Do family and state ownership impact working capital management? Evidence from Thailand

Purpose This study aims to examine whether family ownership (FO) and state ownership (SO) affect working capital management (WCM) efficiency. Design/methodology/approach A sample set of 299 industrial Thai-listed firms with 2,990 firm-year observations from 2011 to 2020 was used in this study. A fixed-effects approach was implemented to obtain empirical findings. Findings This study explores how higher FO lowers the efficiency of WCM. This may have resulted from increased conflict between family and minority shareholders in family firms as family shareholders pursue private benefits supporting agency theory. Moreover, the findings revealed that higher SO reduces WCM efficiency. This may be because state shareholders need to pursue several social and political objectives, leading to an increase in conflicts with other stakeholders based on agency theory. Originality/value This is the first study to investigate the effects of FO and SO on WCM efficiency. Moreover, this is the first study to show that FO and SO reduce WCM efficiency. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no other study examines this issue in Thailand.