THE INFLUENCE OF FIRM-SPECIFIC FACTORS ON FIRMS' PERFORMANCE

Sources and nature of factors that potentially influence firms' performance has received huge attention within empirical literature. The aim of the present paper is to evaluate the influence of firm-specific factors on the performance of firms operating in the Slovak metallurgical industry. Despite importance of this sector for economy not only of Slovakia, there is a lack of sufficient empirical findings regarding determinants of metallurgical firms' performance. The analysis is based on a firm level panel dataset using regression models with fixed effects. As regard to the firms' performance, statistically significant ambiguous impact of liquidity and age, negative impact of asset turnover and positive effect of cost effectiveness was revealed. Surprisingly, the size of firm was not found to be significant determinant of firms' performance. The results of the study bring significant managerial implications suggesting that even in sectors vulnerable to changes in the external environment, effective management of the firm's internal factors can lead to performance gains.