Analysis Framework

Thematic frequency tables in line with the research questions

Question: To what extent has your company experienced cash flow constraints in the
past five years?
Cash flow constraints Key informants Total number of key informants
experienced in the last five who mentioned
Out of the 16 Gender %
years the same.
interviewees

M F
The company is operating on a IP16, IP03, IP06, 8 7 1 50
loss as it is running out of IP08, IP11, IP12,
working capital to support the IP13,
business operations
The company is struggling to pay 1P01, IP16, IP02, 7 6 1 43.7
its employees and suppliers as IP03, IP04, IP09,
there were no reserves to support IP14,
the company business operations
Business was low as clients were IP07, IP10, IP15, 3 3 0 18.7
paying late or even defaulted on
their debts and this affected the
completion of many projects
The company did not experience IP05, 1 1 0 6.2
any financial constraints in the
last five years

Question: What do you think were the factors that caused these cashflow constraints
in your company?
Factors which led to the Key informants Total number of key informants
cashflow constraints who mentioned
Out of the 16 Gender %
the same.
interviewees

M F
Lack of standard procedures for IP01, IP16, IP02, 10 9 1 62.5
receivables and payments IP03, IP07, IP09,
IP11, IP12, IP13,
IP15
Limited competence on IP02, IP06, IP10, 4 4 0 25
forecasting and planning of IP12,
company cashflows which led the
company to spend more than its
receipts
Under-biding to get tenders IP04, IP08, 2 1 1 12.5
which led to the use of
company’s savings on
implementing the projects
Maintenance costs of the IP14, 1 1 0 6.2
company plant and machinery
Restricted financial assistance IP16, 1 1 0 6.2
from the financial institutions

Question: What do you think was the impact of these cash flow constraints on the
performance of your company?
The impact of the cashflow Key informants Total number of key informants
constraints on the company who mentioned
Out of the 16 Gender %
performance the same.
interviewees

M F

Reduction of company’s profits IP01, IP16, IP02, 12 11 1 75

as sales were increasingly decling IP04, IP07, IP08,
IP09, IP10, IP12,
IP13, IP14, IP15,
Company had a negative working IP16, IP02, IP03, 6 6 0 37.5
capital as the actual cost were IP08, IP09, IP12,
higher than the budget since the
company’s cash flow had
declined
Company was no longer able to IP01, IP16, IP03, 6 5 1 37.5
pay its employees, which led to IP07, IP11, IP13
loss of human capital as some
experts left the company
Tenders could not be awarded to IP14, 1 1 0 6.2
the company because the
machinery were not in good
condition leading to reduced
income for the company
 company and how effective were these strategies?
Strategies
Word employed
frequency to deal
analysis Key informants Total number of key informants
with cashflow constraints in in who mentioned
A word frequency analysis through use of NVivo was conducted. This kind Gender
of qualitative data
the company and their the same.
analysis enable identification of the most frequently occurring words or concepts in the data set.
effectiveness
In this study, the word frequency analysis on the interview data was conducted with a special
M Fobjectives.
focus on the top 20 most frequently mentioned words across all the four research
The company improved the IP01, IP16, IP03, 6 6 0 37.5
systems, process and procedures IP06, IP08, IP10,
For
for visualisation
collection of of the word
payments frequency analysis, cluster and word cloud forms of presentation
from
were employed to and this was necessary to establish patterns and contexts within which the
clients
most
The frequently mentionedstrategic
company developed words were mentioned
IP02, in the study. 4In other words,
IP16, IP06, 4 0cluster25
analysis
diagrams
projectionsprovide words that
in preparation for were mentioned
IP09, close to each other thereby forming a unique
pattern.
shortfallsThe
andcluster
financial
analysis diagram of the 20 most frequently mentioned words is presented
management
below.
The company abandoned the IP16, IP04, IP11, 3 1 2 18.7
under-bidding strategy
Training of employees on IP06, IP12, IP13, 3 3 0 18.7
financial records keeping and its
link to achieving a profitable
company
Strengthened communication IP01, IP07, 2 2 0 12.5
with the suppliers to settle
overdue instalments
Investment of financial surplus on IP04, IP05, 2 1 1 12.5
other viable business initiatives to
widen opportunities for income
streams in the company
De-commission old machines and IP14 1 1 0 6.2
replace with new ones
Offer discounts as way of IP15 1 1 0 6.2
motivating customer
The word frequency analysis was also conducted on the data set obtained in each objective and
presented in a Word Cloud format. The Word Cloud analysis displays the words by font size
from the one with the highest frequency to the least frequently mentioned.

To what extent has your company experienced cash flow constraints in the past five years?

What do you think were the factors that caused these cashflow constraints in your
company?

What do you think was the impact of these cash flow constraints on the performance of
your company?
 What strategies did you employ to deal with cashflow constraints in your company and
how effective were these strategies?

Word Tree Analysis (visualization of findings)

Key words or phrases that featured prominently in the interviews conducted that emerged during
the thematic analysis in the NVivo application were: Clients, Cashflow, Profit, Payment,
Company, Projects and Financial. The context in which these words were mentioned is
displayed in a Word Tree textual analysis as shown below.
Quotable quotes (verbatim statements)
To what extent has your company experienced cash flow constraints in the past five years?
The company is operating on a loss. Company is not generating enough cash on a monthly basis
to allow for employees to be paid and payments to be made on time to the creditors (IP16).
About 12% of the company’s employees were laid off-work because of cashflow constraints. 5%
of the employees chose not take bonuses in order to keep their employment for 3 more months
and 10% was cut from Directors and Senior Managers salaries due to cash flow constraints
(IP02).
Company became bankrupt due to the lack of working capital to support day-to-day business
activities. The company is now able to pay half of employees’ salaries on and this is often late
(IP03).
We find ourselves having more costs than what was budgeted for when taking on a project
(IP06).
There was a point in time when the company was used to pay suppliers immediately and pay
cash for materials because it was trying to avoid debts. This didn’t work well in the end because
customers were now paying late. There were no reserves put aside for salaries or to pay for
monthly running costs such as the office rental space, storages, water & electricity, and
telephone bills (IP10).
What do you think were the factors that caused these cashflow constraints in your
company?
Restricted project finances to the extent that thecompany is now unable to obtain funds from
finance institutions to bridge the time lag between making expenditures and obtaining revenues
(IP16).
We sometimes, as a company, under-bid to get awarded tenders, then later having to pay the
price of using our savings and investments to finance the projects (IP04).
The company’s fear of having credit accounts meant the company rely heavily on cash payments
and could not spread out our reserves for unforeseen circumstances (IP10).
The company did not have a standard procedure to receive payment requisitions on a timely
basis (IP11),
Lack of training on how to actually use the cashflow forecasting and planning. Lack of
delegation and implementation to guide the process of cash flow forecasting in the company. We
had good ideas on paper, but we were bad at implementing them in reality (IP12).

What do you think was the impact of these cash flow constraints on the performance of
your company?
The company’s profits reduced. Our sales were adversely affected (IP01).
Low productivity which led to clients not willing to pay us because our graders and excavators
are usually idling due to breakdowns (IP15).
Low morale from employees and fights were happening on-site because of nepotism and unfair
recruitment process and procedures (IP13).
Reduced our profits and sales. Company didn’t have enough working capital (IP09).
Our work in progress is very slow, as projects are being delayed late after expected project
completion dates (IP07).
What strategies did you employ to deal with cashflow constraints in your company and
how effective were these strategies?
Communicating with suppliers to settle over-due amounts in instalments and informing our
employees beforehand that salaries are going to be late in order to avoid panics and chaos (IP01).
The company started tracking better what was happening during project delivery. Being able to
capture, organize and track everything on the ground in projects allowed the company to stay on
top of labour, suppliers and other inputs more accurately tracked at cost performance. The
company had to continuously review and improve the systems, process, and procedures of
collecting payments from clients. The company had to draw up strategical projections and
proposals and visited the financial institutions more prepared with a different approach in order
to obtain funds for financing projects (IP16).
Getting our project managers involved in managing under-bid projects so that they can assist in
managing the little cash available and work within the budget (IP04).
The company had to get the financial books in order. Hired an independent accountant to audit
our books and review all the reports to the correct status of the business. It was expensive but
worth it (IP06).

The company had to train employees and assist them in understanding the importance of
recording daily activities onsite that can be costly to the company if not properly accounted for.
Site Agents and Foreman were also instructed to process change orders and variations quickly
when the scope of work is changing and making sure that the changing orders (IP08).

Accountability and control. The company also became strict with the how the machines were
being maintained and properly serviced by coming up with a weekly routine check-up
inspection. Employees that were found guilty of recklessly breaking the plant and machinery
were punished to pay a fine or get suspended from the company (IP14).