Abstract:
Food and beverage manufacturing companies have consistently and positively performed in the 
food and beverage industry, beginning with their role in increasing productivity, investment, 
exports, and employment. In Ethiopia, consumption of food and beverages has increased in recent 
decades, consumers' demands for more products have become more refined. Thus, this study 
aimed to model determinants of food and beverage manufacturing companies’ profitability in 
Ethiopia’s via more realistic model application, dynamic panel model. 48 companies that 
manufactured large scale food and beverages in Ethiopia between 2014 and 2021 were the focus 
of the study. Since the designed model was formulated in a way that encompasses the dynamic 
aspect of profitability, the maximum likelihood_structural equation model estimator was applied. 
The application of dynamic panel model can reduce several econometric problems that faced 
researches before. A maximum likelihood_structural equation model method had a best model fit
by root mean square error of approximation, standardized root mean residual and coefficients of 
determination. The results of the dynamic panel model show that the profitability was found to be 
positively influenced by lag profitability, firm age, firm size and economic growth and whereas 
ownership structure, liquidity and labour cost influenced food and beverage companies’ 
profitability negatively. The estimated model result revealed that 0.0324%, 0.0102% and 0.0299% 
decrease in ownership structure, liquidity and labour cost and lag-profit, firm age, firm size and 
economic growth was increased by 0.1086%, 0.0063%, 0.0015% and 0.0339% respectively. This 
study recommended that the government should maintain an adequate monetary policy in order to 
achieve its main goal and price stability may boost economic activity.