Banca de DEFESA: WAGNER RODRIGUES DOS SANTOS

LIFE CYCLE AND PERFORMANCE: Multi-Country and Multi-Sector Analysis

life cycle, cash flow, abnormal returns.

The present study aims to verify in which phase of the cash flow-based life cycle developed by Dickinson (2011) companies achieve higher abnormal returns, thus adding another proxy to the companies' scenario analysis framework for decision-making. For this purpose, a sample of 18,882 companies from seven countries and nine economic sectors spanning 60 quarters, from the second quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2023, was assembled, resulting in 443,463 observations. When observing the results, we also considered the existence of specific aspects related to quarters, countries, and sectors within the sample that could influence the observed abnormal return. To account for this, a multiple linear regression model with panel data was also executed, including fixed effects for quarters, countries, and sectors. The obtained results demonstrated that when analyzed globally, companies classified in the Introduction phase achieved the highest abnormal returns, followed by companies in the Growth and Turbulence phases. However, when analyzed by country or sector, the significance levels of the relationship between life cycle stages and abnormal returns did not yield consistent results. This study also opens up opportunities for future research involving new variables related to abnormal returns and companies' behavior.