Table 7. Recomputed factor coefficients by industry sub-sectors
Factor
Sub-sector
Liquidity (LIQ) –28 –118 –89 –28
Efficiency (EFF) –17 –28 –17 –17
Profitability (NPM) –95 –95 +111 –95
Size (SIZE) 0 0 –2 0
Source: recomputed from Table 6.
Let us now interpret the findings. First, basing on Figure 1, liquidity seems to have
influenced ACP negatively for all the sub-sectors, although this influence was more pronounced
for sub-sectors 2 and 3. This means that companies that had greater liquidity generally collected
their trade credit faster, more so in sub-sectors 2 (particularly) and 3. This is a surprising result
because we had expected the converse – companies with greater liquidity were expected to offer
more credit to their customers, and thus, collect their trade credit slower. Nonetheless, this result
possibly indicates that, in practice, trade credit and liquidity policies are complementary (rather
than substitutes) and they both may reflect a company’s nature or inclination in managing its
working capital. For example, a company that is more risk-averse is likely to maintain greater
liquidity as well as collect its trade credit faster, whereas a company that is less risk-averse is
likely to have lower liquidity and allow longer trade credit to its customers. In other words,
this result might imply that liquidity may be more reflective of a company’s risk-aversion in
managing working capital rather than its ability or willingness to offer longer trade credit to its
customers.
Fig. 1. Liquidity coefficients by industry sub-sectors
Source: own study.
Next, we found that efficiency too appears to have influenced ACP negatively for all the
sub-sectors, although this influence was more pronounced for sub-sector 2 (see Figure 2). This
result is as anticipated. This means that companies that were generally more efficient collected
their trade credit faster, more so in sub-sector 2. It simply means that a company that was more
efficient in using its assets (not including receivables) was also efficient in using its accounts
receivable, i.e., it collected its trade credit sooner.
Fig. 2. Efficiency coefficients by industry sub-sectors
Further, we found that profitability too seems to have influenced ACP in all the sub-sectors, but the influence was negative in sub-sectors 1, 2 and 4, but positive in sub-sector 3. This result is intriguing. This means that, in sub-sectors 1, 2 and 4, more profitable companies were faster in collecting their trade credit, or extending shorter trade credit to their customers. In contrast, in sub-sector 3, more profitable companies were slower in collecting their trade credit, or extending longer trade credit to their customers. Why this difference? Initially, we had expected that more profitable companies would be more able to extend longer trade credit to their customers. However, the results (except for sub-sector 3) show that more profitable companies extended shorter trade credit. This probably implies that ACP (or credit policy) influences profitability, rather than the opposite (we had expected). In other words, companies that collected their trade credit sooner were, as a result, generally more profitable. However, this does not seem to be the case in sub-sector 3.In this sub-sector, unlike the others, perhaps there is lower need for growth funds, and therefore, more profitable companies are more able to extend longer trade credit to their customers27This then implies that, at least in sub-sector 3, profitability influences ACP or credit policy
Fig. 3. Profitability coefficients by industry sub-sectors
Finally, we found that size appeared to influence ACP negatively, but only in sub-sector 3.
This means that in sub-sector 3, larger companies were collecting their trade credit faster. This
was expected because larger companies generally have greater resources that can be channelled
at more efficient trade credit management. However, we did not find size to be an influencing
factor of ACP in the other sub-sectors. This was unexpected. A possible explanation is that,
as suggested above, the need for growth funds may be lower in sub-sector 3, and thus, larger
companies in that sub-sector could channel their excess resources to collect their trade credit
faster, but this may not have been the case for the other sub-sectors. Possibly, larger companies
in the other sub-sectors might have had to use their resources to fund their (higher) growth, and
thus, could not divert them to collect trade credit more quickly.