Financial flexibility at the outset of a downturn. A key for subsequent industry outperformance?

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance grade: 1 University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol course: Bachelorseminar II language: English abstract: The business cycle is a cyclical phenomenon and major concern for all sorts of businesses. The short run alternation between contractions and expansions hurts companies across industries forcing many firms to drastic measures in order to survive. There are companies however that overcome these downturns with a tendency to subsequently outperform their competitors. It is assumed that a good financial positioning of a company right at the outset of a downturn is linked to a higher probability of subsequent industry-peer outperformance. By using ratio based industry-level analyses the author tests the hypothesis that IT companies with a high Financial Flexibility - at the outset of the Great Recession - were subsequently able to perform significantly better than their industry peer. Whereas Financial Flexibility refers to a company's positioning in terms of current liquidity and its ability to secure new cash through operations or leverage.