{"title":"Profitability and working capital management: a meta-study in macroeconomic and institutional conditions","authors":"Jacek Jaworski, Leszek Czerwonka","doi":"10.1007/s40622-023-00372-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Working capital management (WCM) concerns decisions on the levels and turnover of the inventories, receivables, cash and current liabilities of a company. Consequently, WCM affects the profitability of an enterprise. This paper aims to determine the relationship between profitability and WCM, characterised by components of the company’s operating cycle. The research is based on meta-analysis and meta-regression methods that allow for the combination and analysis of the outcomes of individual empirical studies using statistical methods. Our final research sample consists of 43 scientific papers from 2003 to 2018. These studies covered almost 62,000 enterprises in 35 countries from 1992 to 2017. Our results indicate that there is a common, negative relationship between profitability and the cash conversion cycle (CCC). This relationship is conspicuous in various countries and in different economic contexts. A negative, statistically significant relationship was also detected between profitability and average collection period (ACP), the accounts payable period (APP) and inventory turnover cycle (ITC) as well. We also identified moderators of the diagnosed dependencies on the grounds of macroeconomic and institutional factors. The richer the economy, the weaker a negative impact of CCC on profitability. The higher the protection of creditors and debtors, the weaker the negative relationship between profitability and ITC. The opposite is applicable to inflation and ACP and APP, unemployment and CCC, ACP and APP, the availability of credit and APP and the degree of capital market development and CCC and ACP. The aforementioned macroeconomic and institutional factors cause the negative relationship between particular components of the operating cycle and profitability to deepen even further. Our research contributes to the existing knowledge by confirming that the negative relationship between profitability and all components of the operating cycle is dominant in the global economy. It also indicates that there are macroeconomic and institutional moderators of the strength and direction of these relationships.</p>","PeriodicalId":43923,"journal":{"name":"Decision","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Decision","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40622-023-00372-x","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Working capital management (WCM) concerns decisions on the levels and turnover of the inventories, receivables, cash and current liabilities of a company. Consequently, WCM affects the profitability of an enterprise. This paper aims to determine the relationship between profitability and WCM, characterised by components of the company’s operating cycle. The research is based on meta-analysis and meta-regression methods that allow for the combination and analysis of the outcomes of individual empirical studies using statistical methods. Our final research sample consists of 43 scientific papers from 2003 to 2018. These studies covered almost 62,000 enterprises in 35 countries from 1992 to 2017. Our results indicate that there is a common, negative relationship between profitability and the cash conversion cycle (CCC). This relationship is conspicuous in various countries and in different economic contexts. A negative, statistically significant relationship was also detected between profitability and average collection period (ACP), the accounts payable period (APP) and inventory turnover cycle (ITC) as well. We also identified moderators of the diagnosed dependencies on the grounds of macroeconomic and institutional factors. The richer the economy, the weaker a negative impact of CCC on profitability. The higher the protection of creditors and debtors, the weaker the negative relationship between profitability and ITC. The opposite is applicable to inflation and ACP and APP, unemployment and CCC, ACP and APP, the availability of credit and APP and the degree of capital market development and CCC and ACP. The aforementioned macroeconomic and institutional factors cause the negative relationship between particular components of the operating cycle and profitability to deepen even further. Our research contributes to the existing knowledge by confirming that the negative relationship between profitability and all components of the operating cycle is dominant in the global economy. It also indicates that there are macroeconomic and institutional moderators of the strength and direction of these relationships.
期刊介绍:
The aim of the Journal, Decision, is to publish qualitative, quantitative, survey-based, simulation-based research articles at the national and sub-national levels. While there is no stated regional focus of the journal, we are more interested in examining if and how individuals, firms and governments in emerging economies may make decisions differently. Published for the management scholars, business executives and managers, the Journal aims to advance the management research by publishing empirically and theoretically grounded articles in management decision making process. The Editors aim to provide an efficient and high-quality review process to the authors.
The Journal accepts submissions in several formats such as original research papers, case studies, review articles and book reviews (book reviews are only by invitation).
The Journal welcomes research-based, original and insightful articles on organizational, individual, socio-economic-political, environmental decision making with relevance to theory and practice of business. It also focusses on the managerial decision-making challenges in private, public, private-public partnership and non-profit organizations. The Journal also encourages case studies that provide a rich description of the business or societal contexts in managerial decision-making process including areas – but not limited to – conflict over natural resources, product innovation and copyright laws, legislative or policy change, socio-technical embedding of financial markets, particularly in developing economy, an ethnographic understanding of relations at a workplace, or social network in marketing management, etc.
Research topics covered in the Journal include (but not limited to):
Finance and Accounting
Organizational Theory and Behavior
Decision Science
Public Policy-Economic Insights
Operation Management
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Information Technology and Systems Management
Optimization and Modelling
Supply Chain Management
Data Analytics
Marketing Management
Human Resource Management