Accounting Based Measures as Determinants of Corporate Performance Valuation

Abstract

In today’s competitive environment every corporate sector organization faces a challenge to generate, sustain and enhance their profits to increase the value of business in terms of increased market value, hence these organizations need to perceive clearly about how their developed strategies would affect their performance and the valuation. The study is focused on how corporate financial strategies; related to various operational, investment and financial decisions add value for the organizations. The study identified, measured and evaluated; the association among corporate financial strategies and the corporate performance valuation; and contributed to the validity, predictability and the relevance of various financial indicators and their impact on corporate performance; for a developing country like Pakistan where the internal and external environment of the firms and the industry is significantly different as against the developed and other developing countries. Based on the review of literature and the empirical findings of the earlier studies; four constructs including solvency, liquidity, profitability and activity are developed to represent the independent variable corporate financial strategies; whereas corporate performance valuation is represented by market to book value ratio. The study considered non financial sector companies listed at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) as population and used purposive or judgmental sampling to achieve the objectives and to approach the target group. Hence three major economic groups were selected on the basis of number of companies listed in the groups and the market capitalization; namely Sugar & Allied; Chemical & Allied and Cement & Allied. The study took 10 years annual data from the financial statements of the selected 101 companies; covering years 2001 to 2011. Thus 1,010 firm year data is used for measuring and analyzing the relationships between the studied variables for better digging out the implications of the variables over the long run and adding to the reliability vof generalizing the results for the studied sectors. Balanced panel data is taken for the purpose of study by selecting only those companies for which consecutive annual data is available for the period of study under consideration. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data and generalize the results. For descriptive statistics analysis mean, median, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis are used whereas for inferential statistics panel least square technique with fixed effects model is used to determine the significance of the predicting variables and to measure the impact of significant predictors on dependent variable. Panel least square fixed effect model is used to control for the heterogeneity over time and to control the effects of time invariant variables with time invariant effects after adjusting for heteroskedasticity of data, to ensure unbiased estimates for standard errors and variance coefficients. Data stationarity is checked through Levin, Lin & Chu panel unit root test for multiple series panel data structures to increase the reliability and validity of the models. The study found that the performance of the selected corporate sectors in terms of market to book value is affected by a variety of internal firm and industry specific factors. For liquidity analysis the results indicated that sugar and allied industry is facing liquidity problems and supported that current ratio and inventory turnover are positively linked whereas quick ratio and receivable turnover are negatively linked with market to book value ratio. Chemical and allied industry is found to have satisfactory liquidity position with receivable turnover and inventory turnover ratio found to be positively linked whereas quick ratio negatively linked with market to book value ratio. Cement and allied industry is found to have liquidity problems with current ratio and inventory turnover positively linked whereas quick ratio and receivable turnover vinegatively linked with market to book value ratio. For all the three sectors inferential statistics endorse the significance of liquidity management for corporate performance. For solvency analysis results indicated that sugar and allied industry is facing solvency problems and supported that debt to equity ratio and interest coverage both are positively linked with market to book value ratio. Chemical and allied industry is also facing solvency problems with debt to equity ratio and interest coverage being positively linked with market to book value ratio. Cement and allied industry is also facing solvency problems with debt to equity ratio and interest coverage being positively linked with market to book value ratio. For all the three sectors inferential statistics endorse the significance of solvency management for corporate performance. For profitability analysis the results indicated that sugar and allied industry is facing low profitability and supported that return on equity is positively linked, profit margin is negatively linked whereas gross margin and return on assets have no impact on the market to book value of sugar and allied industry. Chemical and allied industry is enjoying reasonable profitability with return on equity being positively linked, return on assets negatively linked whereas gross margin and profit margin have no impact on the market to book value of chemical and allied industry. Cement and allied industry is facing low profitability with return on equity being positively linked, return on assets negatively linked whereas gross margin and profit margin have no impact on the market to book value of cement and allied industry. For all the three sectors inferential statistics endorse the significance of profitability management for corporate performance. For activity analysis the results indicated that sugar and allied industry is having good activity with sales growth negatively associated whereas asset turnover positively linked with market to book value ratio. Chemical and allied industry is having good activity with asset turnover viipositively linked with market to book value ratio whereas sales growth have no effect on market to book value ratio of chemical and allied industry. Cement and allied industry is having good activity with sales growth negatively associated whereas asset turnover positively linked with market to book value ratio. The results supported the resource based view that the firm specific capabilities along with the available resources are equally significant for creating value through the idiosyncratic resources and thus the firm specific factors are considered key determinants of firms’ performance. The findings of the study do not provide with a particular homogeneous solution for every organization; however the findings may serve as some standard guidelines that should be considered and applied to any organization for developing and implementing the strategies as per their needs and circumstances. Findings of the study provide with the overview of the historic and the potential performance of the selected sectors to help policy makers in devising and implementing the strategies for adding value to the organizations. Moreover the findings would serve as a tool to be adopted by the industry experts to establish the link between the financial indicators and the corporate performance; to quickly and timely respond to the changes and challenges raised in their respective sectors.