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Consumer goods firms often tie up inventory and accounts receivable resources, creating cost and liquidity issues. Dynamic working capital management (DWCM) can mitigate these concerns and enhance operational profitability. The study investigates DWCM's impact on operational efficiency (OE).

The empirical estimation uses pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), random effect and system generalized method moments (GMM) regression analysis of consumer goods firms in Scandinavia from 2005 to 2022 to present the results.

The findings indicate that DWCM has an inverse relationship with operating cost, while positively impacting operating profit. The final outcome demonstrates that DWCM enhances OE. Furthermore, the working capital ratio (WCR) consistently exceeds the cash conversion cycle (CCC) in all models, indicating that prudent management of cash in accounts receivable, inventory and accounts payable leads to higher cost savings and superior performance.

The results suggest that organizations that prioritize the management of the absolute cash committed to inventory, receivables and payables as much as the CCC experience improved OE.

This paper adds to the literature on how DWCM affects OE in the consumer goods sector. It also highlights the impact of time management and cash management in WCM on OE. Additionally, it analyzes how DWCM variables affect operating costs and profits, shedding light on their efficiency impact.

From 2006 to 2016, Brazilian agricultural cooperatives exhibited a sharp increase in sales. Since the operational cycle of these organizations demands a positive net working capital that is usually funded by debt, the authors examine whether this rise in sales was obtained at the cost of the short-term financial sustainability. As a matter of comparison, the authors conduct the same analysis for Brazilian agricultural public traded companies.

The authors employ the dynamic analysis of working capital method to measure the short-term financial sustainability of these organizations.

The authors find that the expansion of net working capital caused by the growth of the revenues of the sampled cooperatives was mostly funded by short-term debt, which rose by 31% in annualized terms. The authors also document that around 60% of these firms displayed a current capital structure that can be considered risky in terms of indebtedness, and that the majority of firms exhibited a non-sustainable growth in the period, what contrasts with the performance presented by Brazilian agricultural publicly traded companies, since only 16% of the firms from this group have shown a non-sustainable growth. This distinction seems to be explained by the lower capacity of agricultural cooperatives to provide resources from their operations.

The authors investigate the short-term financial sustainability of a unique dataset of 65 Brazilian agricultural cooperatives and provide insight for researchers analyzing the dual nature of these firms.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop strategies for financial working capital management and to present previous literature on financial working capital management and its measures.

Qualitative comparative analysis is used to formulate the strategies, and the variables in the analysis have been selected from previous literature. Empirical data consists of 91 companies listed in the Helsinki Stock Exchange during 2008-2012.

The results indicate 11 possible strategies for financial working capital management which all aim at increasing financial working capital. There are suitable strategies for all companies independent from their profitability, capital intensity or working capital requirements.

The presented strategies have been created theoretically and have not been tested in companies, which could be done in future research.

This study has three contributions. First, previous literature on financial working capital management is reviewed. Second, a novel measure for financial working capital is developed. Third, strategies for financial working capital management are presented.

This study seeks to analyse the determinants of working capital of manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly the effect of the probability of financial distress on working capital.

Using panel data models, the authors analyse a sample of 3994 manufacturing SMEs for the period 2011–2017.

The results suggest that SMEs pursue conservative working capital management to avoid the failure to fulfil the commitments with creditors. Also, the positive impact of the probability of financial distress on SME working capital suggests that SMEs exposed to a higher probability of bankruptcy invest more in working capital to avoid the risk of default and financing imbalance.

The novelty of this study is to extend the consequences of aggressive or conservative working capital management by analysing the probability of financial distress on working capital.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between a firm’s net trade cycle, its size and liquidity.

The relation between the firm’s net trade cycle and its liquidity is examined using Generalized Method of Moment Dynamic Panel-Data System Estimation with Robust Standard Errors for a sample of 5,802 US non-financial firms listed in the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, NASDAQ Stock Market and Over the Counter Market for the period 1990-2004 (87,030 firm-year observations). The analysis is applied at the levels of the full sample and divisions of the sample by size.

The results show negative and significant relationship between net trade cycle, as a comprehensive measure of efficiency in working capital management, and liquidity for small firms.

Most of the existing literature focusses on the large firm’s experience of working capital management. Small firms generally face liquidity problems and have limited access to external capital, and studies on their efficiency in working capital management are scant. Thus the present study is useful in understanding the relation between the firm’s net trade cycle and liquidity of small firms.

In this work, the authors address a gap in the literature on the contribution of dynamic capabilities and internal contingencies to performance in a highly competitive environment.

The authors use data from the Premier Football (soccer) League in Portugal over ten years. This league works as a laboratorial setting and enables the authors to identify the influences of the variables in the study.

The authors find evidence that human capital is decisive to a team's performance. This study’s findings question the role of the alignment between the different levels of the organization: strategic, tactical and operational.

With this work, the authors stress the importance (1) of using alternative scenarios in management research and (2) of the way that human and social capitals and managerial cognition and internal contingencies influence the development of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities, especially in highly regulated industries such has sports clubs.

This work provides evidence on the importance of strategic coherence at different structural levels of the organization. Furthermore, it highlights the need to secure the right resources at the right time.

The authors propose a setting to run the study: a crystal market and an original measure of performance that reflect the relative achievement of market potential.

The paper aims to investigate the dynamic relationship between working capital management and firm profitability for a sample of firms from eight European Union (EU) countries for the period 2006–2015.

The panel regression model is used in the study. Firm profitability is measured using the return on assets (ROA) ratio, whilst cash conversation cycle, financial leverage, size, tangibility and cash flow ratio are used as independent variables. The novelty of this study is the use of cash flow ratio to develop the analysis firms by dividing them as healthy and nonhealthy.

The paper reveals that working capital management affects firm profitability, and a positive relationship exists between them. The paper shows differences of working capital management and firm profitability across countries. The striking result of this study is that an inverted U-shape relationship exists between working capital management and firm profitability. Whereas the findings suggest that firms should be as close as possible to the optimal length of cash cycle to increase profitability, and managers should give a priority to working capital optimization.

The authors consider results of this study relevant to both researchers and business policymakers in the field of working capital management policies.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of an optimal or target level of working capital for the Indian manufacturing firms, and whether firms intensely follow the target or not.

The paper uses cash conversion cycle as a measure of net working capital and employs partial-adjustment dynamic panel models to test its target-following behavior.

The empirical results show that there is no evidence of systematic target-following behavior of working capital for the Indian manufacturing firms. The results hold true even after dividing the sample into four groups depending on the sign and magnitude of deviation. The results further show that lack of target-following tendency is not quite influenced by varying firm-specific characteristics and, therefore, seems to be a systematic feature across firms in India.

Scarcity of such working capital management studies across emerging economies, facing several financial constraints, limits the comparison of findings. Future studies should be conducted to confirm the results.

The findings imply that even though an optimal working capital might exist, emerging market firms may not be able to actively pursue it on account of several financial constraints and managerial considerations.

The study contributes to the scant existing literature on the target-following behavior of working capital management in the Indian manufacturing firms, representing a typical emerging market facing several financial constraints.