RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIZE AND PROFITABILITY OF POLISH TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate in the literature on the relationship between the size of the firm and the profitability. Some researchers postulate that relationship is positive, which stems primarily form the economies of scale. Other researchers claim the opposite, i.e. the analysed relationship is negative which results form, inter alia, bureaucratization, which is typical for larger firms. Given the relationships between the size and the profitability of the firms might differ among various industries and regions and due to inconsistencies of results presented in the literature by other researches, in this study only one industry in one region is being analysed. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the size and the profitability of 3.000 road transportation companies registered in Poland in period 2013 – 2017. Poland has been selected for the study, because Polish road transportation fleet is the largest in European Union. This paper uses moving quartiles, Spearman rho and Kendall tau-b coefficients to analyse studied relationships. The results of this study indicate statistically significant and negative relationship between the size and the profitability of road transportation companies. Identified negative relationship is strong if the size is measured with total of assets, and weaker, but yet statistically significant if the size is measured with sales. This finding is of particular value for decision makers. The main limitations of this study are: analysed period, which comprise only the time of economic growth; and the region, as we analyse only road transportation companies registered in Poland. These both limitations are a good indication for further research, which ones carried out could allow for global conclusions regarding road transportation industry.