Suchergebnisse

This research investigates the impact of working capital management (WCM) on the profitability and market performance of firms that constitute an Islamic market index (Karachi Meezan Index [KMI-30]) in Pakistan during 2002–2013. The data have been divided into three parts, that is, preglobal (2002–2007), during (2007–2008), and postglobal financial crisis period (2008–2013), to examine the proposed relationship in different macroeconomic settings. Net trade cycle (NTC) and its components are used to measure the WCM efficiency, while NTC square is used to proxy the impact of excessive holdings of working capital on corporate performance. The econometric models are calculated in a generalized method of moments (GMMs)-based regression environment to ensure the robustness of empirical outcome. The results reveal that, as opposed to conventional businesses, KMI-30 firms are more ethical in their short-term financial management. Besides, such firms adopted a conservative WCM policy during the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Furthermore, we confirm the presence of a concave relationship between working capital levels and firm performance as NTC is positively, whereas NTC square is negatively, related to firm performance. This article makes a significant contribution to the extant literature as it evaluates the impact of WCM on the profitability and market performance of Islamic market indexed firms under varying macroeconomic conditions.

Increasing interest in sustainability performance (environmental, social, and governance pillar performance [ESGP]) and corporate financial performance (CFP) is noteworthy. However, we do not find any all-inclusive study that employs both individual components of environmental, social, and governance pillars (ESG) as well as the cumulative ESG score on both the accounting and market performance of firms. Furthermore, we do not find any study that puts forth "best practices" in the ESGP-CFP nexus. Therefore, our study intends to provide additional empirical evidence in this debate by including all three pillars of ESG as well as the overall ESG score by employing a unique sample of "100 best corporate citizens" in the United States declared by 3BL Media during 2009 to 2018. For this purpose, we employ panel vector auto regression (PVAR) that allows us to overcome the methodological challenges faced by some earlier empirical studies. The core findings are: (a) for market-based financial performance (market-to-book ratio [MTB] and Tobin's Q), our results only confirm ESGP–CFP relationship and suggest that sustained higher commitment to the environmental pillar, consistent socially responsible conduct, and rationalized governance mechanism of the sampled firms are perceived value additive by the market players. (b) For accounting-based financial performance (return on equity [ROE] and return on assets [ROA]), we find a mix of ESGP–CFP and CFP–ESGP relationship for ROE only. Furthermore, factor error variance decomposition (FEVD) analysis reveals that environmental, social, and overall ESG performances of the sampled firms are quite good predictors of future CFP in the market. These findings assert that actively pursuing ESG endeavors can assist firms in achieving superior financial performance.

AbstractThe corporate sector strives to improve its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to transition from short‐term to sustainable long‐term profit maximisation. This study thus explores the impact of ESG performance on the financial sustainability (FS) of a sample of the top 100 global high‐tech firms. Specifically, we employ the two‐step generalised method of moments to control for endogeneity bias and a panel data fixed effects model to control for unobserved heterogeneity. Empirical findings reveal that overall ESG performance has a statistically negative association with the FS of global high‐tech firms. Individual pillar‐wise analysis reveals that the environmental and social (governance) pillar has a negative (positive) association with the FS of the sampled firms. This result proves that each ESG pillar exerts varying effects on corporate performance indicators. Overall, the results provide empirical evidence that could help policymakers devise policies for investing optimally in ESG indicators to spur corporate FS.

This research aims to examine the mediating role of the use of the e-commerce and moderating influence of entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study data were collected via a structured questionnaire comprised of a seven-point Likert scale from practitioners serving at the top and middle-level positions in Pakistani SMEs. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied on 250 useable returned questionnaires. The results showed that the association between the use of e-commerce and firm performance is positively significant. Moreover, the use of e-commerce mediates the positive association between technological readiness, adoption cost, and firm performance. However, the moderating role of entrepreneurial competencies does not appear as significant between the use of e-commerce and manufacturing SMEs' performance. The present study is the first to explore entrepreneurial competencies as a moderator between e-commerce adoption and firm performance. The empirical outcomes of this research provide useful theoretical and practical implications for the managers and practitioners to understand the underlying factors for the successful implementation of e-commerce in the SME sector to enhance firm performance.