Performance of Slovenian Listed Firms during COVID-19 Out-break

Abstract

This research aims to estimate the determinants of firm performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the sample of Slovenian non-financial listed firms operating in the period 2017 – 2021 is used. Firm performance is expressed with market-based as well as accounting-based performance measures, including Tobin's Q, ROA, and ROE, while potential determinants encompass several firm-oriented variables. These are the firm size, liquidity expressed with the current ratio, leverage, tangibility, sales growth, age of the firm as well as COVID-19 dummy variable. The results of dynamic panel analysis disclose that liquidity, leverage, sales growth, and COVID-19 dummy are statistically significant in explaining firm performance. Specifically, liquidity and leverage are found to be significant in explaining Tobin's q, sales growth is a statistically significant determinant of both ROA and ROE while the latter is also negatively impacted by leverage and the COVID-19 dummy.