SUMMARY
We investigate the relationship between cash conversion cycle (CCC) management and value creation. We extend a standard working capital management model to establish measurable hypotheses for privately owned companies in Brazil. We define hypotheses that relate profitability measures, such as return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), and the cash conversion cycle of a panel data sample of 318 Brazilian companies with available data for at least 8 of 9 fiscal years between 2009 and 2017. We estimate these relationships via generalized methods of moments (GMM) to deal with endogeneity among accounting variables. Evidence indicates that lower C2C improves ROA but not ROE. Additional assumptions included: (1) companies with a negative CCC tend to grow faster; (2) more indebted companies manage their cash-flow better; (3) smaller companies have a longer CCC; and (4) companies with longer CCC have higher operating margin. Evidence is that only ROA is related to cost of debt, and that total debt is the only variable that helps explain revenue growth (which probably captures firm size as well). Still, without the ability to issue more debt, companies are restricted in growing sales. Finally, and unexpectedly, we find that lower CCC indicates higher operating margin.