The study of profits is important not only because of the information it provides about the health of the economy in any given year, but also because profits are a key determinant of growth and employment in the medium-term. Changes in profitability are an important contributor to economic progress via the influence profits have on the investment and savings decisions of companies. This is beca...

— Because large state-owned banks are often the only financial service providers in remote areas of low-income countries, policymakers worry that even if privatization improves performance, it might reduce access. We study this issue through a case study: the privatization of Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) to the South African bank Stanbic. Though market segmentation remains a concern since Stanb...

This paper examines the causes of bankruptcy for a sample of 949 UK listed companies between 1987–1994. The most important determinants of bankruptcy are profitability, leverage, cashflow, company size, industry sector and the economic cycle. Tests for heteroskedasticity revealed that cashflow and leverage have significant non-linear effects, and taking account of these non-linearities improves...

An effective supply chain management practice improves the profitability and responsiveness of organizations. Like multinationals, small-scale enterprises are also capitalizing this feat. This paper presents a case study of a two level supply chain setting. Here a small enterprise i.e. vendor manages the inventory of the retailer. Vendor develops the forecasts and a database for replenishment d...

Researchers have identified hundreds of factors that purport to predict equity returns; we find a half dozen that provide an opportunity to outperform the market. To maximize risk-adjusted returns, diversify across smart beta strategies that access the value, low beta, profitability, investment, momentum, and size factors. Systematic rebalancing to fixed weights—reducing exposure to popular fac...

Metalworking-fluids (MWFs) perform essential functions to metal-products manufacturing industry. MWFs also have inherent environmental and health liabilities associated to industry. These liabilities viewed as opportunity to reevaluate the functionality of MWFs and improve profitability of operations. Several problems appeared in using of MWFs including biodegradation of constituents. The objec...

Using a sample of Chinese state-owned enterprises spanning 1980 to 1994, we investigate the factors that determine the sources of finance for firm-level fixed investment, including retained earnings, bank finance, and government transfers. Direct government transfers were not significantly associated with profitability throughout the period. In contrast, bank finance was positively linked to bo...

This paper analyses the association between diversification and firm performance in a sample of up to 1449 large Australian firms (1994 to 1997). Firm performance is measured by profitability and, for quoted firms, market value. Results from the full sample show that more focused firms have higher profitability. This result controls for firm specific effects and other determinants of profitabil...