The Effect of Working Capital Management on the Performance of Malaysian Public Listed Companies
https://doi.org/10.56225/ijgoia.v3i3.434
Keywords:
Working capital managementAbstract
Working capital management plays a crucial role in today’s organizations for maintaining efficiency. Despite the significance of this topic, empirical evidence of the relationship between working capital and performance in Malaysia during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is still scarce. This study aims to investigate the effect of working capital management on the company's performance of Malaysian listed firms. Average collection period, inventory turnover, average payment period, and cash conversion cycle are adopted as proxies for working capital management, and profitability is measured by return on assets (ROA). Panel data on 78 firms from the consumer non-cyclical sector, listed on Bursa Malaysia between 2021 and 2023, are employed. The results indicate that the average level of WCM represented by CCC is 105 days. This implies that companies need more than three months to transform their working capital into cash inflows. The panel data analysis demonstrates that CCC is significantly and negatively related to firm performance, which implies firms with shorter CCC have better financial performance. The results provide new empirical evidence and strategic insight into the firm’s performance in relation to working capital management.
Downloads
References
Almaghrabi. K. S. (2022). COVID-19 and the Cost of Bond Debt: The Role of Corporate Diversification. Finance Research Letters. Volume 46, Part B.
Amponsah-Kwatiah, K., & Asiamah, M. (2020). Working capital management and profitability of listed manufacturing firms in Ghana. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 70(7), 1751–1771.
Chalmers, K. D., Sensini, L., & Shan, A. (2020). Working capital management (WCM) and performance of SMEs: Evidence from India. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.30845/ijbss.v11n7a7
Charitou, M., Lois, P., & Santoso, H. B. (2012). The relationship between working capital management and firm’s profitability: An empirical investigation for an emerging Asian country. International Business & Economics Research Journal, 11(8), 839–848. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v11i8.7162
Divinah, J., & Muturi, W. (2021). Cash management on financial performance of non-financial firms listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange. Research Journal of Finance and Accounting, 12(23).
Economic Outlook. (2023). Belanjawan 2024 Malaysia Madani. Federal Government Administrative Centre.
Gill, A., & Mathur, N. (2021). Factors affecting working capital management: Evidence from the U.S. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 11(4), 1–8.
Hossain, M. R., & Zariyawati, M. A. (2022). Uncertainty in working capital management and firm performance: A COVID-19 perspective. Journal of Economics and Management, 16(S1), 117–130.
Kamlesh, K., Sivasankaran, N., Chakrabarti, P., & Giridhar, R. (2023). Working capital management efficiency, cash holdings, and market value of Indian listed firms. International Journal of Business and Economics, 22(1), 53–83. https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/past_issues/NO.22-1/pdf/vol.22-1-4
Ke, Y. (2022). The impact of COVID-19 on firms’ cost of equity capital: Early evidence from US public firms. Finance Research Letters, 46, 102242.
Kenton, W. (2024). Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry: Definition, types, and profitability. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fastmoving-consumer-goods-fmcg.asp
Kumar, S. S., Sawarni, K. S., Roy, S., & G, N. (2024). Influence of working capital efficiency on firm’s composite financial performance: Evidence from India. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 73(9), 2787–2806. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-07-2023-0374
Laghari, F., Ahmed, F., & López García, M. de las N. (2023). Cash flow management and its effect on firm performance: Empirical evidence on non-financial firms of China. PLOS ONE, 18(6), e0287135. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287135
Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA). (2024). Manufacturing sector. The Malaysian Reserve.
Prasad, P., Narayanasamy, S., Paul, S., Chattopadhyay, S., & Saravanan, P. (2018). Review of literature on working capital management and future research agenda. Journal of Economic Surveys, 33(3), 827–861. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12299
Sensini, L. (2020). Working capital management and performance: Evidence from Italian SMEs. International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research, 11(2), 1749–1755.
Seth, H., & Chatterjee, S. (2021). Exploring predictors of working capital management efficiency and their influence on firm performance: An integrated DEA-SEM approach. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 28, 1120–1145. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-05-2020-0251
Tarkom, A. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 exposure on working capital management: The moderating effect of investment opportunities and government incentives. Finance Research Letters, 47(Part B).
Thenuwara, M. G. (2021). The impact of working capital management on profitability: Evidence from listed companies in Sri Lankan consumer staples sector. Journal of Business and Technology, 5, 104–120. https://doi.org/10.4038/jbt.v5i0.56
Vo, T. Q., & Ngo, N. C. (2023). Does working capital management matter? A comparative case between consumer goods firms and construction firms in Vietnam. Cogent Business & Management, 10, 2271543.
Wang, C., Zhang, Z., & Zhang, Y. (2022). The effect of cash conversion cycle on corporate profitability: Evidence from China. Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies, 51(1), 88–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajfs.12335
Wang, Z., Akbar, M., & Akbar, A. (2020). The interplay between working capital management and a firm’s financial performance across the corporate life cycle. Sustainability, 12(4), 1661. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041661
Yusoff, H., Ahmad, K., Qing, O. Y., & Zabri, S. M. (2018). The relationship between working capital management and firm performance. Advanced Science Letters, 24(2), 1234–1238.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Authors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.