Analysis of Risk Factors Affecting Firms’ Financial Performance—Support for Managerial Decision-Making

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how financial variables and exogenous crises influence firms’ financial performance, and how these factors may help managers in decision-making to increase their firm’s wealth. The dynamic interactions among variables were studied by applying a panel vector autoregressive model using annual data for a sample of non-financial firms from European countries. Results indicate that liquidity, leverage and productivity positively affect firm performance, while solvency and asset turnover are positive and statistically significant only in the case of return on equity. Labour productivity induces that firms tend to display larger efforts to keep financial performance in face of a crisis, considering that the crisis reveals a negative statistical impact over return on assets.