Influence of investment policy on the economic performance of Brazilian industrial companies in pre-crisis periods and economic crisis

Abstract

Investment decisions are among the most important in the theory of finance and, because of their complexity, remain the focus of study on the world. As can be seen, aiming to contribute to the formation of knowledge about the subject, which lacks comparative evidence between periods of recession and prosperity, this study has the objective to verify the influence of investment policy on the economic performance of Brazilian industrial companies in pre-crisis periods and economic crisis. Therefore, research was conducted a descriptive methodology, with the documentary procedure and quantitative approach to data. The sample of research comprised 123 Brazilian industrial organizations listed in B3, being the period of analysis corresponded to the years 2010 to 2015 and the information derived from the database Economática®. Given these points, the results confirm that companies have been losing performance in the period of economic crisis (2014 and 2015) and that the acquisitions of fixed assets, linked to the investment policy, are significantly smaller in the mentioned years of economic recession. However, as for the influence of such investments on economic performance, it is observed that in periods of economic prosperity the acquisitions of fixed assets provide a higher result, which was not confirmed statistically in periods of crisis. In the meantime, past investments are also not related to corporate performance in turbulent periods. All things considered, it is concluded that investment decisions are more complex and likely not to result in the planned performance in periods of crisis, which should, therefore, require an even more accurate decision by managers to correctly execute the investments made.