Sector effect on working capital measures in South African industrial firms

Abstract

This paper reports research findings concerning the sector effect on working capital measures in South African industrial firms. Thirteen working capital measures were computed for each of the 135 participating firms over 10 years. The appropriate nonparametric statistical procedure, the Kruskal-Wallis test, was applied to the data to test the null hypothesis of no sector effect. The test inferred that there was a significant sector effect for 10 of the 13 working capital measures. However, when regulating for an overall 5 percent level of significance, less than half the tested measures registered a significant sector effect. These findings suggest that inter-industry differences in working capital measures in South Africa might not be as significant as claimed in previous local and international research findings.