Fitim Deari

The relationship between emotional intelligence and financial performance in the context of North Macedonia can be beneficial not only to scholars, but also to business decision makers. Thus, the aim of this paper is to fill that gap through an examination whether there is a statistical correlation between emotional intelligence measured among managers and the profitability of their companies, using data collected in North Macedonia. By understanding this relationship, we hope to put light on whether emotional intelligence is just a personal skill, or a genuine strategic asset that firms should invest in.

This study investigates the non-linear effect of the cash conversion cycle (CCC) on a firm’s profitability for a sample of 6072 firms from five countries (Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, and Italy) from 2006 to 2015. Additionally, this study explores the sensitivity of economic crises to the non-linear effect of the CCC on a firm’s performance. This study employs fixed-effects unbalanced panel data and weighted least squares (due to heteroscedasticity) to examine a firm’s performance, using return on assets (ROA) to measure profitability. The cash conversion cycle, financial leverage, size, and tangibility are independent variables. The results of this study show that the effect of the cash conversion cycle on firms’ performance is an inverted U-shape (non-linear). It also shows that the economic conditions vis-à-vis crises influence firm performance. This study found the optimal number of the CCC to be 90 days for the entire sample, 85 days for the non-crisis period, and 92 days for the crisis period. It also finds that the marginal effect of the CCC on ROA is 3.9 times higher during economic crises versus non-economic crisis periods. This study contributes to the existing working capital management literature by examining the non-linear effect of the cash conversion cycle on profitability and the sensitivity of these effects during economic crises. Thus, empirical evidence can serve scholars, business policymakers, and corporate finance professionals in managing their working capital strategically.

This study investigates whether economic crises matter in profitability and, in this context, the (non) linear role of the cash conversion cycle for a sample of firms from five EU countries. The study employs unbalanced panel data fixed effect to examine two dependent variables: return on assets and net margin. Independent variables are the cash conversion cycle, financial leverage, size, tangibility, cash flow ratio, and inventory investments. Results of this study reveal that longer cash conversion periods are associated with lower profitability, with the effect being more pronounced in the absence of crises. Further, the study shows a non-linear relationship between profitability and cash conversion cycle, and diminishing returns are observed by using a squared cash conversion cycle. The study contributes to the existing working capital management literature by examining the effect of the cash conversion cycle on profitability from an international perspective and the effect of economic crises. Thus, empirical evidence can serve scholars, business policymakers, and professionals of corporate finance in managing their working capital strategically.

This study investigates the financing decisions within German SMEs, examining firm-specific, macroeconomic, and news-related determinants. Utilizing a 10-year dataset encompassing 13,051 SMEs, we employ a dynamic panel data model with an unbiased Dynamic Panel Fractional (DPF) estimator to identify the key variables influencing the debt-to-equity ratio. The findings underscore the importance of factors such as the non-debt tax shield, firm size, interest rate spread, and the economic policy uncertainty index. The study’s findings propose the following policy implications: 1) Policy initiatives targeting firm size and non-debt tax shields affect SME leverage; 2) Policies addressing the term spread and economic uncertainty influence debt levels across various German industries; 3) Industry-specific SME policies are advisable, due to the significant industry effects on German SME leverage; 4) SME policy incentives yield short-term effects on capital structures, as SMEs adjust leverage within 8months.

The board of directors appoints the audit committee to assess the financial performance of the firm. The audit committee uses reports provided by audit firms, such as Form 10Ks, and annual reports to assess firm financial performance. The degree of audit oversight quality is a governance measure, which, if effective, may reduce firm risk. This study measures the effect of three measures of audit oversight quality on insolvency risk, systematic risk, and volatility of return on assets for a sample of U.S. pharmaceutical firms and energy firms from 2010 to 2022. All measures of audit oversight quality reduced firm risk, with the first measure reducing both systematic risk and volatility of return on assets, the second measure reducing systematic risk, and the third measure reducing volatility of return on assets. As institutional ownership is also a governance measure, we tested whether its joint effect with audit oversight quality reduced firm risk. This hypothesis was supported for all three measures of audit oversight quality for systematic risk and for the third audit oversight quality measure for volatility of assets. Robustness was established by replicating the regressions with an alternate governance measure, which yielded similar results. Endogeneity of all audit oversight quality measures was absent due to lack of significance of leverage, firm size, equity multiplier, and firm value in reducing risk through their effect on audit oversight quality.

This study aims to investigate the potential relationship between the cash conversion cycle (CCC) and firm profitability for the period from 2011 to 2019. To do this, a fixed effects panel regression model is applied to a sample of firms listed on the Macedonian Stock Exchange. Firm profitability is measured by the return on assets (ROA) ratio, while the liability ratio, firm size, current ratio, acid test and liquidity ratio are used as control variables. Our main finding is a decreasing and convex relationship between cash conversion cycle and profitability. In terms of working capital management policy, this implies that firms with a shorter cash conversion cycle perform better than others, since financial managers repay suppliers and reduce investments in working capital.

Even though “all politics” are supposedly “local”, as reportedly said Tip O’Neil, the majority of studies on the link between politics and finance focused on presidential elections. This argues that overlooking local elections could result in a gap in the literature, thus it focused on the effect of the 2021 local elections on the stock market in the Republic of North Macedonia. The results could not reject the null hypothesis that local elections did not have any statistically significant effect on the stock prices as only 10% of the stocks traded experienced significant abnormal returns during the election period.

We examine turn of the month effect for the Macedonian Stock Exchange using daily return data utilizing OLS and pooled regression analysis for the 10 components of the MBI10 index. We find that for most of the individual stock returns the coefficients of the turn-of-the-month effect are all positive indicating the presence of the turn-of-the-month effect. When the data is pooled, we obtain even stronger results. The study confirms that the turn-of-the-month effect holds for Macedonian Stock Exchange which has not been examined before. Therefore, on average, the daily return over the turn-of-the-month effect period is significantly higher than the daily return over the rest-of-the-month period and hence providing room for more investment opportunities.

This study investigates the financing decisions within German SMEs, examining firm-specific, macroeconomic, and news-related determinants. Utilizing a 10-year dataset encompassing 13,051 SMEs, we employ a dynamic panel data model with an unbiased Dynamic Panel Fractional (DPF) estimator to identify the key variables influencing the debt-to-equity ratio. The findings underscore the importance of factors such as the non-debt tax shield, firm size, interest rate spread, and the economic policy uncertainty index. The study’s findings propose the following policy implications: 1) Policy initiatives targeting firm size and non-debt tax shields affect SME leverage; 2) Policies addressing the term spread and economic uncertainty influence debt levels across various German industries; 3) Industry-specific SME policies are advisable, due to the significant industry effects on German SME leverage; 4) SME policy incentives yield short-term effects on capital structures, as SMEs adjust leverage within 8 months.