IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/agribz/v36y2020i4p770-791.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of working capital management on firms' profitability: evidence from cheese‐producing companies

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Fernández‐López
  • David Rodeiro‐Pazos
  • Lucía Rey‐Ares

Abstract

Working capital management (WCM) is a key question for firms' profitability, especially for small and medium enterprises faced with severe financial restrictions and whose current assets account for a significant part of their investments. These features describe most firms in the livestock industry. However, studies on WCM related to these firms are scarce. Using a sample of 444 Spanish cheese‐manufacturing companies during the period 2010–2016 and applying a dynamic panel data methodology, this paper analyzes the extent to which the main components defining the WCM policies—days sales outstanding, days inventory outstanding (DIO), days payable outstanding (DPO), and cash conversion cycle (CCC)—affect firms' profitability. Empirical evidence reveals a negative effect of DIO and the CCC on firms' profitability, suggesting the need to reduce the level of inventory of cheese‐manufacturing companies. Similarly, the empirical evidence confirms a negative relationship between DPO and firms' profitability. [EconLit Citations: C23, G31, L25, L79, Q12].

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Fernández‐López & David Rodeiro‐Pazos & Lucía Rey‐Ares, 2020. "Effects of working capital management on firms' profitability: evidence from cheese‐producing companies," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 770-791, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:36:y:2020:i:4:p:770-791
    DOI: 10.1002/agr.21666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21666
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/agr.21666?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gamze VURAL & Ahmet G khan S KMEN & Emin H seyin CETENAK, 2012. "Affects of Working Capital Management on Firm's Performance: Evidence from Turkey," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 2(4), pages 488-495.
    2. John Cable & Dennis Mueller, 2008. "Testing for Persistence of Profits' Differences Across Firms," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 201-228.
    3. Stefan Hirsch & Monika Hartmann, 2014. "Persistence of firm-level profitability in the European dairy processing industry," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(S1), pages 53-63, November.
    4. Punam Prasad & Sivasankaran Narayanasamy & Samit Paul & Subir Chattopadhyay & Palanisamy Saravanan, 2019. "Review Of Literature On Working Capital Management And Future Research Agenda," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 827-861, July.
    5. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    6. Cronqvist, Henrik & Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger, 2013. "CEO contract design: How do strong principals do it?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 659-674.
    7. Stefan Hirsch & Adelina Gschwandtner, 2013. "Profit persistence in the food industry: evidence from five European countries," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 40(5), pages 741-759, December.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Greg Filbeck & Thomas M. Krueger, 2005. "An Analysis of Working Capital Management Results Across Industries," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 20(2), pages 11-20.
    11. Fabio R. Chaddad & Mario P. Mondelli, 2013. "Sources of Firm Performance Differences in the US Food Economy," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 382-404, June.
    12. Alberto de Miguel & Julio Pindado & Chabela de la Torre, 2004. "Ownership structure and firm value: new evidence from Spain," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(12), pages 1199-1207, December.
    13. KONTOGEORGOS, Achilleas & PENDARAKI, Konstantina & CHATZITHEODORIDIS, Fotios, 2017. "Economic Crisis And Firms’ Performance: Empirical Evidence For The Greek Cheese Industry," Revista Galega de Economía, University of Santiago de Compostela. Faculty of Economics and Business., vol. 26(1), pages 73-82.
    14. Sara Schumacher & Michael Boland, 2005. "The effects of industry and firm resources on profitability in the food economy," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 97-108.
    15. Santiago Carbó‐Valverde & Francisco Rodríguez‐Fernández & Gregory F. Udell, 2016. "Trade Credit, the Financial Crisis, and SME Access to Finance," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 113-143, February.
    16. Samuel Tabot ENOW & Pradeep BRIJLAL, 2014. "The effect of working capital management on profitability: The case of Small Medium and Micro Enterprises in South Africa," The Journal of Accounting and Management, Danubius University of Galati, issue 2, pages 7-15, August.
    17. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    18. Stefan Hirsch, 2018. "Successful In The Long Run: A Meta†Regression Analysis Of Persistent Firm Profits," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 23-49, February.
    19. Panos Kouvelis & Wenhui Zhao, 2012. "Financing the Newsvendor: Supplier vs. Bank, and the Structure of Optimal Trade Credit Contracts," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(3), pages 566-580, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Iotti, Mattia, 2023. "Financial evaluation and credit access of agricultural firms," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 25(2), October.
    2. Joseph Antwi Baafi & Eric Effah Sarkodie & John Kwame Duodu & Seyram Pearl Kumah, 2024. "Why Should We Pay Attention to Working Capital Management? A Case of Ghana," Businesses, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Sorin Gabriel Anton & Anca Elena Afloarei Nucu, 2020. "The Impact of Working Capital Management on Firm Profitability: Empirical Evidence from the Polish Listed Firms," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Raza Ali & Tursoy Turgut & Shaikh Erum & Shaikh Ahsan-ul-Haque, 2024. "Investigating the Symmetric Effects of Working Capital on Profitability in Turkish Banking: An ARDL Empirical Analysis," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 34(1), pages 74-97, March.
    5. Bilgehan TEKİN & Yusuf GÖR, 2022. "Cash conversion cycle and its relationship with profitability as a cash management tool in companies: An application on companies trading in Borsa Istanbul," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(3(632), A), pages 113-130, Autumn.
    6. Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho, 2021. "Bibliometric Analysis for Working Capital: Identifying Gaps, Co-Authorships and Insights from a Literature Survey," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Ahmed Mohamed Habib & Nahia Mourad, 2022. "Analyzing the Efficiency of Working Capital Management: a New Approach Based on DEA-Malmquist Technology," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-20, September.
    8. Mattia Iotti, 2023. "Financial evaluation and credit access of agricultural firms," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 25(2), pages 31-67.
    9. Hossain Mohammad Reyad & Mohd Ashhari Zariyawati & Tze San Ong & Haslinah Muhamad, 2022. "The Impact of Macroeconomic Risk Factors, the Adoption of Financial Derivatives on Working Capital Management, and Firm Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, November.
    10. Giuseppe Bonazzi & Paolo Camanzi & Giovanni Ferri & Elisa Manghi & Mattia Iotti, 2021. "Economic Sustainability of Pig Slaughtering Firms in the Production Chain of Denomination of Origin Hams in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.

    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. Luca Sensini & Maria Vazquez, 2023. "Effects of Working Capital Management on SME Profitability: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(4), pages 1-85, February.
    2. Stefan Hirsch, 2018. "Successful In The Long Run: A Meta†Regression Analysis Of Persistent Firm Profits," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 23-49, February.
    3. David Rodeiro‐Pazos & Sara Fernández‐López & Raúl Rios‐Rodríguez & Adrián Dios‐Vicente, 2023. "Working capital management and firm sales growth: Evidence from fish processing industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1254-1278, October.
    4. Stefan Hirsch & Jan Schiefer, 2016. "What Causes Firm Profitability Variation in the EU Food Industry? A Redux of Classical Approaches of Variance Decomposition," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 79-92, January.
    5. Zouaghi, Ferdaous & Hirsch, Stefan & Garcia, Mercedes Sanchez, 2016. "What Drives Firm Profitability? A Multilevel Approach To The Spanish Agri-Food Sector," 56th Annual Conference, Bonn, Germany, September 28-30, 2016 244762, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    6. Silvia Andr?s Gonz?lez-Moralejo & Mildrey Garc?a Cort?s & Juan Francisco L?pez Miquel, 2021. "Are small and medium-size food industry firms profitable? Explaining differences in their performance: The case of the Valencia Region," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 23(1), pages 1-24.
    7. Stefan Hirsch & David Lanter & Robert Finger, 2021. "Profitability and profit persistence in EU food retailing: Differences between top competitors and fringe firms," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 235-263, April.
    8. Bellouma Meryem, 2011. "Governance Mechanisms and Buyer Supplier Relationship:Static and Dynamic Panel Data Evidence from Tunisian Exporting SMEs," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 1(3), pages 88-98, September.
    9. Veronika Kajurova & Dagmar Linnertova, 2018. "The Impact of Loose Monetary Policy on the Competitiveness of Czech Firms," ACTA VSFS, University of Finance and Administration, vol. 12(1), pages 43-73.
    10. Chang, Chong-Chuo, 2018. "Cash conversion cycle and corporate performance: Global evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 568-581.
    11. Maximilian Koppenberg & Stefan Hirsch, 2022. "Output market power and firm characteristics in dairy processing: Evidence from three EU countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(2), pages 490-517, June.
    12. 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.
    13. Lanter, David & Hirsch, Stefan & Finger, Robert, 2018. "Profitability and Competition in EU Food Retailing," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274202, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Tuba DERYA-BASKAN & Eda BALIKÇIOĞLU, 2018. "Firma Bileşenlerinin Halka Açık Perakende Firmalarında Kurumlar Vergisine Etkisi," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 26(37).
    15. Lupu Dan, 2013. "Financial Micromanagement For Bse Firms," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 5, pages 5-9, October.
    16. Kebewar, Mazen & Shah, Syed Muhammad Noaman Ahmed, 2013. "The effect of debt on corporate profitability: Evidence from French service sector," EconStor Preprints 73556, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    17. Godfred Adjapong Afrifa & Ahmad Alshehabi & Ishmael Tingbani & Hussein Halabi, 2021. "Abnormal inventory and performance in manufacturing companies: evidence from the trade credit channel," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 581-617, February.
    18. Mohammad A. A. Zaid & Sara T. F. Abuhijleh & María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez, 2020. "Ownership structure, stakeholder engagement, and corporate social responsibility policies: The moderating effect of board independence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1344-1360, May.
    19. Abudu Braimah & Yinping Mu & Isaac Quaye & Alhassan Abubakar Ibrahim, 2021. "Working Capital Management and SMEs Profitability in Emerging Economies: The Ghanaian Case," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, February.
    20. Ding, Sai & Guariglia, Alessandra & Knight, John, 2013. "Investment and financing constraints in China: Does working capital management make a difference?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1490-1507.

    More about this item

    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:wly:agribz:v:36:y:2020:i:4:p:770-791. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6297 .

    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.