Enterprise Risk Management and Firm Operations: Evidence from Inventory Management (open access)

Enterprise Risk Management and Firm Operations: Evidence from Inventory Management

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a program that manages all firm risks in an integrated framework to control and coordinate offsetting risks. In this study, I provide the first archival evidence on how ERM affects firms' day-to-day, routine operations. Using hand-collected ERM adoption data and inventory information, I examine whether firms with an ERM program experience an improvement in their inventory management. My findings suggest that ERM adoption is associated with greater inventory turnover ratios and lower inventory impairments. These results are robust to a range of models in addressing endogeneity concerns. Additionally, I find that ERM's effect on inventory management is stronger among firms with greater financial distress, with less investments in innovation, or with higher information asymmetries, and when firms' ERM program grows more mature. My study documents ERM's real economic benefits to firms' operations and highlights how ERM contributes to operating performance.
Date: August 2021
Creator: Shadaei, Mehdi
System: The UNT Digital Library