Макроэкономика

In such a way, Chevron started to optimize the account receivables, while ExxonMobil preferred to give better payment conditions to the customers, so the indicator increased. Consequently, the second hypothesis: “After the economic crisis Global Petroleum companies mostly use such methods of working capital optimization as account payables management” was confirmed. In general, both corporations prefer to pay to their suppliers as late as possible, because during the all studying periods ExxonMobil and Chevron have negative cash conversion cycle. PracticalguidelinesApparently, all of the studies have some different boundaries and the research above is not an exception. During the work on methods of working capital optimization of Global Petroleum companies there were some unavoidable limitations. From the beginning, it is worth to mention that there was a lack of recent literature such as books or articles in journals about working capital management in this particular industry. That means that there were not a lot of research on working capital optimization in the Global Petroleum industry, but it is very important, because methods could be used differently in other businesses. The research was based on the publicly available information, which refers to the year-ended financial figures. Because of that the research could differ from the real situation, because managers usually try to improve the performance of the working capital by the end of the year. The requirements of the working capital during the quarter periods might be higher. Another limitation was a period of time – 7 years, which could be extended. Moreover, it was taken the recent economic crisis and only two years passed since that, so it would be better to analyse the period after economic crisis when several years would pass. Regarding the period of economic crisis, the recommendation for future researches would be to compare several economic crises. For example, it would be interesting to take a look at the economic crisis of 2008 and analyse how the companies worked at these conditions in comparison to the crisis of 2014, what changed, which methods were used, how the industry recovered after both of the crises. The huge limitation, which prevented from the clear and full research was the number of companies taken to analyse. Despite the fact that both ExxonMobil and Chevron are giants in the Global Petroleum industry, they are different. One of them has negative working capital, another one – positive. The recommendation for the future research would be to take into consideration these two types of working capital and compare them as groups and, which is more important, within the groups. Moreover, it is essential to take wider range of companies to get more real results. Also, it would be a good recommendation to take a look at companies, which headquarters are located not only in the United States, but throughout the world. FurtherdevelopmentofthestudyThe working capital takes a great role in the business activities. Successful operations cannot exist without wise and effective management of the working capital. Moreover, it is important to understand the need of working capital in different periods of market economy, such as before, during and after economic crisis and how to manage wisely the components of working capital: cash, inventory, account receivables and account payables. The working capital can vary from negative to positive values, but the optimum level of working capital can differ from industry to industry. In addition, the amount of working capital can fluctuate during the production process.The financial managers should always analyze the situation on the market in order to understand when it is essential to increase the production according to the higher demand and how to minimize the additional costs or when it is needed to reduce the whole business without crucial losses correspondingly to the decline in the economy. The first chapter represents the theoretical aspects of the previous researches. There were analyzed different approaches to define the working capital. One of the most relative is an investment in the current business by the purpose of maintaining the current activities via financing account receivables, inventories and cash with the help of account payables. Furthermore, there was provided information of different types of management of working capital. What is more important, there is a difference in use of these methods in the perspective of the different periods of the economic environment (before, during and after the crisis). The second chapter dedicates to the analytical research of working capital optimization in the global petroleum industry. There was made an analysis of the whole industry. Despite of the recent popularity of electric car industry, the oil and gas is still in use and according to the forecasts the consumption would continue to grow by 2040 because of commercial transportation, aviation and energy generation.Subsequently, there were two case studies about Global Petroleum companies during the period from 2011 to 2017, which covered different economic environments. Both corporations showed a decline in the business because of the economic crisis, nevertheless they recovered and started to improve their performances after the economic crisis. ExxonMobil and Chevron uses the different types of working capital: the first one prefers negative working capital, while the second one mostly use the positive working capital. There was only one year (2016), when Chevron had negative working capital, which happened in response to the ended economic crisis. At the same year ExxonMobil also crossed the zero level of working capital and had it at the positive value and showed the need of additional funds, because account payables were less than current assets and cannot finance them all anymore.The third chapter provides the findings on the research with the help of comparison of two corporations’ results and the identification of the typical methods of working capital optimization before, during and after the economic crisis.Consequently, before the economic crisis Global Petroleum companies usually use account payables management and increase the capital expenditures on exploration and other needs, because they feel the growth of industry and start to expand themselves. As a result, the first hypothesis was confirmed.During the economic crisis, the main goal of the companies is to overcome the difficult time and market conditions. As customers also feel these difficulties, Global Petroleum companies use such method as account receivables management in order to provide better payment conditions and save their customers.After the economic crisis, ExxonMobil and Chevron recovered and started to pay to suppliers quicker, also both companies showed the more effective use of their inventories. In this market conditions are more preferable two methods of working capital optimization: account payables management and inventory management. Consequently, the second hypothesis that Global Petroleum companies use account receivables management after the crisis was not confirmed. Nevertheless, there were some unavoidable limitations such as lack of recent literature about working capital optimization in the Global Petroleum industry. Also, the financial information was taken from the public sources and include year-end variables. For the future researches it would be interesting to try to analyze the dynamics of working capital in the perspective of the quarter changes. Moreover, the main recommendation for the future researches would be to study more than two companies to get more real results. Also, it would be interesting to analyze and compare companies as two groups, which use negative or positive working capital, and within the groups. The best way of working capital optimization is an understanding of the optimum level of both current assets, including inventories, cash, account receivables, and current liabilities of the company, especially account payables and a wise management of all of them.