O impacto da gestão do capital de giro e o desempenho financeiro das empresas brasileiras

Abstract

Brazil was affected by the global pandemic of the coronavirus, there was an interruption of productive activities and the increase in the value of raw materials that affected the entire production chain, companies had their short-term financial management affected. The study aimed to evaluate the impact of working capital on the financial performance of Brazilian companies. The study by Cardoso et al (2020) was replicated, which found that there is a nonlinear and convex relationship between the Net Trade Cycle (NTC) and profitability (RENT) variables. The time horizon was changed, in order to contemplate the years of the pandemic and the control variables were size (TAM), leverage (ALAV) and growth opportunities (CRESC). The final sample of this study consisted of 87 companies listed on the Brazilian stock exchange (B3), between the years 2017 to 2021. The results of the variables were grouped by sector of activity, with seven sectors analyzed: industrial goods, cyclical consumption, noncyclical consumption, basic materials, oil and gas, health and technology. There was also a presentation of year-by-year results to verify existing differences during the pandemic years. The results found indicated that the NTC variable had little variation during the analyzed period and that it was not significant when analyzed in the proposed model, it was not possible to evaluate the relationship between working capital and the financial performance of companies. About the control variables, it was observed that there was a change in the behavior of the CRESC variable in relation to the study by Cardoso et al (2020), which now has an inverse relationship with profitability, indicating that companies' long-term investments did not impact the final result during the pandemic period. The author concluded that the non-cyclical consumption and health were the sectors that presented the best results, whereas that they were sectors that did not paralyze their activities during the pandemic. During the analyzed period, the study concluded that there was no relationship between working capital and the financial performance on Brazilian companies, one of the limitations pointed out was the absence of macroeconomic factors in the analysis, considering that during the period there was a pandemic and it affected the country's growth and there was an increase in interest rates.