本研究在於探討企業生命週期對公司股利政策所造成的影響。過去研究對於企業生命週期的衡量上已發展出多種方法，然而多數方法與公司規模、年齡等具有較高的連結，使得衡量的生命週期多為單調演進的過程。本文以 Dickinson(2011)發展出的現金流量代理變數作為衡量企業生命週期的指標，其將企業生命週期明確的區分為五個階段，並以此掌握企業生命週期可能反轉的特性。透過現金流量代理變數對生命週期的界定，我們除了對企業生命週期做靜態的分析外，更能夠掌握生命週期在轉變時對股利變化影響之動態研究，其中對於企業生命週期反轉與股利政策的探討更是本文的創新之處。本文發現公司在成熟期階段較傾向發放股利，此結果與使用其他生命週期指標之股利政策研究一致。本文進一步延伸生命週期與股利政策研究至股利變化分析。實證結果顯示，由成長期進入成熟期的公司，股利會有顯著的成長。當公司由成熟期階段反轉至成長期時，股利的成長則顯著趨緩。整體來說，本文利用更能捕捉公司發展之進程生命週期指標，對不同股利政策做分析，發現進一步支持企業生命週期與股利政策的實證結果。;This paper focuses on the relationship between firm life cycle and dividend policy. Prior studies developed different approaches to try to capture firm life cycle, but most of these methods manifested a monotone relation between life cycle and age. Utilizing cash flow patterns, Dickinson (2011) developed a firm life cycle proxy splits firm life cycle into five stages and more importantly, captures potential reversals in firm life cycle evolution. Therefore, I analyze not only the static relations between firm life cycle and dividend policy but also the dynamic relations, especially the effect of dividend changes when a firm reverses its life cycle into growth stage from mature. First I demonstrate that mature firms are more likely to pay dividend which is consistent with previous studies using other life cycle proxies. I further extend the existing literature to the analyses of dividend changes. The empirical results suggest that when growth firms grow to mature stage, dividend would significantly increase. When mature firms revert to growth stage, the dividend increases slow down. In sum, the findings provide further support to the life cycle theory of the corporate dividend policy by examining various dividend policies in detail with the help from the life cycle proxy capturing realistic progress of the firm.
