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<p>The purpose of this paper is to examine the building of financial flexibility by Irish medium sized enterprises in the run-up to Brexit. We analyze changes in firms’ dividends, leverage, cash, investment levels and working capital in the period surrounding the passing of the Brexit referendum to test for stockpiling of financial slack. Whilst we find no evidence of financial flexibility building overall, there is some evidence to suggest that firms incentivised to build such flexibility do so. Cash poor firms appear to build financial slack by way of reducing leverage and increasing their cash reserves. In contrast, cash rich firms increase their capital expenditure using internal and external funds. Interestingly all firms irrespective of their size or financial strength increase their working capital investment and in particular build their inventory levels post the Brexit referendum. Our evidence suggests Irish medium sized enterprises are optimistic of the opportunities post Brexit.</p>
</abstract>

The purpose of this paper is to examine the building of financial flexibility by Irish medium sized enterprises in the run-up to Brexit. We analyze changes in firms’ dividends, leverage, cash, investment levels and working capital in the period surrounding the passing of the Brexit referendum to test for stockpiling of financial slack. Whilst we find no evidence of financial flexibility building overall, there is some evidence to suggest that firms incentivised to build such flexibility do so. Cash poor firms appear to build financial slack by way of reducing leverage and increasing their cash reserves. In contrast, cash rich firms increase their capital expenditure using internal and external funds. Interestingly all firms irrespective of their size or financial strength increase their working capital investment and in particular build their inventory levels post the Brexit referendum. Our evidence suggests Irish medium sized enterprises are optimistic of the opportunities post Brexit.

Building financial flexibility in preparation for Brexit: the case of Irish medium sized enterprises

The Irish Journal of Management

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the building of financial flexibility by Irish medium sized enterprises in the run-up to Brexit. We analyze changes in...

Building financial flexibility in preparation for Brexit: the case of Irish medium sized enterprises

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Aug 16, 2023

Page range: 33 - 52

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2022-0007

Keywords
Brexit, Irish medium sized enterprises, financial flexibility

© 2022 Andrea McNamara et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Building financial flexibility in preparation for Brexit: the case of Irish medium sized enterprises

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Aug 16, 2023

Page range: 33 - 52

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2022-0007

KeywordsBrexit, Irish medium sized enterprises, financial flexibility

© 2022 Andrea McNamara et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Brexit, Irish medium sized enterprises, financial flexibility