The purpose of this study is to take a stock of what has been studied on working capital management (WCM) so far and ascertain the factors which are more likely to be impacted by poor WCM. Moreover, it aims to spell out the areas for further research on WCM so that the body of knowledge can be expanded. A systematic literature review of the research works on WCM has been performed using Google Scholar. Articles with citations of 50 and above as of June 05, 2018 are considered for the detailed citation based analysis. Further, classification of such articles has been done on the basis of common themes followed by a thorough content analysis. The citation based analysis suggests that there is a growing popularity of studies related to WCM in recent times. However, majority of the impactful studies are published in relatively lower category journals. This further intrigues us to explore the content of such studies. Based on the content, the studies are classified under five different themes. It is found that majority of the highly cited articles have examined the relation between the WCM and profitability of the firms. Moreover, repetitive uses of few proxies in such studies have also been identified. This finding most probably explains the reason behind so many highly cited articles getting published in relatively lower category journals. In view of this, this study tries to explore further scope of research on WCM and lists down potential research questions for the future researches. Firstly, it provides an idea about the most cited area of researches related to WCM and the recent growth of studies in this domain. Academicians can decide upon their future area of research based on the findings related to the proxies and outcome from these studies. Secondly, it shows the most popular avenue of publishing the articles related to WCM which will certainly motivate the researchers to pursue such study. It has been found from the analysis that majority of the impactful articles are published in lower category journals. Therefore, this study identifies the reason behind the same and lists down some innovative research questions to provide some future research directions. Thirdly, the finance managers can use this finding to identify the relevant consequences of poor WCM. Finally, it can serve as a reference point for all future ideas related to WCM. The paper classifies the present literature on WCM into five major themes and performs a content analysis of the same. This is essential as the content analysis highlights different proxies used as inputs which effectively drive efficient WCM. Moreover, the study also identifies the huge scope of future research in the domain of WCM. According to our limited knowledge, such extensive literature review on WCM is rare.
PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of the efficiency of working capital management (WCM) on the performance of a sample of Indian companies and explore how the nature of the firm's business influences the significance and direction of this impact.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study were collected for the period of 2012–2018 for 414 non-financial firms listed on the Bombay Stock exchange. Fixed-effect regression models were run by taking Tobin's Q and return on equity (ROE) as dependent variables, and net trade cycle (NTC) and its components as explanatory variables in the presence of liquidity, leverage, size, age and growth as control variables. Sample firms were segregated into manufacturing, trading and service groups, and regression models were used for all the groups to understand the effect of the nature of a firm's business.FindingsWCM efficiency has a significant impact on the performance of the sample firms. Non-financial Indian firms deliver better financial performance by maintaining lower NTC. Like NTC, its components also impact firm value and profitability. The results report that the significance of the relationship varies depending upon the nature of the firm's business.Originality/valueThe previous research studies had not used a sample of large number of Indian firms. Unlike previous studies, this study reports the influence of the nature of business on the relationship between WCM and firm performance. Further, this paper also examines how the individual components of working capital influence the performance of Indian firms.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to introduce working capital efficiency multiplier (WCEM) as a direct profitability measure of working capital management. The existing accounting measures in the literature establish an indirect approach to study the relationship between working capital efficiency and profitability of the firms. Design/methodology/approach Using the help of a set of companies from CMIE Prowess database, the study introduces WCEM as a direct profitability measure of working capital efficiency. Findings In this study, a new direct measure of working capital efficiency is introduced which is multiplicative in nature. WCEM is a product of three components, namely, WACC, ratio of the sum of trade receivables and inventories to trade payables and ratio of net working capital (NWC) to net sales. Practical implications The importance of direct measure like WCEM could be enormous in performance evaluation of a firm. It can be used as an indicator for choosing a suitable investment opportunity by an investor. This is due to the fact that the firm that is highly efficient in managing working capital is less exposed to liquidity risk. At the same time, the firm is less dependent on external financing. Therefore, such firms eventually create more value for their shareholders. Another indication that WCEM provides is to gauge the bargaining power of the firm and its competitive position in the market. Lower WCEM indicates higher bargaining power of a firm across the value chain, and its superior position relative to its competitors. Originality/value Most of the studies on WCM are of the empirical type and there is a complete dearth on theoretical framework. Researchers hereafter can consider WCEM as one of the financial performance variables in place of the existing measures such as return on asset (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), return on equity (ROE), gross operating income (GOI) and net operating income (NOI) and thereby can contribute new empirical insights through their research outcomes.
Purpose The purpose of the paper is to explore the impact of board size on the accounting returns and asset quality of Indian banks. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses ordinary least squares regression, robust regression and panel data methods for estimation, based on data collected for a sample of 29 Indian banks that are listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and form part of the NSE-500 index over a period of eight financial years 2009-2016. The data pertaining to the board size of the sample banks is collected from the annual reports of banks, whereas the data relating to return on assets (ROA) and ratio of the gross non-performing assets to total assets and control variables (bank age and bank size) is extracted from ACE Equity database. Findings This paper concludes that the size of the governing board has a positive impact on the accounting returns (measured through ROA) of the Indian banks. Further, board size is observed to be insignificant in determining the asset quality of Indian banks. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature and practitioners in a number of ways. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the impact of board size on the accounting returns and asset quality of Indian banks. The findings of the study contribute new theoretical insights to the body of knowledge on the influence of the size of the board, which may be useful for future researchers. Second, banks may enhance their financial performance by taking cognizance of the findings of this study. Finally, equity investors may make use of the findings of this article in deciding on whether to invest in a bank’s stock/lend to the bank based on board size of the bank.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of deviation from the target investment in working capital (WC) (measured by net trade cycle (NTC)) on the profitability (measured by gross operating income (GOI) and net operating income (NOI)) of the listed non-financial Indian firms. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on the data collected on NTC, GOI, NOI and other variables pertaining to 242 listed non-financial Indian firms that form part of the Bombay Stock exchange 500 Index for the period 2012–2017 (1,452 firm-year observations). Following Banos-Caballero et al. (2010), the authors use a firm fixed effect regression as the benchmark regression for finding out the determinants of NTC of the sample firms. Furthermore, this study explores the impact of deviation (above and below target) from the target investments in WC on the firm profitability (GOI and NOI) employing fixed effect regression. Findings The result of this study reveals that Indian firms maintain a target NTC and try to converge in case of any deviations to it. Furthermore, the profitability of the sample firms was observed to be influenced by the deviation from the target NTC irrespective of whether the deviation was above or below the target investment level in WC. Practical implications This study highlights the importance of good WC management for firms due to the negative impact of the over- and under-investments in WC and contributes to the existing body of knowledge by suggesting that managers should keep close to the target WC and not deviate from this in order to maximize the firms’ profitability. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge of the researchers, this is perhaps the first study to examine the impact of firms’ deviation from their target investment in WC on the profitability for non-financial firms listed and operating in India.
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