集團企業在不同企業生命週期之模仿行為是否影響其價值攸關性?
兼論不同財務政策之觀點

集團企業在台灣資本市場占有舉足輕重之重要地位，本文旨在探討集團企業內之分子公司之股利、投資及融資決策是否存在同集團內之模仿行為，並再進一步劃分所屬之企業生命週期階段，以觀察不同企業生命週期階段之模仿行為是否有不同之價值攸關性。本研究以2005年至2020年台灣集團企業之上市櫃公司為觀察對象，採用Ohlson於1995年所提出之價值攸關性模型，並以Dickinson(2011)的現金流量模式判斷企業所屬之生命週期階段。實證結果發現，不同的生命週期階段下，公司在衰退期的股利政策模仿行為會對股價有顯著正向的影響，顯示當公司處於企業生命週期晚期仍努力效仿集團平均之股利發放程度，投資人會給予正向之回饋；另也發現投資與融資決策於初始期之模仿行為有顯著正向之價值攸關性，亦即當公司處於初始階段，模仿同集團內之投資行為與融資模式，市場也會給予正面之價值判斷。綜上，可發現投資人會考量企業所屬之生命週期階段，並對於不同之營運政策之模仿行為給予不同的價值攸關性判斷。本文於敏感性分析考慮現金股利之股利政策及另參照Anthony and Ramesh (1992)之衡量方式劃分生命週期階段，並於其他分析處排除逆生長樣本、考量企業財務風險高低及衡量營運決策之金額重大性影響等，以增加研究結果之強度。希冀透過本文之實證結果，補足集團企業分子公司在不同企業生命週期下之模仿行為在文獻探討上之闕漏，以及集團企業分子公司之營運決策考量上更細微之思考方向。

關鍵字

集團企業；模仿行為；財務政策；價值攸關性；企業生命週期

並列摘要

Business groups play a pivotal role in the capital market in Taiwan. The objective of this study was to investigate whether imitative behavior exists in the dividend policies, investment decisions, and financing decisions among the subsidiaries of the same business group and then examine whether the value relevance of the imitative behavior varies in different stages of the firm life cycle. This study observed publicly traded firms in business groups in Taiwan from 2005 to 2020 using the value relevance model proposed by Ohlson in 1995 and determined the life cycle stage of firms using the cash flow patterns identified by Dickinson (2011). The empirical results of this study revealed that imitative behavior in the dividend policies of firms in the decline period exerts a significant and positive impact on stock price, thereby indicating that when firms late in their life cycle continue to imitate the average degree of dividend payouts in their business group, investors will offer them positive value relevance. Another finding was that imitative behavior in the investment decisions and financing decisions of firms in the introduction period has significant and positive value relevance, meaning that when firms in the introduction period imitate the investment behaviors and financing patterns of other subsidiaries in their business group, the market will also give positive value relevance. In conclusion, the results indicate that investors take the life cycle stage of firms into account and give varying value relevance judgments to imitative behavior in different operating policies. The sensitivity analysis in this study considered the dividend policies with cash dividends and the life cycle stages defined by Anthony and Ramesh (1992). To strengthen the results of the other analyses, samples with reverse growth were excluded, the financial risk of firms was considered, and the influence of the materiality of operating decisions was gauged. It is hoped that the empirical results of this study can fill in the gaps in literature regarding the imitative behavior of subsidiaries in different life cycle stages in business groups and provide subsidiaries with clearer directions for operating decisions.