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Collapse of companies in Kenya has been on the rise in the recent past. Far reaching endeavors to resuscitate these liquidating and ailing firms have generally been attributed on their corporate financial management decisions.  Multinationals and KTDA managed tea firms in Kenya have been performing poorly in the recent past where audited financial statements and reports revealed a warning signal on its financial performance. Specific objectives of the study were to determine the effect of the accounts receivables period, accounts payables period, inventory conversion period, cash conversion cycle, financing policy, investing policy and moderating effect of ownership structure on financial performance. The study illustrated that accounts receivables collection period is negatively related to return on assets (? = -0.1299, p=0.0160),  accounts payables payment period is negatively related to return on assets (? = -0.0843, p = 0.0070), inventory conversion period is negatively related to return on assets (?= -0.0623, p=0.0180), cash conversion cycle is negatively related to return on assets (? = -0.1107, p = 0.0030), financing policy is positively related to return on assets (? = 0.1589, p = 0.0000), investing policy is positively related to return on assets (? = 0.0291, p = 0.0000).

This paper examined the effect of working capital management practices on the operational performance of selected supermarkets with the national network in Kenya focusing on inventory and creditors’ management as well as receivables and liquidity practices. The paper was pegged on Agency Theory, Iceberg Theory of Money Management and Cash Management Theory. Guided by descriptive research design, 52 branch managers were sampled from four major supermarkets using both the stratified and random sampling methods. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Findings revealed that inventory and creditors management practices had a very low effect on the operational performance of supermarkets in Kenya. The study, therefore, recommends that supermarkets should introduce a system where managers are fully equipped with working capital management skills. This should be done continuously to prevent the occurrence of severe liquidity challenges which have witnessed in the past.

Short-term debt is regarded as an important source of financing for Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is because it can be easily accessed and useful during times of emergent working capital shortage. However, short-term debt is the least researched among the components of capital structure, which explains why its contribution to the financial performance of small and medium-sized businesses still lacks empirical validation especially in the Ugandan context. This paper sought to determine the effect of short-term debt on financial performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Uganda. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design to collect and analyse the data. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select SMEs while purposive sampling technique was used to select one key respondent from each of the sampled 453 SMEs in Uganda. Primary data was collected using survey questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis. The findings indicted that short-term debt had a negative and significant effect on financial performance of SMEs as measured by return on assets. The study provides empirical evidence to support the propositions in the extant literature that short-term debt significantly hampers financial performance of SMEs. The study recommends that SMEs should adopt low cost operation procedures to improve profitability. This would lead to accumulated profits that can be used for investment purposes as a means of driving growth among the SMEs without resorting to borrowing. This paper suggests that further research should be conducted to establish the justification for the negative and significant effect of short-term debt on financial performance using qualitative approaches.

The study investigated the whether the default measures of liquidity and solvency are associated and whether default measures are related to firm profitability. A total of 41 firms were selected to be in the study sample out of 46 non-financial listed firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange during years 2013 to 2017 and panel data regression analysis was employed. The findings revealed that liquidity and solvency are significantly and negatively associated while the default measures lacked a significant relationship with profitability in Kenyan listed companies. The findings implied that there is no need for firms to focus too much on the relationship between default and profitability including invest heavily in liquidity in order to meet short term obligations as nowadays it is possible for firms to either convert non-cash assets quickly or borrow on short notice from financial institutions in case of an urgent need to meet liquidity shortages. These findings are consistent with the shitability theory.