Abstract
The growth of earnings per share is an important goal for running business. The shipping industry experienced dramatic changes in 2003, and the operating revenue increased quickly. But the relationship between the growth of EPS (G) and each of the financial variables remained unknown to managers, otherwise they could use financial variables to increase the growth of the firm. The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between G and the financial variables in the shipping industry in Taiwan. Spraakman's growth model is used to help managers to express G of shipping companies in terms of five financial variables. In the study, the model was built to show how financial variables affect the growth of earnings per share. The sensitivity or the change of G in each financial component was quantified. Researchers chose 6 open-market tramp shipping companies to verify the model. The empirical results showed that the sensitivity of earnings per share for shipping companies was a good tool for managers to increase the profit.
