Title: Free cash flow, productivity gains, growth and sustainability – the agency problem revisited

Authors: Tamal Datta Chaudhuri; Subhalaxmi Nath; Sucharita Sarkar

Addresses: Calcutta Business School, Diamond Harbour Road, Bishnupur-743503, West Bengal, India ' Calcutta Business School, Diamond Harbour Road, Bishnupur-743503, West Bengal, India ' Calcutta Business School, Diamond Harbour Road, Bishnupur-743503, West Bengal, India

Abstract: The objective of the paper is to examine the extent of the agency problem in the Indian manufacturing sector. We relate free cash flow to business efficiency, business effectiveness, innovativeness and sustainability of a sample set of companies. We choose metrics for each of the factors and examine the extent of the relationship. For evaluating performance of companies, we use economic profit and returns on retained earnings. While free cash flow has not improved the asset turnover ratio, it has led to improvements in the productivity of capital over a longer time period. Interestingly we observe a positive relationship between free cash flow and the P/E multiple implying that the market has favoured those companies with higher economic moat. A positive relationship is observed between returns on retained earnings and free cash flow over a period of time, and this does not support the agency problem.

Keywords: agency problem; free cash flow; efficiency; effectiveness; innovativeness; sustainability; economic moat; returns on retained earnings.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2022.125707

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2022 Vol.29 No.1, pp.47 - 65

Received: 05 Apr 2020
Accepted: 04 Aug 2020
Published online: 26 Sep 2022 *

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