borrowing or investing funds. Second, fluctuations of the prevailing interest rate could
affect investors’ assessments of a firm’s intrinsic value resulting from their perceived
investment risks (Keown et al., 2005), thus possibly affecting firm value and
stockholder wealth. The interplay between interest rate movements and stockholder
wealth deserves empirical exploration. Third, while the hospitality industry appears to
increasingly rely on corporate bonds since the commencement of the century (Kim and
Gu, 2004), relatively less research has focused on how interest rate is related to bond
issuance. The level of the prevailing interest rate not only affects the selling price of a
bond, but also determines a bond investor’s yield to maturity (YTM). Kim and Gu’s
study only examined financial determinants of corporate bond ratings of hotel and
casino firms, creating a need for future research on topics such as corporate bond
issuance decisions.
2.2 Leasing behavior
Leasing requires minimum upfront costs to acquire assets and provides tax advantages
for some firms (Upneja and Dalbor, 1999). Firms in financial distress may find leasing a
viable alternative to debt financing when acquiring equipment. In their study of the
leasing behavior of restaurant firms, Upneja and Dalbor (1999) showed that both beforeand
after-financing tax rates are significantly and positively related to the use of capital
leases, and both relate significantly and negatively to the use of operating leases. Firms
in good financial standing are less likely to use operating leases. In other words, an
increase in the use of operating leases may signal deterioration in a firm’s financial
health. The authors further indicated that firms that are closer to bankruptcy will
generally choose operating rather than capital leases. Koh and Jang (2009) examined the
determinants of using operating leases in the hotel industry and showed that hotels with
fewer internal funds and/or higher debt ratios are more likely to use them. They also
showed that the use of operating leases decreases as firm size increases but only up to a
certain level, after which use increases with firm size. In contrast to the restaurant
industry, less financially distressed hotel firms are more likely to use operating leases as
financing instruments. The authors argued that using operating leases could serve as a
management strategy, rather than a purely alternative financing instrument. The mixed
conclusions reached by the researchers of the two studies on the use of operating leases
versus capital leases seem to relate to the type of industries under investigation.
However, empirical comparisons of leasing behaviors between different segments of the
hospitality industry within the same economic situation could help further illuminate
hospitality firms’ leasing decision-making.
A number of investors are entering the sales and leaseback transactions (SLBT)
market that provides alternative sources of funding for hotel firms. These investors,
particularly private companies, have been using SLBT as means of acquiring or
growing their portfolios (Whittaker, 2008). Meanwhile, hotel operators obtain cheaper
funding because of the increased supply of lease funds available in the market and
might therefore appear financially healthy from a debt-equity ratio perspective. An
operating lease is considered to be a type of off-balance sheet financing, a term that is
becoming better known since the Enron collapse in late 2001. The level of operating
lease use may affect how creditors and investors use available information to evaluate
a firm, its financial condition, and its growth and earnings potential. This could be
another topic for further investigation.