Impact of investment growth opportunities on the relationship between product market competition and stock dividends for companies listed on the Egyptian exchange

Research Objective and Methodology: The research aims to examine the relationship between product market competition (PMC) and stock dividends (SD). In addition, measure the impact of investment growth opportunities (IGO) on that relationship. The ratio of the market to book value of total assets is used to measure IGO. It also depends on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure PMC and the dividend per share to measure SD. To test the research hypotheses, using a sample of 66 non-financial companies listed on the Egyptian stock exchange during the period from 2014 to 2022, with 594 observations.
Research Results: The results showed a significant positive effect of PMC on the dividend per share. Where the researcher noted an increase in dividend per share for highly competitive companies of 41.9% compared to other companies, while there is a significant negative effect of PMC on dividend per share with IGO. SD is lower in highly competitive companies that enjoy great investment opportunities, reflecting the heavy reliance on internal resources to finance profitable investment opportunities and avoid investment lack, especially with the most competitive companies.
Research Contributions: The contributions are based on examining the relationship between SD and PMC, especially with the scarcity of previous studies in Egyptian market. addition, focus on investment growth opportunities as a moderating variable of that relationship. It contributes to bridging the research gap related to the important role of IGO as a major determinant of dividend. It also provides practical evidence of high investment sensitivity for the competitive companies.