Defence and firm performance in the UK

S Martin, R White, K Hartley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The UK Ministry of Defence is British industry's largest single customer and a number of firms and industries are highly dependent on defence sales. Various hypotheses have been proposed about the impact of defence procurement on firms and these are investigated using four performance indicators: financial structure, investment, productivity and profitability. With regard to the borrowing ratio, capital investment and the rate of return, there is no statistically significant difference between the mean financial ratios for low and high dependence firms. However, non-dependents appear to have a higher level and rate of growth of labour productivity than dependents.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)325-337
Number of pages13
JournalDefence and peace economics
Volume7
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 1996

Keywords

  • defence procurement
  • performance indicators
  • UK firms

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