企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献.docx

企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献.docx

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中英文对照外文翻译文献

（文档含英文原文和中文翻译）

原文：

EffectsOfWorkingCapitalManagementOnSmeProfitability

Thecorporatefinanceliteraturehastraditionallyfocusedonthestudyoflong-termfinancialdecisions.Researchershaveparticularlyofferedstudiesanalyzing investments,capitalstructure,dividendsorcompanyvaluation,amongothertopics.But theinvestmentthatfirmsmakeinshort-termassets,andtheresourcesusedwith maturitiesofunderoneyear,representthemainshareofitemsonafirm’sbalance sheet.Infact,inoursamplethecurrentassetsofsmallandmedium-sizedSpanishfirms represent69.48percentoftheirassets,andatthesametimetheircurrentliabilities representmorethan52.82percentoftheirliabilities.

Workingcapitalmanagementisimportantbecauseofitseffectsonthefirm’s profitabilityandrisk,andconsequentlyitsvalue（Smith,1980）.Ontheonehand, maintaininghighinventorylevelsreducesthecostofpossibleinterruptionsinthe productionprocess,oroflossofbusinessduetothescarcityofproducts,reduces supply costs,andprotectsagainstpricefluctuations,amongotheradvantages（Blinderand Manccini,1991）.Ontheother,grantingtradecreditfavorsthefirm’ssalesinvarious ways.Tradecreditcanactasaneffectivepricecut（Brennan,MaksimovicandZechner,1988;PetersenandRajan,1997）,incentivizescustomerstoacquiremerchandiseat timesoflowdemand（Emery,1987）,allowscustomerstocheckthatthemerchandise theyreceiveisasagreed（quantityandquality）andtoensurethattheservicescontracted arecarriedout（Smith,1987）,andhelpsfirmstostrengthenlong-termrelationshipswith theircustomers（Ng,SmithandSmith,1999）.However,firmsthatinvestheavilyin inventoryandtradecreditcansufferreducedprofitability.Thus,thegreaterthe investmentincurrentassets,thelowertherisk,butalsothelowertheprofitability obtained.

Ontheotherhand,tradecreditisaspontaneoussourceoffinancingthatreduces theamountrequiredtofinancethesumstiedupintheinventoryandcustomeraccounts. Butweshouldbearinmindthatfinancingfromsupplierscanhaveaveryhighimplicit costifearlypaymentdiscountsareavailable.Infacttheopportunitycostmayexceed20 percent,dependingonthediscountpercentageandthediscountperiodgranted（Wilner,2000;Ng,SmithandSmith,1999）.Inthisrespect,previousstudieshaveanalyzedthe highcostoftradecredit,andfindthatfirmsfinancethemselveswithsellercreditwhen theydonothaveothermoreeconomicsourcesoffinancingavailable（Petersenand Rajan,1994and1997）.

Decisionsabouthowmuchtoinvestinthecustomerandinventoryaccounts,and howmuchcredittoacceptfromsuppliers,arereflectedinthefirm’scashconversion cycle,whichrepresentstheaveragenumberofdaysbetweenthedatewhenthefirm muststartpayingitssuppliersandthedatewhenitbeginstocollectpaymentsfromits customers.Somepreviousstudieshaveusedthismeasuretoanalyzewhethershortening thecashconversioncyclehaspositiveornegativeeffectsonthefirm’sprofitability.Specifically,ShinandSoenen（1998）analyzetherelationbetweenthecashconversion cycleandprofitabilityforasampleoffirmslistedontheUSstockexchangeduringthe period1974-1994.Theirresultsshowthatreducingthecashconversioncycletoa reasonableextentincreasesfirms’profitability.Morerecently,Deloof（2003）analyzesa sampleoflargeBelgianfirmsduringtheperiod1992-1996.Hisresultsconfirmthat Belgianfirmscanimprovetheirprofitabilitybyreducingthenumberofdaysaccounts receivableareoutstandingandreducinginventories.Moreover,hefindsthatless profitablefirmswaitlongertopaytheirbills.

Thesepreviousstudieshavefocusedtheiranalysisonlargerfirms.However,the managementofcurrentassetsandliabilitiesisparticularlyimportantinthecaseofsmall andmedium-sizedcompanies.Mostofthesecompanies’assetsareintheformof currentassets.Also,currentliabilitiesareoneoftheirmainsourcesofexternalfinance inviewoftheirdifficultiesinobtainingfundinginthelong-termcapitalmarkets（PetersenandRajan,1997）andthefinancingconstraintsthattheyface（Whited,1992; FazzariandPetersen,1993）.Inthisrespect,ElliehausenandWoken（1993）,Petersen andRajan（1997）andDanielsonandScott（2000）showthatsmallandmedium-sized USfirmsusevendorfinancingwhentheyhaverunoutofdebt.Thus,efficientworking capitalmanagementisparticularlyimportantforsmallercompanies（PeelandWilson,1996）.

Inthiscontext,theobjectiveofthecurrentworkistoprovideempiricalevidence abouttheeffectsofworkingcapitalmanagementonprofitabilityforapanelmadeupof 8,872SMEsduringtheperiod1996-2002.Thisworkcontributestotheliteratureintwo ways.First,noprevioussuchevidenceexistsforthecaseofSMEs.Weuseasampleof SpanishSMEsthatoperatewithintheso-calledcontinentalmodel,whichis characterizedbyitslessdevelopedcapitalmarkets（La Porta,López-de-Silanes, Shleifer,andVishny,1997）,andbythefactthatmostresourcesarechanneledthrough financialintermediaries（Pampillón,2000）.AllthissuggeststhatSpanishSMEshave feweralternativesourcesofexternalfinanceavailable,whichmakesthemmore dependentonshort-termfinanceingeneral,andontradecreditinparticular.As Demirguc-KuntandMaksimovic（2002）suggest,firmsoperatingincountrieswithmore developedbankingsystemsgrantmoretradecredittotheircustomers,andatthesame timetheyreceivemorefinancefromtheirownsuppliers.Thesecondcontributionis that,unlikethepreviousstudiesbyShinandSoenen（1998）andDeloof（2003）,inthe currentworkwehaveconductedtestsrobusttothepossiblepresenceofendogeneity problems.Theaimistoensurethattherelationshipsfoundintheanalysiscarriedout areduetotheeffectsofthecashconversioncycleoncorporateprofitabilityandnotvice versa.

Ourfindingssuggestthatmanagerscancreatevaluebyreducingtheirfirm’s numberofdaysaccountsreceivableandinventories.Similarly,shorteningthecash conversioncyclealsoimprovesthefirm’sprofitability.

WeobtainedthedatausedinthisstudyfromtheAMADEUSdatabase.ThisdatabasewasdevelopedbyBureauvanDijk,andcontainsfinancialandeconomicdataonEuropeancompanies.

Thesamplecomprisessmallandmedium-sizedfirmsfromSpain.TheselectionofSMEswascarriedoutaccordingtotherequirementsestablishedbytheEuropean Commission’srecommendation96/280/CEof3 April,1996,onthedefinitionofsmallandmedium-sizedfirms.Specifically,weselectedthosefirmsmeetingthefollowingcriteriaforatleastthreeyears:

a）havefewerthan250employees;b）turnoverlessthan €40million;andc）possesslessthan€27millionoftotalassets.

Inadditiontotheapplicationofthoseselectioncriteria,weappliedaseriesoffilters.Thus,weeliminatedtheobservationsoffirmswithanomaliesintheiraccounts,suchasnegativevaluesintheirassets,currentassets,fixedassets,liabilities,currentliabilities,capital,depreciation,orinterestpaid.Weremovedobservationsofentryitemsfromthebalancesheetandprofitandlossaccountexhibitingsignsthatwerecontrarytoreasonableexpectations.Finally,weeliminated1percentoftheextremevaluespresentedbyseveralvariables.Asaresultofapplyingthesefilters,weendedupwithasampleof38,464observations.

Inordertointroducetheeffectoftheeconomiccycleonthelevelsinvestedin workingcapital,weobtainedinformationabouttheannualGDPgrowthinSpainfrom Eurostat.

Inordertoanalyzetheeffectsofworkingcapitalmanagementonthefirm’s profitability,weusedthereturnonassets（ROA）asthedependentvariable.Wedefined thisvariableastheratioofearningsbeforeinterestandtaxtoassets.

Withregardstotheindependentvariables,wemeasuredworkingcapital managementbyusingthenumberofdaysaccountsreceivable,numberofdaysof inventoryandnumberofdaysaccountspayable.Inthisrespect,numberofdays accountsreceivable（AR）iscalculatedas365×[accountsreceivable/sales].This variablerepresentstheaveragenumberofdaysthatthefirmtakestocollectpayments fromitscustomers.Thehigherthevalue,thehigheritsinvestmentinaccounts receivable.

Wecalculatedthenumberofdaysofinventory（INV）as365×[inventories/purchases].Thisvariablereflectstheaveragenumberofdaysofstockheld bythefirm.Longerstoragetimesrepresentagreaterinvestmentininventoryfora particularlevelofoperations.

Thenumberofdaysaccountspayable（AP）reflectstheaveragetimeittakes firmstopaytheirsuppliers.Wecalculatedthisas365×[accountspayable/purchases]. Thehigherthevalue,thelongerfirmstaketosettletheirpaymentcommitmentstotheir suppliers.

Consideringthesethreeperiodsjointly,weestimatedthecashconversioncycle（CCC）.Thisvariableiscalculatedasthenumberofdaysaccountsreceivableplusthenumberofdaysofinventoryminusthenumberofdaysaccountspayable.Thelongerthecashconversioncycle,thegreaterthenetinvestmentincurrentassets,andhencethe greatertheneedforfinancingofcurrentassets.

Togetherwiththesevariables,weintroducedascontrolvariablesthesizeofthe firm,thegrowthinitssales,anditsleverage.Wemeasuredthesize（SIZE）asthe logarithmofassets,thesalesgrowth（SGROW）as（Sales1–Sales0）/Sales0,theleverage（DEBT）astheratioofdebttoliabilities.Dellof（2003）inhisstudyoflargeBelgian firmsalsoconsideredtheratiooffixedfinancialassetstototalassetsasacontrol variable.Forsomefirmsinhisstudysuchassetsareasignificantpartoftotalassets.Howeve