
doi: 10.26076/5bc1-346e
A little over twenty years ago, Jose, Lancaster, and Stevens (1996) wrote a paper examining the relationship between profitability and ongoing liquidity management for firms over a twenty-year period, from 1974 to 1993. They test the relationship between the cash conversion cycle, ongoing liquidity management, and other methods of profitability using a regression analysis (Jose, Lancaster, and Stevens, 1996). This paper aims to do the same but with a selection of firms over a different twenty-year period, from 1993 to 2013. We implement Jose et al.’s methodology with updated data to see if contemporary data yields similar results: aggressive working capital management policies enhance profitability and performance. The previous literature found that the cash conversion cycle does have an implication for the profitability and the liquidity of a company. This study replicates these processes and examines the impact to stock returns in addition to traditional measures, ROA and ROE. We gather data from 1974-2017 from firms on Compustat and estimate regression analyses of the cash conversion cycle, ROA, and ROE. There is strong evidence that working capital management policies still affect profitability and performance. Using the same time period, we create a calendar time portfolios of high and low CCC firms. By applying the Fama-French factors, we find that firms with higher cash conversion cycles have lower risk-adjusted stock returns.
Corporate Finance, Cash Conversion Cycle
Corporate Finance, Cash Conversion Cycle
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
