Determinants of Manufacturing Firms’ Financial Performance in Pakistan

Abstract

Investment in working capital by and large shows better returns than investment in fixed assets. As such proper management of working capital rightfully attracts a lot of attention. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of size and working capital management efficiency on firms’ financial performance using 10 years (2004- 2013) secondary data of 153 firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange and employing regression and ratio analyses. Results show that performance-wise large firms are better whereas WCME-wise small and medium firms are better. These findings indicate that better performance of large firms is not because of efficient utilization of working capital - rather it may be due to some other factors and these firms can further improve their performance if working capital is managed more efficiently.