Sentence Correction

Despite recent increases in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash, to set dividends more conservatively than they were.

I went with this:
to set dividends more conservatively than they have been

but the answer is this:
to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends

Why?

First of All, Please post complete question.

Now,

1) Despite recent increases in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash, to set dividends more conservatively than they were.




2) Despite recent increases in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash, to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends


Ignore the modifier " Despite recent increases in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs,"


a) several industry analysts expect automakers....to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends


b) several industry analysts expect automakers....to set dividends more conservatively than they were.

Sentence (a) conveys the meaning clearly but in sentence (b) we don't know automakers are expected to be conservative in what?


What we need is: to set dividends more conservatively than they were or have been in "setting dividends".