IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ijb/journl/v19y2020i2p131-149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficient Working Capital Management and the Cost of Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Amarjit Gill

    (Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, Canada)

  • Harvinder S. Mand

    (University College Dhuri, India)

  • Afshin Amiraslany

    (Camosun College, Victoria, Canada)

  • Neil Mathur

    (College of Management & Technology, Walden University, USA)

Abstract

Studies show that efficient working capital management (WCM) improves bond ratings and reduces the chance of bankruptcy. In the line with these studies, our study tests the relationship between efficient WCM and the cost of debt for micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in India. We employed a survey research design (a non-experimental research design) to collect data. The perceptions and judgments of the owners of MSME retail sales and manufacturing firms in India form the basis of our analysis and findings that efficient WCM helps firms reduce their cost of debt. Our findings further show that high levels of inventory turnover and cash management efficiency increase the firm’s ability to reduce the cost of debt by 12.30% and 4.60%, respectively. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between efficient WCM and the cost of debt. Indian retail sales and manufacturing firms should consider improving their inventory turnover and cash management efficiency to reduce the cost of debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Amarjit Gill & Harvinder S. Mand & Afshin Amiraslany & Neil Mathur, 2020. "Efficient Working Capital Management and the Cost of Debt," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 19(2), pages 131-149, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:ijb:journl:v:19:y:2020:i:2:p:131-149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.19-2/pdf/vol_19-2-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.19-2/abstract/01.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    3. Karin Jõeveer, 2013. "What do we know about the capital structure of small firms?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 479-501, August.
    4. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    5. Marc Deloof, 2003. "Does Working Capital Management Affect Profitability of Belgian Firms?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3‐4), pages 573-588, April.
    6. Marc Deloof, 2003. "Does Working Capital Management Affect Profitability of Belgian Firms?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3-4), pages 573-588.
    7. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar‐Datta & Kartik Raman, 2005. "Managerial Stock Ownership and the Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2333-2350, October.
    8. Fen Nee Chong, 2017. "Factors Affecting Credit Card Debt Payment in Malaysia," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 16(1), pages 21-30, June.
    9. Henry Kaiser, 1974. "An index of factorial simplicity," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 39(1), pages 31-36, March.
    10. Pan Theo Grosse-Ruyken & Stephan M. Wagner & Ruben Jonke, 2011. "What is the right cash conversion cycle for your supply chain?," International Journal of Services and Operations Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 13-29.
    11. Aktas, Nihat & Croci, Ettore & Petmezas, Dimitris, 2015. "Is working capital management value-enhancing? Evidence from firm performance and investments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 98-113.
    12. Nevins D. Baxter, 1967. "Leverage, Risk Of Ruin And The Cost Of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 22(3), pages 395-403, September.
    13. M. I. Nadiri, 1969. "The Determinants of Real Cash Balances in the U.S. Total Manufacturing Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 83(2), pages 173-196.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hari P. Adhikari & Marcin W. Krolikowski & James Malm & Nilesh B. Sah, 2021. "Working capital (mis)management – impact of executive age," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 727-761, March.
    2. Muhammad Azeem Naz & Rizwan Ali & Ramiz Ur Rehman & Collins G. Ntim, 2022. "Corporate governance, working capital management, and firm performance: Some new insights from agency theory," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1448-1461, July.
    3. Afrifa, Godfred & Tingbani, Ishmael, 2017. "Working Capital Management, Cash Flow and SMEs’ Performance," MPRA Paper 82894, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2017.
    4. Truong Trinh & Phan Thi Thuy Mai, 2016. "The Determinants of Corporate Liquidity in Real Estate Industry: Evidence from Vietnam," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(7), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Claudinê Jordão de Carvalho, 2015. "Conditioning Factors of Late Payment of Trade Credit," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 0(2), pages 72-91, August.
    6. Paweł Mielcarz & Dmytro Osiichuk & Paweł Wnuczak, 2018. "Working Capital Management through the Business Cycle: Evidence from the Corporate Sector in Poland," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 12(2), June.
    7. Nicholas Apergis, 2020. "Financial market imperfections and profitability: New evidence from a large panel of US SME firms," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 220-241, March.
    8. Chang, Chong-Chuo, 2018. "Cash conversion cycle and corporate performance: Global evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 568-581.
    9. Julia Koralun-Bereźnicka, 2014. "On the Relative Importance of Corporate Working Capital Determinants: Findings from the EU Countries," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 8(4), December.
    10. Carlo MIGLIARDO & Daniele SCHILIRÒ, 2016. "Mid Sized Italian Manufacturing Firms A Panel Data Analysis on Profitability," Journal of Advanced Studies in Finance, ASERS Publishing, vol. 7(2), pages 129-145.
    11. Valeriya Valer’evna Metel’skaya, 2021. "Correlation-and-regression analysis of the influence of macroeconomic factors on capital structure of Russian corporations under crisis conditions," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, December.
    12. Baños-Caballero, Sonia & García-Teruel, Pedro J. & Martínez-Solano, Pedro, 2014. "Working capital management, corporate performance, and financial constraints," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 332-338.
    13. Hassan, M. Kabir & Aysan, Ahmet Faruk & Kayani, Umar Nawaz & Choudhury, Tonmoy, 2023. "Working capital as a firm performance savior? Evidence from Scandinavian countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    14. Palombini, Nathalie Vicente Nakamura & Nakamura, Wilson Toshiro, 2012. "Fatores determinantes da gestão do capital de giro no mercado brasileiro," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 52(1), January.
    15. Eric Molay, 2013. "La Sous-Valorisation Des Actifs A Court Terme," Post-Print halshs-00853449, HAL.
    16. Richard Yeaw Chong Seow, 2023. "Comparative Financial Performance and Firm Valuation Analysis: A Malaysian Logistics Service Provider Case Study," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(7), pages 594-613, July.
    17. Sanjeev Kumar & K. S. Ranjani, 2018. "Dividend Behaviour of Indian-listed Manufacturing and Service Sector Firms," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 20(1), pages 179-193, February.
    18. Théo Nicolas, 2022. "Short-term financial constraints and SMEs’ investment decision: evidence from the working capital channel," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1885-1914, April.
    19. Amarjit Gill & Craig Wilson, 2021. "Bank connections and small business performance: Evidence from Canadian survey data," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5110-5134, October.
    20. María Angélica Arbeláez & Alejandro Becerra & Francisco Fernández & David Forero, 2019. "El sector comercio en Colombia y el crédito de proveedores," Informes de Investigación 17610, Fedesarrollo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Working capital management; inventory turnover; accounts receivable turnover; accounts payable turnover; cash conversion cycle; cash management efficiency; cost of debt;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ijb:journl:v:19:y:2020:i:2:p:131-149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Szu-Hsien Ho (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbfcutw.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.