An Analysis of Working Capital Management in S Company Based on the Value Chain

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

value chain; working capital management; S Company; cosmetics and personal care industry; turnover efficiency

Abstract

Working capital management is central to corporate finance, directly affecting cash flow stability and market competitiveness. Taking S Company, a cosmetics and personal care enterprise, as the research subject, this paper analyzes its working capital management from 2019 to 2023 based on value chain theory. The study examines three internal stages, including procurement, production, and sales, along with two external dimensions: upstream suppliers and downstream customers. The findings reveal structural issues across the internal value chain: procurement excessively relies on supplier credit while maintaining insufficient raw material reserves; production recovers capital faster than it invests, yet suffers from poor management and inventory backlogs; sales face slow accounts receivable collection and high inventory levels, prolonging the cash conversion cycle. Externally, procurement amounts fluctuate with high supplier dependency, while downstream sales are overly concentrated, limiting management flexibility. To address these issues, this paper proposes optimization measures across internal process improvement, external collaboration, and supporting management systems. The study suggests that optimizing working capital management from a value chain perspective should focus on coordinating capital allocation across all stages. This research provides practical guidance for S Company and offers insights for similar enterprises.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Weijia Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/02
TI  - An Analysis of Working Capital Management in S Company Based on the Value Chain
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 4th International Conference on Digital Economy and Management Science (CDEMS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 164
EP  - 175
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_19
ID  - Li2026
ER  -