IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nax/conyad/v58y2013i2p197-220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

EBITDA margin in brazilian companies. Variance decomposition and hierarchical effects

Author

Listed:
  • Alcalde Adriano

    (University of Sao Paulo)

  • Lopes Fávero Luiz Paulo

    (University of Sao Paulo)

  • Turola Takamatsu Renata

    (University of Sao Paulo)

Abstract

This study explores the controversy between the business and academic perspectives regarding earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). Some authors argue that EBITDA is not useful as an indicator, except for comparing companies within the same sector (Assaf Neto, 2003, McClure, 2006, Stumpp, 2000). On the other hand, the business world strongly uses this type of indicator as a tool to support its decisions (Schmalensee, 1985, Moraes, 2005). This difference in opinions has aroused interest in understanding the reasons for its use and has raised questions regarding the usefulness of EBITDA for comparing companies from both the same and different sectors. By applying Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM), the main goal of this research is to observe EBITDA behavior across companies selling goods in Brazil, comparing them within the same sector and across different sectors over time. This research allows for the analysis of the reasons why EBITDA patterns occasinally occur. The results show significant variation in EBITDA among companies across the same sector and across companies from different sectors. On the other hand, our results have shown, nevertheless, that the variability among companies from the same sector was the highest one, raising questions on the actual usefulness of this indicator to compare companies from the same sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Alcalde Adriano & Lopes Fávero Luiz Paulo & Turola Takamatsu Renata, 2013. "EBITDA margin in brazilian companies. Variance decomposition and hierarchical effects," Contaduría y Administración, Accounting and Management, vol. 58(2), pages 197-220, abril-jun.
  • Handle: RePEc:nax:conyad:v:58:y:2013:i:2:p:197-220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cya.unam.mx/index.php/cya/article/view/142
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy C. Short & David J. Ketchen & Timothy B. Palmer & G. Tomas M. Hult, 2007. "Firm, strategic group, and industry influences on performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 147-167, February.
    2. Dong, Minyue & Stettler, Alfred, 2011. "Estimating firm-level and country-level effects in cross-sectional analyses: An application of hierarchical modeling in corporate disclosure studies," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 271-303, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sasa Veljkovic & Zoran Bogetic & Dragan Stojkovic, 2015. "Using Marketing Approach to Respond to Internationalization Challenges and Changes in Marketing Channels," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 11(2), pages 79-100.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md. Ahashan Habib & Md. Rezaul Karim & Marzia Dulal & Mohammad Shayekh Munir, 2022. "Impact of Institutional Pressure on Cleaner Production and Sustainable Firm Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-25, December.
    2. William L. Smith & Yue Cai Hillon & Yanni Liang, 2019. "Reassessing measures of sustainable firm performance: A consultant's guide to identifying hidden costs in corporate disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 353-365, February.
    3. Sujit Sur & Carol-Ann Sirsly, 2013. "What’s in a name? Decomposing corporate reputation to assess the relative impact of temporal, firm and industry level factors," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(4), pages 1047-1072, November.
    4. Saurabh Chadha & Anil K. Sharma, 2015. "Capital Structure and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from India," Vision, , vol. 19(4), pages 295-302, December.
    5. Pätäri, Satu & Puumalainen, Kaisu & Jantunen, Ari & Sandstrüm, Jaana, 2011. "The interface of the energy and forest sectors--Potential players in the bioenergy business," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 322-332, May.
    6. Marco-Lajara, Bartolomé & Zaragoza-Sáez, Patrocinio del Carmen & Claver-Cortés, Enrique & Úbeda-García, Mercedes, 2016. "Knowledge sources, agglomeration, and hotel performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 4856-4861.
    7. Bamiatzi, Vassiliki & Cavusgil, Salih Tamer & Jabbour, Liza & Sinkovics, Rudolf R., 2014. "Does business group affiliation help firms achieve superior performance during industrial downturns? An empirical examination," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 195-211.
    8. Braam, Geert & Nandy, Monomita & Weitzel, Utz & Lodh, Suman, 2015. "Accrual-based and real earnings management and political connections," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 111-141.
    9. James P. Gander, 2012. "Are European Banks in Economic Harmonay? An HLM Aproach," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2012_03, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    10. Elshandidy, Tamer & Fraser, Ian & Hussainey, Khaled, 2015. "What drives mandatory and voluntary risk reporting variations across Germany, UK and US?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 376-394.
    11. Paolo Perego & Ans Kolk, 2012. "Multinationals’ Accountability on Sustainability: The Evolution of Third-party Assurance of Sustainability Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 173-190, October.
    12. Arup Barua & Alexandra Ioanid, 2021. "Synergistic Competitive Advantage - The Modern Appeal of RBV and IO Theory in the Mergers and Acquisitions," Bulgarian Economic Papers bep-2021-06, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski - Bulgaria // Center for Economic Theories and Policies at Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, revised Jul 2021.
    13. Epure, Mircea & Kerstens, Kristiaan & Prior, Diego, 2011. "Bank productivity and performance groups: A decomposition approach based upon the Luenberger productivity indicator," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(3), pages 630-641, June.
    14. Michael A. Hitt & David G. Sirmon & Yuan Li & Abby Ghobadian & Jean-Luc Arregle & Kai Xu, 2021. "Institutions, industries and entrepreneurial versus advantage-based strategies: how complex, nested environments affect strategic choice," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(1), pages 147-188, March.
    15. Fernando Muñoz-Bullón & Maria J. Sanchez-Bueno & Alfredo De Massis, 2020. "Combining Internal and External R&D: The Effects on Innovation Performance in Family and Nonfamily Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(5), pages 996-1031, September.
    16. Mourouzidou-Damtsa, Stella & Milidonis, Andreas & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2019. "National culture and bank risk-taking," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 132-143.
    17. Almaghrabi, Khadija S., 2021. "Borrowing during periods of policy uncertainty: The role of foreign lenders," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Francis Kipkoech Chirchir & Fredrick M. Kalui & Justus Tari, 2024. "Capital Structure and Financial Performance of Non-Financial Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(7), pages 534-543, July.
    19. Gianpaolo Abatecola & Matteo Cristofaro, 2019. "Ingredients of Sustainable CEO Behaviour: Theory and Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, April.
    20. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nax:conyad:v:58:y:2013:i:2:p:197-220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alberto García-Narvaez (Technical Editor) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fcunamx.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.