components of working capital are the current assets and current liabilities (Pass and
Pike, 1987).
Current assets include:
• stock or inventory (raw materials work-in-progress finished goods awaiting
sale and delivery);
• debtors (unpaid bills for which the profit has already been realized in the
accounts);
• trade credit (from suppliers);
• cash in-hand; and
• short-term securities.
Current liabilities include:
• payment due to trade creditors (mainly for raw materials and other supplies);
• bank overdrafts;
• other short-term loans; and
• outstanding tax, dividend and interest obligations.
Working capital requirements are linked to the processes of earning and spending (Pass
and Pike 1987). This process implies an operating cycle of activities which is represented
in Figure 1. As evident from the figure, there is a continuous flow of cash to suppliers
and creditors, on the one hand, and from customers and debtors, on the other. This
suggests that main task of WCM is the matching of current asset and current liability
movements over time.
2.1 Measures of WCM
The cash conversion cycle (CCC) is used as a popular measure of WCM used in many
studies like Deloof (2003), Raheman and Nasr (2007) and García-Teruel and Solano
(2007) for measuring the effect of WCM on profitability of firm. CCC is the time
Labour Overhead
Finished goods
Debtors
Material
Cash
Working capital requirement