Measuring the performance of Romanian listed companies considering their individual characteristics

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence about the financial performance that the companies that are listed on a regular market obtained. The financial performance can be influenced by individual characteristic of the entity, like: size, indebtedness ratio, and liquidity ratio, type of the auditor, the industry where they act or other particular features. The research was conducted upon the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). It took into consideration the entities that have to report their individual financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This regulation is compulsory for entities that are admitted for listing on a regular market from 2012. The study provides proper evidence about the factors that influence the entities' performance. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were taken into consideration. The qualitative elements were quantified using dummy variables (the development region, the type of auditor, the specialization field, the case in which major shareholder has more than 50 % of the shares). The results emphasize the important of several variables (i.e. the company's size, the region where the entity acts, the company's indebtedness ratio, and the company's age) that have significantly influenced, both in a positive and a negative way, the financial performance. Considering the area in which the company is specialized, no reliable information was detected. It seems that neither return on equity, neither return on assets, neither cash flow from operation divided by total assets are reliable financial measure though which the influence of specialization can be properly reflected. Considering geographical regions, companies from nord - west region and from the west region do obtained a lower financial performance that that that it's obtained if the company act in other development region. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.