Statistical correlations between the return and the indicators of
financial balance. case study: the romanian companies listed on BSE
                 SIMINICĂ MARIAN, CÎRCIUMARU DANIEL, SIMION DALIA
                              Department of Finance and Analysis
                                     University of Craiova
                                      Str. A.I.Cuza, no.13
                                           ROMANIA
            msiminica@yahoo.com, danielcirciumaru@yahoo.com, daliasimion@yahoo.com
        Abstract: - This article is a study on the statistical correlation between the return on assets, as
dependent variable, and a set of 24 indicators that represent the independent variables. The case study
is conducted on a group of 40 companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, belonging to all
industries, and covers the period 2007-2010. The aim is to highlight how the economic crisis affects
the level and the evolution of the proposed variables and the correlation between them. The results
have revealed the existence of some variables correlated in a large measure with the return on assets.
In this regard, four correlation models have been created, one for each year analyzed. The set of
variables retained was different each year, which means that the economic situation different from one
year to another changes the correlations between the variables studied. The study also highlighted the
fact that some financial ratios are significantly influenced by the economic crisis, while other financial
ratios do not suffer such an influence.
Key-Words: - return on assets, statistical correlation, economic crisis, financial ratios
1 Introduction                                                performance arid can be used to establish a hurdle
         The company managers are nowadays                    rates all new investments must meet for
concerned about the efficiency of the asset                   approval."(Lindo, David K.).
utilization in an effort to improve the performance                    A comprehensive analysis of the return on
of the business. The rising pressure exercised by             assets was also made by George W. Gallinger. He
shareholders and the limited funds make the firms to          developed a model that comprised, as variables,
search the ways to increase the efficiency of the             indicators such as the return on sales, the financial
assets, in order to maintain the competitiveness. To          leverage, the interest expenses, the return on equity.
achieve this goal, the companies need to properly             This allows analyzing a company's asset
assess the return on assets.                                  management and the opportunity to redeploy the
         The indicators of return are considered              assets in the future (Gallinger, George W.).
among the most important indicators used by the                        The return of a firm is influenced by many
management of a business. Whatever the form of                factors. Knowing these factors is important
expression (return on assets, return on equity, return        primarily for the company management, to adopt
on sales), they are found among the set of indicators         appropriate measures of growth, and to perform
published by most companies.                                  short or long term forecasts. Also, knowing the
The importance of return on assets as a measure of            relationship of dependence between the return and
the firm performance is recognized in the                     the factors of influence is important for investors,
specialized literature. Thus, David Lindo believes            creditors and for other categories of stakeholders
that "Return on Assets (ROA) is the general purpose           who have different interests about the firm.
financial ratio used to measure the relationship of                    M. T. Bosch-Badia performed a study that
profit earned to the investment in assets required to         determined "a functional relationship between
earn that profit […]The ROA percent is a baseline             ROOA (return on operating assets) and the main
that can be used to measure the profit contribution           productivity indicators at a company level: total
required from new anvestments. As such it identifies          factor productivity (TFP) and labour productivity.
the rate of return needed to at least maintain current        Both productivity indicators, together with price
change of outputs and inputs, are the drivers that        - Current liquidity (CL) = Current assets / Short
determine the value of ROOA, as the functional              term debts;
relationship we obtain proves. This relationship can      - Quick ratio (QR) = (Current assets - Inventories)
be regarded as an extension of the Dupont method            / Short term debts;
that expresses ROOA as the product of operating           - Overall solvency (OS) = Total assets / Total
margin per asset turnover. "(Bosch-Badia, Maria             debts;
Teresa). The author created a model that ROOA, as         - Working capital (WC) = Long term capital -
the dependent variable, can be expressed as a               Fixed assets;
function between productivity and price change as         - The need for working capital (NWC) =
independent variables.                                      Inventories + Receivables – Short term debts;
         Patricia Fairfield and Teri Lombardi Yohn        - Treasury (T) = Working capital - The need for
have made a study of the return on assets in the            working capital;
context of making predictions. They demonstrated          - Rate of financing the fixed assets (RFFA) =
that "disaggregating return on assets into asset            Long term capital / Fixed assets;
turnover and profit margin does not provide               - Coverage of capital invested (CCI) = Long term
incremental information for forecasting the change          capital/ (Fixed assets + Need for working
in return on assets one year ahead, but that                capital);
disaggregating the change in return on assets into        - Coverage of need for working capital (CNWC) =
the change in asset turnover and the change in profit       Working capital / Need for working capital;
margin is useful in forecasting the change in return      - Rate of financing the turnover (RFT) = Working
on assets one year ahead”. (Patricia Fairfield and          capital x 365 / Turnover;
Teri Lombardi Yohn).                                      - Rate of need for working capital (RNWC) =
         From the above, it is noted in the literature      Need for working capital x 365 / Turnover;
the interest shown to analyze the return on assets. In    - Average term for paying the suppliers (TS) =
this article, it was conducted a statistical survey of      Average balance of commercial debts x 365 /
the relationship between the return on assets, as           Turnover;
dependent variable, and a set of economic and             - Average term for collecting the commercial
financial indicators, as independent variables. The         receivables (TC) = Commercial receivables x
study covered 40 Romanian companies listed on               365 / Turnover;
Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) and included a             - Average number of turnovers of the current
period of 4 years between 2007 and 2010. The data           assets (NCA) = Turnover / Average balance of
required to calculate these indicators were extracted       current assets;
from the annual financial statements of these             - Average duration in days for the turnover of
companies. Note that the study includes two years           current assets (DCA) = Average Balance of
of economic growth for Romania (2007 and 2008)              current assets x 365 / Turnover;
and two of severe economic crises (2009 and 2010).        - Cash conversion cycle (CCC) = Operating cycle
It is thus expected that most indicators analyzed to        - Payment cycle;
worsen in the past two years.                             - Return on equity (ROE) = Net profit / Equity;
                                                          - Return on operating expenses (ROEx) =
        2 Concepts and methodology                          Operating profit / Operating expenses;
          The return on assets ROA (the dependent         - Return on sales (ROS) = Operating profit /
variable) was calculated as a ratio of the operating        Turnover.
results and the employed (invested) capital. The set
of independent variables includes the following 24               3 Results and discussions
indicators:                                                       The economical and financial indicators
  - Fixed assets ratio (FAR) = Fixed assets / Total      were calculated for the period 2007-2010 for all the
  assets;                                                40 companies surveyed. The aim was to analyze the
  - Financial stability ratio (FSR) = Long term          statistical correlation between the return on assets
  capital / Total capital;                               and the 24 indicators and the influence factors that
  - Self-financing ratio (SFR) = Equity / Total          best explain the return on assets. Thus, for each of
     capital;                                            the four years analysed, it was found a statistical
  - Financial leverage (FL) = Borrowed capital /         model linking the return on assets as the dependent
     Equity;                                             variable and several independent variables
  - Capital employed ratio (CER) = Employed              considered as relevant. To create these models, it
     (invested) capital / Total capital;                 was used the statistical software SPSS.
         The analysis of correlation between the                         where: xi – the values of dependent variable (the
return on assets and the indicators of financial                         return on assets);
balance can be done separately, using the coefficient                             yi – the values of each independent variable
of correlation (between the dependent variable and                       (measures of financial balance);
an independent variable), or can be done globally, in                             n – number of firms analyzed.
the linear regression.                                                            The Pearson correlation coefficient takes
         After analysing the correlation between the                     values between -1 and 1, as the positive values
return on assets and the indicators of financial                         indicate a direct correlation, while the negative ones
balance, the following data was obtained using                           an inverse correlation (one variable increases as the
SPSS:                                                                    other decreases). This indicates a dependency
                                          Table 1                        between the data the better the more its value is
                     Correlations                                        closer to 1 or -1 (1 assumes a perfect correlation,
Indepe   Pearson Correlation        Sig. (1-tailed)                      which is obtained only when a data set is correlated
 ndent
variabil                                                                 with itself). Also, the significance threshold must be
           2007      2008   2009   2010    2007   2008    2009   2010
   e                                                                     less than 0.05 (which means that out of 100
 FAR       -0.057      -      -       -    0.36    0.04   0.05    0.35   measures just under maximum 5% the results can be
                     0.26   0.25    0.06    4       9      5       3
                      6      7       1
                                                                         random, due to chance or hazard).
 FSR       -0.398      -      -       -    0.00    0.00   0.00    0.24            As seen in Table 1, in 2007, for the 40
                     0.43   0.51    0.11    6       2      0       0     companies analyzed, the closest value of -1 or +1
                      8      7       5                                   for Pearson's coefficient (-0.602) is encountered for
 SFR       -0.560      -      -     0.18   0.00    0.00   0.00    0.13   the correlation between return on assets and the
                     0.57   0.43     2      0       0      2       0
                      9      8                                           capital employed ratio, which means an indirect
  FL       -0.405      -      -       -    0.00    0.01   0.11    0.32   correlation between the two variables. The
                     0.33   0.19    0.07    5       9      9       7     significance threshold (Sig) has a very low level
                      1      1       3
                                                                         (0.000) which shows that the value obtained is
 CER       -0.602      -      -     0.18   0.00    0.00   0.00    0.12
                     0.67   0.59     7      0       0      0       3
                                                                         significant.
                      2      7                                                    The following variables that influence the
  CL       -0.088    0.03     -     0.01   0.29    0.41   0.26    0.46   return on assets, presented after the intensity of the
                      7     0.10     5      5       1      2       4     dependence, are: self-financing ratio (-0.560), for
                             4
                                                                         which the threshold of significance (Sig) is 0.000,
  QR       -0.013    0.10     -     0.08   0.46    0.26   0.35    0.29
                      3     0.06     7      9       4      8       7     leverage (-0.405) with a value of 0.005 for the
                             0                                           significance threshold and return on equity (-0.398)
  OS       -0.128      -      -     0.14   0.21    0.34   0.27    0.19   with a significance threshold of 0.006, less than
                     0.06   0.09     2      5       1      1       1     0.05. It is noted that these two variables are also in
                      7      9
 CCI       -0.290      -    0.19    0.25   0.03    0.09   0.10    0.05
                                                                         inverse correlation with return on assets. The other
                     0.21    9       8      5       6      9       4     variables analyzed have low levels of Pearson
                      1                                                  correlation coefficient, and high values for the
 NCA         -         -    0.25    0.18     -     0.41   0.06    0.12   significance threshold Sig (above 0.05), which
                     0.03    0       3              9      0       9
                      3                                                  means they have a little influence on the return on
ROEx       -0.240      -    0.33    0.48   0.06    0.36   0.01    0.00   assets.
                     0.05    0       5      8       1      9       1              In 2008 and 2009 the situation didn’t
                      8                                                  changed too much. The capital employed ratio still
 ROS       -0.342      -    0.33    0.48   0.01    0.07   0.01    0.00   has a strong inverse correlation with the return on
                     0.23    9       4      5       4      6       1
                      2                                                  assets, with a correlation coefficient of -0.672 and -
                                                                         0.597 respectively, and a significance threshold
         The intensity of correlation between the                        (Sig) of 0.000. This ratio is followed by self-
variables studied is assessed using the Pearson                          financing ratio and financial stability ratio as
correlation coefficient, calculated with the formula:                    regarding the intensity of correlation, while the
                                                                         influence of financial leverage decreases greatly.
                    n 
                        n
                          xi yi  xi yi 
                             n         n       n
                                                                                 In 2010, due to profitability problems
   rxy              i1 i1  i1 i1                              caused by the economic crisis, the return on assets is
            n 2   n 2  n 2   n 2                             no longer correlated with the indicators of financial
           n ixi  xi  n yi  yi                      balance. The most powerful connections are found
            1  i1   i1  i1                        (1)     with other two rates of profitability: return on
                                                                         operating expenses, with a correlation coefficient of
    0.485 (Sig = 0.001), and return on sales, with a                                                 Table 2
    correlation coefficient of 0.484 (Sig = 0.001). We                      Variables Entered/Removeda
      Variables   Variables
Model Entered     Removed                   Method                       In our study, the first independent variable
                                                                 entered in the model is capital employed ratio,
1                             Forward (Criterion: Probability-
        CER               .                                      which, as we have seen, has a greater influence on
                              of-F-to-enter <= ,050)
                                                                 the return on assets. The next steps consisted in
2                             Forward (Criterion: Probability-
        FL                .                                      introducing the other independent variables such as
                              of-F-to-enter <= ,050)
                                                                 leverage, self-financing ratio, quick ratio, overall
3                             Forward (Criterion: Probability-   solvency, while the last variable entered was the
        SFR               .
                              of-F-to-enter <= ,050)
                                                                 coverage of capital invested. The other independent
4                             Forward (Criterion: Probability-   variables were not introduced in the model, as their
        QR                .
                              of-F-to-enter <= ,050)             influence on the return on assets is insignificant.
5                             Forward (Criterion: Probability-           The following table presents for each
        OS                .
                              of-F-to-enter <= ,050)             regression model the correlation coefficient (R), the
6       CCI               .
                              Forward (Criterion: Probability-   R Square and the standard error.
                              of-F-to-enter <= ,050)                                                        Table 3
a. Dependent Variable:                                                             Model Summary
ROA                                                                                                           Std. Error
    appreciate that the difficulties occurred in this year's                   R                                of the
    return was not due to financial policy and to                Model R     Square       Adjusted R Square   Estimate
    financial structure but rather to the decreased profit        1   0.602a 0.362              0.345         20.46269
    margin and return on expenses.                                2   0.708b 0.501              0.475         18.33085
             The linear regression: the link between              3   0.859c 0.738              0.716         13.46623
    return on assets and measures of financial                    4   0.891d 0.793              0.770         12.13055
    balance                                                       5   0.913e 0.833              0.809         11.05861
             The linear regression means the calculation          6   0.925f 0.855              0.829         10.46754
    of the correlation coefficient for the group of
    variables, analyzing the correlation between a               a. Predictors: (Constant), CER
    dependent variable and a series of independent               b. Predictors: (Constant), CER, FL
    variables. As in the case of correlation coefficient         c. Predictors: (Constant), CER, FL, SFR
    above applied, the calculated value should be closer         d. Predictors: (Constant), CER, FL, SFR, QR
    to 1 in order to assume a strong correlation.                e. Predictors: (Constant), CER, FL, SFR, QR, OS
             To emphasize the correlation between the
                                                                 f. Predictors: (Constant), CER, FL, SFR, QR, OS, CCI
    return on assets (Y) on the one hand and the
                                                                 g. Dependent Variable: ROA
    financial balance indicators (X1 ... Xn) on the other
    hand, we used a multiple linear regression model of
    the form:                                                             The model 1 shows the dependence between
                                                                 the return on assets and the capital employed ratio,
        Y    1  X1   2  X 2  ...   n  X n (2)
                                                                 obtaining a correlation coefficient of 0.602 and an R
    where: α, β1 ... βn – regression coefficients.               Square of 0.362, which means a pretty strong
             To identify the best combination of                 correlation between the two variables, while 36.2%
    independent variables that explain the variation of          of the variation of return on assets is explained by
    the dependent variable, we used the Forward option           the change of capital employed ratio.
    in SPSS, by which the variables are introduced in                     In model 2 was introduced the second
    the model one by one, in order of their importance,          independent variable (leverage), obtaining a
    and at each step it is tested whether the regression         correlation coefficient of 0.708 and an R Square of
    coefficient is zero. The analysis was made for each          0.501. This means that 50.1% of the variation of
    year of the period 2007 - 2010 highlighting the              return on assets is explained by the variation of
    changes in the factors that influenced the return on         capital employed ratio, namely financial leverage.
    assets of the companies listed on BSE before the             Furthermore, by introducing the second independent
    economic crisis, and during it.                              variable in the regression model, the standard error
             For 2007, of the 24 variables included in the       of estimation decreases from 20.463 to 18.331.
    analysis, we selected six variables that explain the                  Model 3 introduces the third independent
    variation of return on assets.                               variable in the equation, self-financing ratio, leading
to a correlation coefficient of 0.859 and an R Square                      values while the values of Sig are very small (less
of 0.738. In model 4 quick ratio is introduced into                        than 0.05), which allows us to reject the hypothesis
the equation, as the correlation coefficient increases                     that there is no significant connection between the
to 0.891 and R Square to 0.793. The model accuracy                         variables analyzed, leading to small errors that
is increased by the introduction of the fifth ratio, the                   might occur due random measurements.
overall solvency, which determines a level of the                                  We note that the influence of the six
correlation coefficient of 0.913 and an R Square of                        variables selected on the return on assets is good
0.833. The last variable introduced in model 6 is                          because Sig<0.05. Based on calculated coefficients,
coverage of capital invested, for which is obtained                        which are found in column B of Table 4, the linear
the highest value of the correlation coefficient                           multiple regression model identified for the
(0.925) and of R Square (0.855). This model                                variables studied is as follows:
explained 85.5% of the change of return on assets.                         ROA  71.749  0.787 CER 50.284 LF -
         The regression coefficients calculated for
                                                                                       - 1.569 SFR  0.104 QR                          (3)
each of the six models are presented in Table 4.
                                                                                        0.016 OS - 0.271 CCI.
                                                             Table 4               This allows estimating the return on assets
          The regression coefficients for 2007                             based on the six indicators of financial equilibrium
                               Standar                                     selected in the model.
                                dized
                Unstandardized Coeffici                     Collinearity           For 2008, the linear regression model
                 Coefficients    ents                        Statistics    explaining the variation of the return on assets
                          Std.                             Toleran         changes, but there are no significant changes
Model             B       Error    Beta    t       Sig.      ce    VIF     compared with 2007. Thus, from the 24
1   (Constant   61.621    11.178           5.513   0.000                   independent variables analyzed, seven variables
    CER          -0.687    0.148 -0.602 -4.643     0.000 1.000 1.000       were selected: capital employed ratio, quick ratio,
2   (Constant   65.628    10.091           6.504   0.000                   coverage of capital invested, return on operating
    CER          -0.664    0.133 -0.582 -5.003     0.000 0.997 1.003       expenses, financial leverage, number of turnovers
    FL          -23.290    7.238 -0.374 -3.218     0.003 0.997 1.003       of current assets and current liquidity. The
3   (Constant   49.718     7.920           6.278   0.000                   regression coefficients for this model are listed
    CER          0.924     0.295   0.810   3.134   0.003 0.109 9.177       below:
    FL          -55.870    7.802 -0.897 -7.161     0.000 0.463 2.159                                                     Table 5
    SFR          -1.503    0.263 -1.539 -5.706     0.000 0.10010.000              The regression coefficients for 2008
4   (Constant   47.681     7.165           6.654   0.000                                               Standard
    CER          0.972     0.266   0.851   3.651   0.001 0.109 9.208                    Unstandardized   ized
                                                                                         Coefficients  Coeffici                              R
    FL          -54.201    7.049 -0.870 -7.689     0.000 0.460 2.172       Model                         ents       t    Sig.    R         Squar
    SFR          -1.668    0.243 -1.708 -6.855     0.000 0.09510.516                                                                         e
                                                                                                 Std.
    QR           0.070     0.023   0.277   3.060   0.004 0.722 1.386                      B      Error   Beta
5   (Constant   48.431     6.537           7.408   0.000                   7 (Consta
                                                                                        76,919   5,127            15,002 0,000
    CER          1.029     0.243   0.901   4.225   0.000 0.108 9.270         nt)
    FL          -53.121    6.438 -0.853 -8.252     0.000 0.459 2.180        CER         -0,639   0,050   -0,949 -12,753 0,000 0,672a       0,451
    SFR          -1.862    0.232 -1.906 -8.024     0.000 0.08711.501        QR          0,030    0,018   0,341    1,666 0,105 0,748b       0,559
    QR           0.063     0.021   0.248   2.989   0.005 0.711 1.406        CCI         -0,351   0,041   -0,781   -8,570 0,000 0,881c      0,776
    OS           0.018     0.006   0.268   2.849   0.007 0.552 1.812        ROEx        0,346    0,090   0,313    3,854 0,001 0,907d       0,823
                                                                            FL          -7,111   2,672   -0,168   -2,662 0,012 0,920e      0,847
6   (Constant   71.749    12.173           5.894   0.000
                                                                            NCA         2,009    0,703   0,188    2,855 0,007 0,931f       0,866
    CER          0.787     0.255   0.689   3.089   0.004 0.08811.330
                                                                                                                                      g
                                                                            CL          0,040    0,017   0,484    2,392 0,023 0,942        0,887
    FL          -50.284    6.226 -0.808 -8.077     0.000 0.440 2.275
                                                                           a. Dependent Variable: ROA
    SFR          -1.569    0.256 -1.606 -6.129     0.000 0.06415.627
    QR           0.104     0.027   0.409   3.829   0.001 0.384 2.601
    OS           0.016     0.006   0.237   2.622   0.013 0.538 1.857
                                                                                    Based on calculated coefficients, the linear
    CCI          -0.271    0.122 -0.271 -2.224     0.033 0.296 3.381
                                                                           multiple regression model explaining the variation
                                                                           in the return on assets in 2008 is as follows:
         The T test and the value of Sig are used to                         ROA 76.919- 0.639CER 0.030QR-
test the regression coefficients, i.e. the assumption                                  - 0.351 CCI 0.346 ROEx- 7.111 FL
that between the dependent variable and                                                                                                    (4)
                                                                                    2.009 NCA 0.040CL.
independent variables there is no significant link. In
our study, the t test for each variable takes high
         Compared with 2007, there were retained                                 Among the variables included in the model
four variables in the model, while other two were                       of the year 2008, two rates were kept: capital
eliminated (self-financing ratio and overall                            employed ratio and the number of turnovers of
solvency). Instead, three other variables were                          current assets as the return on operating expenses
introduced: return on operating expenses" number                        was replaced with return on sales. However the
of turnovers of current assets and current liquidity.                   rates of liquidity and the coverage of capital
         The most important influence is still held                     invested disappeared from the model.
by capital employed ratio for which the correlation                              Although the capital employed ratio
coefficient was 0.672, explaining 45.1% of the                          continues to have the strongest influence on the
variation of return on assets. By introducing into                      return on assets, the influence decreased as the
the model the second variable, quick ratio, the                         correlation coefficient is 0.597, which explains
correlation coefficient increased to 0.748, and the                     35.6% of the return on assets. The second variable
two variables together explain 55.9% of the change                      introduced in the model, return on sales, caused a
in return on assets. As the other variables are                         growth of the correlation coefficient to 0.805, and
introduced in the model, we find that the                               the degree of explanation of variation to 64.7%,
correlation coefficient increases, reaching 0.942,                      while the last two variables had a smaller
and all the seven variables explain 88.7% of the                        influence, and the R Square increased to 0.756.
variation of return on assets.                                                   We note that in 2009, the share of the
         It is noted that among the variables                           return on assets remained unexplained due to the
introduced into the model, in 2008 we find a rate of                    change of the 24 variables increased, which means
return and a rate of turnover, which means a shift                      an increase of the influence of external random
in the factors that influence the return on assets                      factors that can not be controlled by the company
from the indicators of financial structure towards                      management.
the indicators of business administration. The                                   The linear regression model for 2010
explanation of these changes can be found in the                        includes also four rates: return on operating
fact that following the economic crisis, the                            expenses, financial stability ratio, capital employed
economic profitability of firms has become more                         ratio and coverage of invested capital. The
fragile, being more sensitive to the current                            regression coefficients for this model are listed
management of the business.                                             below:
         For 2009, the model explaining the                                                                            Table 7
variation of return on assets includes only four                               The regression coefficients for 2010
rates: employed capital ratio, return on sales, fixed                                             Standard
                                                                                   Unstandardized   ized
assets ratio and number of turnovers of current                                     Coefficients  Coeffici                           R
assets. The regression coefficients for this model                      Model                       ents        t      Sig.    R
                                                                                                                                   Square
are listed below:                                                                           Std.
                                               Table 6                               B      Error    Beta
        The regression coefficients for 2009                            4 (Consta
                                                                                  -4,671    14,189            -0,329   0,744
                                                                          nt)
                           Standar
            Unstandardized dized                                         ROEx      0,841    0,215    0,458    3,916    0,000 0,485a 0,235
             Coefficients Coeffici                               R       FSR       -1,527   0,234    -1,321   -6,539   0,000 0,571b 0,326
Model                        ents       t      Sig.    R
                                                               Square    CER       1,202    0,206    1,196    5,830    0,000 0,785c 0,617
                     Std.
                                                                         CCI       0,196    0,094    0,236    2,087    0,044 0,812d 0,659
              B      Error   Beta
                                                                        a. Dependent Variable: ROA
4 (Constant) 31,758 3,703             8,576    0,000
                                                           a
 CER        -0,281   0,035   -0,711   -8,033   0,000 0,597 0,356
 ROS        0,438    0,068   0,576    6,440    0,000 0,805b 0,647               The linear regression model for 2010 is as
 FAR        -0,160   0,045   -0,313   -3,534   0,001 0,842c 0,709       follows:
 NCA        1,860    0,719   0,226    2,586    0,014 0,869d 0,756         ROA  -4.671 0.841 ROEx- 1.527 FSR 
                                                                                                                  (6)
a. Dependent Variable: ROA                                                      1.202 CER 0.196 CCI.
                                                                                 We find that the importance of the return
        The regression model explaining the                             on operating expenses increased, as it is first
variation in return on assets in 2009 is as follows:                    selected within the model, but in only explains
 ROA  31.758 - 0,.81 CER  0.438 ROS                                23.5% of the variation of return on assets. The
     - 0.160 FAR  1.860 NCA.           (5)                           capital employed ratio, found in the models
                                                                        developed for previous years, also remains in 2010,
                                                                        but its importance decreased, as it is the third ratio
selected. Overall, the four selected variables were    [9] Siminică M., Diagnosticul financiar al firmei,
able to explain only 65.9% of the change of return         Ed. Universitaria, Craiova, 2008
on assets, while the rest up to 100% is generated by
random external factors.
4 Conclusion
         We conclude that the profitability of the
Romanian firms declined as a result of the
economic crisis. Before crisis (2007) it was
significantly influenced by the financial structure
and the financial balance. After the crisis, the
importance of business administration indicators
(as profit margin and rates of turnover) increased,
but also of the random external factors,
uncontrollable by the management. Also, please
note that this study mainly used the statistical
methodology and its limitations may affect the
findings and the assessments made.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
This work was supported by the strategic grant
POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61968, Project ID61968 (2009),
co-financed by the European Social Fund within the
Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources
Development 2007 – 2013.
References:
[1] Achim, MV.. Analiza economico-financiara.
    Risoprint Publishing House (Cluj-Napoca)
    2010.
[2] Bosch-Badia M.T., Connecting Productivity to
    Return on Assets through Financial Statements:
    Extending the Dupont Method, International
    Journal of Accounting and Information
    Management, vol. 18, issue 2, pg. 92-104, 2010
[3] Buse L, Siminica M, Circiumaru D, Simion D,
    Ganea M., Analiza economico-financiara.
    Sitech Publishing House (Craiova) 2010.
[4] Fairfield P.M., Teri L. Y., Using Asset
    Turnover and Profit Margin to Forecast
    Changes in Profitability, Review of Accounting
    Studies, 6, 2001, pg. 371-385
[5] Gallinger, G.W., A framework for financial
    statement analysis part 1: Return-on-asset
    performance, Business Credit, vol. 102, issue 2,
    pg. 40-43, 2000
[6] Lala-Popa I., Miculeac Melania, Analiza
    economico-financiară. Elemente teoretice si
    studii de caz, Editura Mirton, Timisaora, 2009
[7] Lindo D.K., Asset Management is Your Job,
    SuperVision, vol. 69, issue 1, pg. 14-18, 2008
[8] Radu F., Cîrciumaru D., Bondoc A., Analiză şi
    diagnostic economico-financiar, Ed. Scrisul
    Românesc, Craiova, 2008