The role of controlling shareholders on the constrains of R&D financing

The purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating effect of controlling shareholders on the relationship between cash holdings and R&D of a firm. The sample of data for this empirical study covered period of six years, from 2012 to 2017. 155 technology-based companies are selected, in which 92 companies are chosen from Bursa Malaysia, with total observations of 460 and 62 companies are chosen from Singapore Exchange, with total observations of 315. The full model of this research is built based on two theories, which are agency theory and resource-based view (RBV) theory. Moreover, the relationship between cash holdings and R&D of a firm indicating different result between Malaysia firms and Singapore firms. Besides that, relationship between controlling shareholders and R&D of a firm also show different result between Malaysia firms and Singapore firms. Lastly, the empirical findings indicate that controlling shareholders do not moderate the relationship between cash holdings and R&D of a firm, neither positively nor negatively