Financial Flexibility - A Synthesis of Literature Review

Financial flexibility has engrossed considerable interest of researcher over the last three decades. It is considered as most critical element of capital structure decision. The objectives of this research are to synthesize the existing literature on financial flexibility and find the literature gap. First, we show the relationship between theories and financial flexibility from existing literature and discuss the relationship between cash holding, leverage, payout policy and impact on firm performance during and after financial crisis. Second, we discuss how off balance sheet instruments impact on leverage and financial flexibility. We also discuss the relationship between corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and financial flexibility. We evidence from existing literature that financial flexibility has positive relationship on investment and firm performance during and after financial crisis. In addition to that we conclude that the off balance sheet instrument financing is increasing abnormally, and it has effect on debt policy and financial flexibility that yet to be studied verified. We further document from the current literature that corporate social responsibility and corporate governance may also widen financial flexibility in the US market but no significant researcher addressed these issues in the developed markets. While using Altman’s Z-Score for measuring financial flexibility it is unable to accommodate off balance sheet items therefore market demands for adjusted Z-Score.