Impact of advertising expenditure on firm performance: Evidence from listed companies of Pakistan.

The primary focus of this study is to investigate the impact of advertising expenditure on firm performance. In light of the existing literature, this study considers four proxies of firm performance i.e., Sales (SLS), Return on Assets (ROA), Market-to-Book Ratio (MBR) and Market Capitalization (MC). The sample data for the purpose of estimation consists of 100 listed companies selected randomly from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during 2005–2018. The results show that advertising spending has a significantly positive impact on firm's performance. This is also true for lagged value of advertising, where the results show significant positive relationship of lagged advertising on firm performance. This study supports the signaling effect of advertising expenditure on performance of Pakistani firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]