Financial equilibrium: An in-depth look at working capital management and productivity in manufacturing SMEs in Ecuador

The manufacturing industry is one of the main axes of the economy, which has been affected by the global economic crisis, so the competent authorities must address this problem by efficiently using the administration and management of resources. This research aimed to analyze working capital as a function of productivity in manufacturing SMEs in Zone 3 of Ecuador, one of the most important sectors worldwide. It has a quantitative approach, through the statements of financial situation presented in the SUPERCIAS of 112 SMEs in the years 2017 to 2020 that have remained constant over time, to carry out this process, data obtained from secondary sources were recorded by means of an observation sheet. Descriptive statistics, Spearman's Rho correlation, multivariate statistics, and principal component analysis, were used to perform a multiple linear regression model to detect the best year for predictions. The results showed that both small and medium-sized companies presented positive values with respect to the average working capital and productivity. On the other hand, for the year 2020 the two variables were affected due to the pandemic in this sector reducing their values, working capital and productivity have an average positive correlation; it was also determined that the year 2018 is the best year for predictions, being that the variables studied are financial indicators that contribute to the decision making in the companies.