Packages or systems? Working capital management and financial performance among listed U.S. manufacturing firms

Abstract

This study examines how working capital management packages (WCMPs) can lead to higher financial performance. This is done by exploring the formation, importance, and systematic interdependencies within and between WCMPs. The data set consists of 589 U.S. listed manufacturing firms that are being studied during the fiscal period 2012–2019. WCMPs are studied from both a package and a system approach. This is done by combining fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis and panel data regression. In all, 11 effective WCMPs are found to be associated with high financial performance. Six of them constitute unique and empirically important packages and are also identified as systems. The findings can have consequences for managers and practitioners, as the study creates an explicit link between a firm’s working capital management and financial performance.