Firm Specific Explanatory Factors of Financial Performance

This study endeavors to identify the key firm specific explanatory factors of financial performance for a panel of 15 listed pharmaceutical firms in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Bangladesh. The study has used data from 2002-2015 for each firm. The study has found that previous year's financial performance, age of the firm, human resource, financial leverage, business risk of the firm, and net operating cash flow are the key explanatory factors of the financial performance. The study has used system GMM and Difference GMM methods. Age of the firm, degree of operating leverage, and human resource have significant positive impact on financial performance unlike net operating cash flows. In contrast, the financial leverage has significant impact on the financial performance although it is not consistent across different methods. The study has also found that the financial performance in pharmaceutical sector of Bangladesh is persistent suggested by the significant positive sign of the one year lagged level of financial performance.