ABSTRACT Title: Working Capital Management in Telecommunication sector: A case study of VGC telecoms Author: Gbenga Segun Akinwande Supervisor: Anders Hederstierna Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Master’s thesis in business administration, 15 credits (ECTS). Background and Problem Discussion: The efficient management of working capital is very vital for a business survival. This is premised on the fact having too much working capital signifies inefficiency, whereas too little cash at hand signifies that the survival of business is shaky. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study the working capital management in the small and medium scale businesses, using VGC Telecoms Company as a case study, so as to establish factors influencing working capital performance; examine how cash management, inventory management and trade credit management affects working capital management; company effectiveness in converting working capital to ready money; how working capital management impacts on the problem of slow development and to offer recommendations on possible ways of improving working capital management Method: Literatures bordering on different areas of working capital management were reviewed. Thus, this research employed qualitative and quantitative analysis; and semi- structured questions were drafted based on the issues raised from the review of various literatures. In addition, materials from journal articles, textbooks, working papers and industry practitioners are put into consideration. The use of internet and e-mails to send out questions were explored where appropriate. Analysis on the company’s financial statement was carried out in order to verify my findings. Theory: In this research, the theory section looks at various concepts that come up when analyzing the consequences of working capital management for company value and the factors that influence a company’s working capital management performance. I have therefore chosen the most common concept for the theory section. I have also tried to create a theoretical understanding for the company’s sensitivity to a workable WCM policy Analysis: In the analysis of the research findings, I employed qualitative approach to the data analysis whereby the impacts of the poor WCM on the company were discussed in depth. Conclusion: The findings corroborate the postulation of Weston et al that a company’s investment in working capital is a substantial percentage of its total investment. In case of VGC Telecoms, it is as high as 65 percent. An inefficient and ineffective management of this investment will result in slow pace of development and ultimately to the business failure. The performances of the company in the different spheres of working capital management were scored as follows:- • Cash management – 65.4 percent • Inventory management - 78.6 percent • Trade credit management and financing decisions - 60.0 percent This is an average performance of 68 percent. That is, the company’s performance is above average. This is a good performance. The financial statements as interpreted reinforce the validity of this result. The liquidity ratios are high; the collection period is short; and the cash cycle is not quite expansive. This makes it possible to sustain sufficient cash flow for the smooth running of the business. The management of working capital impacts on liquidity, investment portfolio and profitability. All these three factors are decisive in the growth or failure of a business. Hence, good performances in working capital management affects these decisive factors favourably and thus, contribute to growth and success of the business.

Submitted by Riccardo Bozzeda (rbozzeda1@gmail.com) on 2017-10-05T12:41:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tesi_FGV.pdf: 498038 bytes, checksum: f5b53be07d249e12438bff90982a5a14 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josineide da Silva Santos Locatelli (josineide.locatelli@fgv.br) on 2017-10-05T12:56:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tesi_FGV.pdf: 498038 bytes, checksum: f5b53be07d249e12438bff90982a5a14 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-05T16:03:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tesi_FGV.pdf: 498038 bytes, checksum: f5b53be07d249e12438bff90982a5a14 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-22 / This paper provides evidence of the effect of Working Capital Management (WCM) on the performance of Latin America companies. The study also investigates whether the effect of WCM on performance differs between ‘small’ and ‘big’ firms. The paper employs Panel data regression analysis on a sample of 117 non-financial firms over an eleven-year period (2005- 2015). The results show that WCM has a convex relationship with performance. However, the results suggest that WCM is relatively more important for the performance of ‘big’ companies than ‘small’ companies. Overall, the study proves that WCM components do affect the performance of Latin America firms. / Este documento fornece evidências do efeito da Gestão de Capital de Trabalho (WCM) sobre o desempenho das empresas da América Latina. O estudo também investiga se o efeito da WCM no desempenho difere entre empresas ‘pequenas’ e ‘grandes’. O artigo emprega análise de regressão de dados do painel em uma amostra de 117 empresas não financeiras ao longo de um período de onze anos (2005-2015). Os resultados mostram que a WCM tem uma relação convexa com o desempenho. No entanto, os resultados sugerem que o WCM é relativamente mais importante para o desempenho de empresas ‘grandes’ do que empresas ‘pequenas’. Em geral, o estudo comprova que os componentes da WCM afetam o desempenho das empresas da América Latina.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcio Aparecido Arruda.pdf: 1751901 bytes, checksum: d2d61273a5296c62be65591f64497119 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-14 / The Resource Based View (RBV), whose basic principles are to qualify the internal intangible and tangible assets of the companies as generators of competitive advantage, also classify them as rare, valuable and difficult to imitate by competitors. In this context, the segment of the advertising agencies is presented as being formed by companies driven by knowledge and simultaneously producers and dependent on intangible assets. Thus, can be considered that the quality and potential to generate future benefits to the agencies are very dependent on the skills of their managers into agglutinate the various kinds of intangible assets turning them into intellectual capital. This study sought to know how is the management of intangible assets that produce intellectual capital in advertising agencies of the State of São Paulo, in order to propose metrics that enable its management. The research is descriptive, exploratory, and qualitative in nature. Data collection was performed through an electronics interview script sent to thirteen agencies in the State of São Paulo, and among them, eight agencies are among the 50 largest in Brazil according to the ranking of the IBOPE 2011. The data were treated by means of descriptive analysis and content analysis. The results showed that although the managers of advertising agencies recognize that the management of intellectual capital is vital for agencies to obtain or maintain their competitive advantage. The theme is still very early in the industry and therefore there is an urgent need of development of a standardized methodology that allows managers of the segment of the advertising agencies evaluate the performance of its intangible assets trainers Intellectual Capital. Based on the results obtained, the main contribution of this study is to propose metrics that allow the management of intangible assets, which form the intellectual capital within the framework of advertising agencies. / A Visão Baseada em Recursos (VBR), cujos princípios básicos consistem em qualificar os ativos intangíveis e tangíveis internos às empresas como geradores de vantagem competitiva, também os classifica como ativos raros, valiosos e de difícil imitação pela concorrência. Nesse contexto, o segmento das agências de publicidade se apresenta como sendo formado por empresas movidas pelo conhecimento e, simultaneamente, produtoras e dependentes de ativos intangíveis. Dessa forma, se pode considerar que a qualidade e o potencial de geração de benefícios futuros para as agencias são totalmente dependentes das habilidades dos seus gestores em aglutinar os vários tipos de ativos intangíveis transformando-os em Capital Intelectual. Este estudo buscou conhecer como se dá a gestão dos ativos intangíveis que produzem o Capital Intelectual nas agências de publicidade do Estado de São Paulo, de modo a se propor métricas que possibilitem a sua gestão. A pesquisa é descritiva e exploratória e de natureza qualitativa. A coleta de dados foi efetuada por meio de um roteiro de entrevista eletrônica enviado para treze agências de publicidade do Estado de São Paulo, sendo que dentre elas, oito agências figuram entre as 50 maiores do Brasil segundo o ranking do IBOPE de 2011. Os dados foram tratados por meio de análises descritivas e análises de conteúdo. Os resultados demonstraram que embora, os gestores das agências de publicidade reconheçam que a gestão do Capital Intelectual seja vital para que as agências obtenham, ou mantenham sua vantagem competitiva, o tema ainda é muito incipiente no setor e, portanto, há a necessidade urgente do desenvolvimento de uma metodologia padronizada que possibilite aos gestores do segmento de agências de publicidade avaliar o desempenho dos seus ativos intangíveis formadores do Capital Intelectual. Com base nos resultados obtidos, a principal contribuição deste estudo é a proposição de métricas que propiciam a gestão dos ativos intangíveis, que formam o Capital Intelectual, no âmbito das agências de publicidades.

This research aims to provide a theory of enterprise social networking that generates and/or sustains a culture of employee engagement within a chosen South African private sector company. Based on an extensive review of interesting literature and the application of a grounded theory process in a chosen case, this research work provides a theory of enterprise social networking sustaining and growing employee engagement together with an explanatory theoretical framework that makes the theory more practical. Employee engagement is defined as “the harnessing of organisation member’s selves to their work roles; in engagement people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances.” This research regards employee engagement as a three part concept composed of a trait (personality/cognitive) aspect, a state (emotional) aspect, and a behavioural aspect. Research has shown that employee engagement has an unequivocal positive impact on business outcomes, such as profitability, business performance, employee retention and productivity. Employee engagement can be regarded as a culture if it is abundant within the organization’s employee population. Gatenby et al. (2009) propose that employee engagement is fostered by creating the desire and opportunity for employees to connect with colleagues, managers and the wider organisation. This standpoint is supported by Kular et al. (2008) who state that the “key drivers of employee engagement identified include communication, opportunities for employees to feed their views upward and thinking that their managers are committed to the organisation.” Further indicators of employee engagement include strong leadership (particularly in the form of servant leadership), accountability, a positive and open organisational culture, autonomy, and opportunities for development. One of the key facets of employee engagement is connection. A complementary definition of social media, an umbrella under which enterprise social networks fall, is that “(it) is more of a relationship channel, a connection channel. Each and every tweet, update, video, post, is a connection point to another human being. And it’s the other human being who will determine your worth to them.” Social media provides participants with access to a larger pool of resources and relationships than they would normally have access to. This enlarged relationship/resource pool is a result of expanding human and social capital enabled through social media tools. In order to produce a theory of enterprise social networking sustaining and growing a culture of employee engagement a rigorous grounded theory methodology coupled with a case study methodology was applied. The case study methodology was used to identify a suitable research site and interesting participants within the site while the grounded theory process was used to produce both qualitative and quantitative data sets in a suitability rigorous fashion. The corroborative data was then used to discover and define the emergent theory.

Submitted in full compliance with the requirements for the Degree of Master Management Sciences: Human Resource Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / This study focused on an investigation into talent management and employee retention in the higher education sector of South Africa- a case study of the Durban University of Technology. Since the end of apartheid, South African higher education has been through many challenges, including how to attract, managing and retain a new breed of academics who will be able to assist in the development of a new transformed society. According to a report presented by Higher Education South Africa (2009:7), higher education institutions are facing a real crisis regarding their ability to attract and retain academic staff of a suitable calibre. This has led to the steady loss of academic expertise and the loss of senior and more experienced academic staff, thereby setting higher education Institutions back in terms of research output (Mapesela and Strydom 2004: 2). The concern is that there are insufficient numbers, particularly amongst Black African academics in the existing academic and postgraduate pipelines to replace them (Higher Education South Africa 2011:1). Consequently, talent management is becoming a central management challenge as it becomes more difficult to retain key and competent academic staff (Barkhuizen Roodt and Schutte 2014: 141). If attention is not paid to this issue, in the years to come the quality of graduates and the research outputs of universities will be severely debilitated (Badat 2009:12). The main aim of this study was to investigate how talent management and employee retention is addressed at the Durban University of Technology strategically, as well as the processes and practices that underpin such strategies. The quantitative research design was adopted and data was collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire. This study was conducted at the Durban University of Technology with a sample of 65 academic staff, including senior academic staff like professors, lecturers and junior lecturers. The target population was grouped into different strata and the sample elements were selected from each group. Findings from the study revealed that talent management is not a strategic element and it is not fully implemented in the higher education sector. Recommendations were made on the review of talent management practices of academic staff in the higher education sector. This study established that there were some elements of talent management principles and practices in place at the University. However, these were often the traditional functions for example recruitment, selection, training and development. It was evident that there needed to be a strategic focus on the entire talent management process. There also needed to be a lot more holistic approach with greater attention being paid to the process from the time academic staff are recruited through to the process of the development of their careers. Retention is another facet that should be focused on, especially in respect of up and coming Black academics as this is in its infancy. / M

The reasons, why doctoral thesis named ?Competitive advantage based on working capital management during the economical recession period? has been compiled, are indentified as follows: ? Due to existing economical recession there is a deficiency of free foreign capital on the market and the price of capital is rapidly growing. ? There are some companies on the market, which are able to maintain the turnover dynamics and their business results (their ROI ratios) are significantly better than a market average. The two objectives of research have been stipulated: ? To prove whether there is a relation between the value of company?s working capital divided by the total turnover in the current period and the change of company?s turnover in the following period. The change of market value average shall be taken into account. ? To prove whether there is a relation between the company?s most liquid assets (receivables and short-term financial assets) divided by the value of total assets in the current period and company?s ROI ratio in the following period. These objectives have been achieved through extensive theoretical research at first, secondly through evaluation of empirical resources from a survey done based on data from 44 German companies connected with building industry between the years 2004 and 2007 and finally, the analysis and synthesis of these resources. The doctoral thesis clarifies the essential targets of working capital management, methods of company?s working capital optimization and reasons, why effective value of working capital could be seen as a source of company?s competitive advantage during economical recession period. The conclusions have pointed out that there is obvious delay of working capital optimization positive effects onto the company?s turnover dynamics and ROI ratios.

Выпускная квалификационная работа (магистерская диссертация) посвящена исследованию политики управления οбοрοтным капиталом предприятия и возможностям оптимизации его структуры. Потребность в такого рода исследовании формируется, в первую очередь, хозяйствующими субъектами всех организационно-правовых форм, которые заинтересованы в рациональности использования капитала в целом и оборотного капитала в частности для сохранения финансовой устойчивости, особенно – в динамичных условиях внешней конъюнктуры. Актуальность магистерского исследования обусловлена складывающимися в современными тенденциями в теории управления οбοрοтным корпоративным капиталом. Поиск приоритетного механизма для формирования политики из совокупности существующих направлений управления оборотным капиталом, очевидно, позволит выработать возможности повышения кοнкурентοспοсοбнοсти предприятия посредством снижения издержек в ходе производственного процесса и, возможно, к сокращению потребности в текущем финансировании. / Graduation qualification work (master’s thesis) is devoted to the study of the management policy of the company's capital and the possibilities of optimizing its structure. The need for this kind of research is formed, first of all, by the economic entities of all organizational and legal forms that are interested in the rationality of using capital in general and working capital in particular to maintain financial stability, especially under dynamic external conditions. The urgency of the master’s study is determined by the current trends in the theory of management of the corporate corporative capital. The search for a priority mechanism for the formation of a policy from the set of existing directions of working capital management will obviously enable us to develop opportunities for improving the competitiveness of an enterprise by reducing costs during the production process and, possibly, reducing the need for current financing.

Master's dissertation is devoted to the study of human capital management of educational communities in the university. It substantiates the need to elaborate a system of management in the framework of the educational policy of the region. The dissertation reveals the theoretical essence of the educational community, as well as the concept of human capital, the system of human capital management of educational communities in the university. The dissertation analyzes the system of human capital management of educational communities in the university in the context of the educational policy of the region, provides recommendations for changing and improving this system. / Магистерская диссертация посвящена изучению управления человеческим капиталом образовательных общностей в вузе. В ней обоснована необходимость создания системы управления им в рамках реализации образовательной политики региона. В диссертации раскрывается теоретическая сущность образовательной общности, а также понятие человеческого капитала, рассматривается система управления человеческим капиталом образовательных общностей в вузе. В диссертации проведен анализ системы управления человеческим капиталом образовательных общностей в вузе в контексте образовательной политики региона, даются рекомендации по изменению и усовершенствованию этой системы.

Denna studies syfte var att analysera sex nyckeltal och se vilka samband dessa hade på riskbuffert sysselsatt kapital. Studien utfördes på 796 små byggbolag i Sverige under perioden 2009–2016 med hjälp av en binär logistisk regressionsanalys. Som teoretisk referensram användes working capital management och finansiell oro. Studien resulterade i att kapitalets omsättningshastighet, skuldränta och rörelsekapital/totala tillgångar uppvisade signifikanta negativa samband med riskbuffert sysselsatt kapital. Räntetäckningsgrad och avkastning på totalt kapital resulterade i signifikanta positiva samband med riskbuffert sysselsatt kapital. Skuldsättningsgrad resulterade intressant nog i ett icke signifikant negativt samband. Slutligendiskuterades byggbolagens sannolikhet för finansiell oro utifrån respektive nyckeltal. / The aim of this study was to examine the relation between six independent key ratios with riskbuffer on capital employed. The study was conducted on 796 small construction enterprises in Sweden during 2009–2016 with a binary logistic regression model. As theoretical framework, working capital management and financial distress was applied. The study concluded that the capital turnover rate, interest payable and working capital to total assets had significant negative relations with riskbuffer on capital employed. However, the interest cover ratio and return on total assets were both significant positively related withriskbuffer on capital employed. Debt-to-equity ratio resulted interestly enough in a nonsignificant negative relation. Lastly, with regards taken to every respective key ratio, the probability of financial distress among the construction firms was discussed.

M. Tech. (Department of Cost and Management Accounting, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Working capital management is an important aspect in the business in order to meet its daily activities. Permanent working capital, temporary working capital, gross working capital and net working capital are four types of working capital. The construction industry, as compared to any other industry, plays an important role in the economic growth of the country. The construction industry is regarded as the largest employer in the labour market and appropriate management of liquidity is essential. Construction contracts are divided into lump sum contracts, unit price contracts and cost plus a fee contracts and have the following role players: employer, employer’s representative, professional team, contractor, sub-contractor and adjudicator. This study analysed the relationship between working capital management and financial performance of JSE listed construction companies during the period 2009-2019. Annual financial statements, which included statement of financial position and statement of financial performance of all listed construction companies during the period 2009-2019 were extracted from the external database (IRESS) to obtain the data needed for statistical analysis. This study used a quantitative research method to analyse the relationship between working capital management and financial performance. Multiple linear regression and correlation analysis were used in this study with inventory conversion period (ICP), average collection period (ACP) and average payment period (APP) as independent variables and return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and gross operating profit (GOP) as dependent variables, in order to analyse the relationship between working capital management and financial performance of JSE-listed construction companies during the period 2009-2019. Results of this study indicated that working capital management has little or no influence on the financial performance of JSE-listed construction companies, therefore, this indicates that listed construction companies in South Africa need to manage their working capital properly by putting some new policies in place on their accounts payables and receivables, in order to have a relationship between working capital management and financial performance.