Financial condition, working capital policy and profitability: evidence from Indian companies.

Autor: Dash, Sakti Ranjan, Sethi, Maheswar, Swain, Rabindra Kumar
Zdroj: Journal of Indian Business Research; 2023, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p318-355, 38p
Abstrakt: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of working capital management (WCM) on profitability under different financial conditions (constraint/unconstraint) and WCM policy (aggressive/conservative). Furthermore, the study investigates the existence of optimal working capital levels under different financial conditions and WCM policy. Design/methodology/approach: Two-step system generalized method of moments and fixed effect models are used to analyze the data collected from Prowess database from 2011 to 2020 for a sample of 1,104 Indian manufacturing companies. Findings: The study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship between working capital and profitability in all financial conditions and working capital policy. This finding advocates the existence of an optimal level of working capital that equates the costs and benefits of holding working capital to maximize the companies' profitability. However, holding working capital beyond the optimal level negatively affects profitability. Companies under financial constraints with aggressive working capital policies have the lowest optimal cash conversion cycle (CCC). Furthermore, the relationship of working capital with profitability and the optimal CCC varies owing to firm age and industry group. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper that incorporates the impact of working capital on firm's performance from both financial constraint (unconstraint) and aggressive (conservative) working capital policy perspectives in the Indian context. Furthermore, this study also contributes in terms of reflecting the effect of firm age and industry in determining the optimum CCC of the firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index