications The findings are important for investors, managers and future research. Investors should focus on the determinants identified by our study when making investment decisions whereas managers should practice the same when formulating appropriate dividend policies for their firms. Future research should rely on propensity to pay dividends and its payout simultaneously to promote a theoretical consensus on the dividend determinant puzzle. Originality/value This is the first study that investigates determinants of propensity to pay dividends and dividend payout along with short-term relationships in a single study.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the dividend policy determinants of Sri Lankan firms and why they pay dividends. Design/methodology/approach The study uses several quantitative approaches to investigate dividend determinants using market (secondary) data of 190 Sri Lankan firms and 1,330 firm-year observations. Dividend determinants are also identified using survey (primary) data from 141 of the 190 firms. Triangulation is then used to facilitate validation of the data through cross-verification from two data sources. Findings Analysis of the market data reveals that firm size, industry impact, corporate governance, free cash flow, earnings, past dividends, profitability, investment opportunities, net working capital, concentrated ownership structure and investor preference represent the most important dividend determinants. Survey data confirm these findings. The evidence supports the pecking order, signaling, free cash flow, catering and outcome theories using both secondary and primary data and the bird-in-the-hand theory using survey data. Research limitations/implications The findings are useful not only for corporate decision makers in establishing an appropriate dividend policy but also for shareholders in making investment decisions. Because the current study is limited to Sri Lanka, future researchers should study the same phenomenon in other countries using the triangulation approach. Originality/value This study provides a hybrid approach to dividend policy research by using both primary and secondary data in a single study. It is the first dividend study in Sri Lanka to use a triangulation approach.

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Financial Distress is a problem spread all over the world from the history. Even though there are ample research studies on this area, the empirical results on this area provide inconclusive results. The majority of the research works focused only on the bankruptcy and not on the financial distress. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to develop a better financial distress prediction model for Sri Lankan companies using the Z-score model. Multivariate Discriminate Analysis (MDA) was used as the analytical technique and simultaneous estimation method has used to enter the variables in the analysis. The study has examined four accounting ratios for 134 distressed and non-distressed companies from 2002 to 2011. The study has found that the derived model which consists of four accounting ratios

This study investigates the determinant factors of ex-post credit risk considering non-performing loans (NPLs) as proxy variable in Sri Lanka Contribution/ OriginalityThis study is one of very few studies which have investigated the causes of non-performing loans in the commercial banking industry of Sri Lanka.