The hidden cost of organisation capital: Evidence from trade credit

Abstract

Organisation capital is an important firm-specific resource that is linked to value created by key talents, and the risk arising from the unexpected departure of key talents is detrimental to the firm. We find that trade credit decreases with organisation capital, particularly when labour mobility is greater or employees have more outside opportunities. This supports the agency view of organisation capital. However, when the threat of losing key talents is low, such as during the global financial crisis, the efficiency view of organisation capital prevails, making firms with high organisation capital more attractive customers for suppliers. The evidence is robust to endogeneity tests.