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The purpose of this research study is to use a large sample of the US companies and investigate the impact of cash-to-cash cycle’s (C2C) length on company profitability and liquidity in present and future periods and also examine whether such impact is dependent upon firm size or industry type. The authors investigate the association between C2C length and return on equity (ROE), as well as liquidity ratios for current and future years using linear regression models. The authors further examine such association for separate industries and explore the effect of size on the primary associations investigated. Consistent with prior literature, this study documents that C2C length is negatively (positively) associated with current profitability (liquidity). The authors also find that there is a significant negative association between C2C length and future profitability extending up to three years, but only for firms in the manufacturing industry. This research study shows that C2C length affects a firm’s current financial performance and managers should view C2C management as an important strategic tool. However, the authors caution that C2C management is not a “one size fits all” strategy and managers in smaller firms should pay close attention to their C2C cycle. The authors also show that firms in manufacturing industry will specifically benefit financially over long-term from C2C management. This article complements existing literature that examines the impact of working capital management on a firm’s financial performance and extends the literature by examining such relationship for different industries and firm sizes. Although the authors include various factors (e.g., firm size, leverage, growth, industry, year, and past performance) in regressions to control for observable differences among firms, there might be other unobservable differences that may have an effect on the results documented.

This chapter discusses a collaborative strategy for noncompetitive small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) aiming to reduce their logistics costs by means of a joint replenishment of multiple items. The proposed approach is an extension of the classical joint replenishment problem, named as a Stochastic Collaborative Joint Replenishment problem (S-CJRP) because it considers stochastic demand, warehouse and transport capacity constraints, and multiple buyers and vendors. Operating this method implies three main challenges: (1) determining the frequency with which each buyer should replenish the products; (2) allocating investments and benefits between partnering buyers; and (3) deciding whether to coordinate the supply chain internally or outsource its coordination. The S-CJRP is solved through a heuristic approach, which deals with uses of the Shapley Value Function to allocate the investments and benefits, and it explores the coordination through several simulation scenarios, all of which exhibit prospective cost reductions in inventory management. Preliminary results show that third-party logistics providers could be a valuable resource in coordinating SMEs along a supply chain.

Students with emotional and behavioral challenges are significantly impacted by mental health issues. Teachers and other school staff need mental health knowledge to work more effectively with these students. Collaboration with mental health professionals and sharing of information is essential.