中小企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献.docx

中小企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献.docx

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中小企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献

中小企业营运资金管理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

Abstract

Theobjectiveoftheresearchpresentedhereistoprovideempiricalevidenceabouttheeffectsofworkingcapitalmanagementontheprofitabilityofasampleofsmallandmedium-sizedSpanishfirms.Withthisinmind,wecollectedapanelof8,872SMEscoveringtheperiod1996-2002.Theresults,whicharerobusttothepresenceofendogeneity,demonstratethatmanagerscancreatevaluebyreducingtheirfirm’snumberofdaysaccountsreceivableandinventories.Equally,shorteningthecashconversioncyclealsoimprovesthefirm’sprofitability.

Introduction

Thecorporatefinanceliteraturehastraditionallyfocusedonthestudyoflong-termfinancialdecisions.Researchershaveparticularlyofferedstudiesanalyzinginvestments,capitalstructure,dividendsorcompanyvaluation,amongothertopics.Buttheinvestmentthatfirmsmakeinshort-termassets,andtheresourcesusedwithmaturitiesofunderoneyear,representthemainshareofitemsonafirm’sbalancesheet.Infact,inoursamplethecurrentassetsofsmallandmedium-sizedSpanishfirmsrepresent69.48percentoftheirassets,andatthesametimetheircurrentliabilitiesrepresentmorethan52.82percentoftheirliabilities.

Workingcapitalmanagementisimportantbecauseofitseffectsonthefirm’sprofitabilityandrisk,andconsequentlyitsvalue（Smith,1980）.Ontheonehand,maintaininghighinventorylevelsreducesthecostofpossibleinterruptionsintheproductionprocess,oroflossofbusinessduetothescarcityofproducts,reducessupplycosts,andprotectsagainstpricefluctuations,amongotheradvantages（BlinderandManccini,1991）.Ontheother,grantingtradecreditfavorsthefirm’ssalesinvariousways.Tradecreditcanactasaneffectivepricecut（Brennan,MaksimovicandZechner,1988;PetersenandRajan,1997）,incentivizescustomerstoacquiremerchandiseattimesoflowdemand（Emery,1987）,allowscustomerstocheckthatthemerchandisetheyreceiveisasagreed（quantityandquality）andtoensurethattheservicescontractedarecarriedout（Smith,1987）,andhelpsfirmstostrengthenlong-termrelationshipswiththeircustomers（Ng,SmithandSmith,1999）.However,firmsthatinvestheavilyininventoryandtradecreditcansufferreducedprofitability.Thus,thegreatertheinvestmentincurrentassets,thelowertherisk,butalsothelowertheprofitabilityobtained.

Ontheotherhand,tradecreditisaspontaneoussourceoffinancingthatreducestheamountrequiredtofinancethesumstiedupintheinventoryandcustomeraccounts.Butweshouldbearinmindthatfinancingfromsupplierscanhaveaveryhighimplicitcostifearlypaymentdiscountsareavailable.Infacttheopportunitycostmayexceed20percent,dependingonthediscountpercentageandthediscountperiodgranted（Wilner,2000;Ng,SmithandSmith,1999）.Inthisrespect,previousstudieshaveanalyzedthehighcostoftradecredit,andfindthatfirmsfinancethemselveswithsellercreditwhentheydonothaveothermoreeconomicsourcesoffinancingavailable（PetersenandRajan,1994and1997）.

Decisionsabouthowmuchtoinvestinthecustomerandinventoryaccounts,andhowmuchcredittoacceptfromsuppliers,arereflectedinthefirm’scashconversioncycle,whichrepresentstheaveragenumberofdaysbetweenthedatewhenthefirmmuststartpayingitssuppliersandthedatewhenitbeginstocollectpaymentsfromitscustomers.Somepreviousstudieshaveusedthismeasuretoanalyzewhethershorteningthecashconversioncyclehaspositiveornegativeeffectsonthefirm’sprofitability.Specifically,ShinandSoenen（1998）analyzetherelationbetweenthecashconversioncycleandprofitabilityforasampleoffirmslistedontheUSstockexchangeduringtheperiod1974-1994.Theirresultsshowthatreducingthecashconversioncycletoareasonableextentincreasesfirms’profitability.Morerecently,Deloof（2003）analyzesasampleoflargeBelgianfirmsduringtheperiod1992-1996.HisresultsconfirmthatBelgianfirmscanimprovetheirprofitabilitybyreducingthenumberofdaysaccountsreceivableareoutstandingandreducinginventories.Moreover,hefindsthatlessprofitablefirmswaitlongertopaytheirbills.

Thesepreviousstudieshavefocusedtheiranalysisonlargerfirms.However,themanagementofcurrentassetsandliabilitiesisparticularlyimportantinthecaseofsmallandmedium-sizedcompanies.Mostofthesecompanies’assetsareintheformofcurrentassets.Also,currentliabilitiesareoneoftheirmainsourcesofexternalfinanceinviewoftheirdifficultiesinobtainingfundinginthelong-termcapitalmarkets（PetersenandRajan,1997）andthefinancingconstraintsthattheyface（Whited,1992;FazzariandPetersen,1993）.Inthisrespect,ElliehausenandWoken（1993）,PetersenandRajan（1997）andDanielsonandScott（2000）showthatsmallandmedium-sizedUSfirmsusevendorfinancingwhentheyhaverunoutofdebt.Thus,efficientworkingcapitalmanagementisparticularlyimportantforsmallercompanies（PeelandWilson,1996）.

Inthiscontext,theobjectiveofthecurrentworkistoprovideempiricalevidenceabouttheeffectsofworkingcapitalmanagementonprofitabilityforapanelmadeupof8,872SMEsduringtheperiod1996-2002.Thisworkcontributestotheliteratureintwoways.First,noprevioussuchevidenceexistsforthecaseofSMEs.WeuseasampleofSpanishSMEsthatoperatewithintheso-calledcontinentalmodel,whichischaracterizedbyitslessdevelopedcapitalmarkets（LaPorta,López-de-Silanes,Shleifer,andVishny,1997）,andbythefactthatmostresourcesarechanneledthroughfinancialintermediaries（Pampillón,2000）.AllthissuggeststhatSpanishSMEshavefeweralternativesourcesofexternalfinanceavailable,whichmakesthemmoredependentonshort-termfinanceingeneral,andontradecreditinparticular.AsDemirguc-KuntandMaksimovic（2002）suggest,firmsoperatingincountrieswithmoredevelopedbankingsystemsgrantmoretradecredittotheircustomers,andatthesametimetheyreceivemorefinancefromtheirownsuppliers.Thesecondcontributionisthat,unlikethepreviousstudiesbyShinandSoenen（1998）andDeloof（2003）,inthecurrentworkwehaveconductedtestsrobusttothepossiblepresenceofendogeneityproblems.Theaimistoensurethattherelationshipsfoundintheanalysiscarriedoutareduetotheeffectsofthecashconversioncycleoncorporateprofitabilityandnotviceversa.

Ourfindingssuggestthatmanagerscancreatevaluebyreducingtheirfirm’snumberofdaysaccountsreceivableandinventories.Similarly,shorteningthecashconversioncyclealsoimprovesthefirm’sprofitability.

Fromthispoint,theworkisstructuredasfollows:

inSection2,wedescribethesampleandvariablesused;inthethirdsection,wepresenttheanalysescarriedoutandourfindings;finally,weendbydiscussingourmainconclusions.

DataandVariables

i.Data

WeobtainedthedatausedinthisstudyfromtheAMADEUSdatabase.ThisdatabasewasdevelopedbyBureauvanDijk,andcontainsfinancialandeconomicdataonEuropeancompanies.

Thesamplecomprisessmallandmedium-sizedfirmsfromSpain.TheselectionofSMEswascarriedoutaccordingtotherequirementsestablishedbytheEuropeanCommission’srecommendation96/280/CEof3rdApril,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.

Inordertointroducetheeffectoftheeconomiccycleonthelevelsinvestedinworkingcapital,weobtainedinformationabouttheannualGDPgrowthinSpainfromEurostat.

ii.Variables

Inordertoanalyzetheeffectsofworkingcapitalmanagementonthefirm’sprofitability,weusedthereturnonassets（ROA）asthedependentvariable.Wedefinedthisvariableastheratioofearningsbeforeinterestandtaxtoassets.

Withregardstotheindependentvariables,wemeasuredworkingcapitalmanagementbyusingthenumberofdaysaccountsreceivable,numberofdaysofinventoryandnumberofdaysaccountspayable.Inthisrespect,numberofdaysaccountsreceivable（AR）iscalculatedas365×[accountsreceivable/sales].Thisvariablerepresentstheaveragenumberofdaysthatthefirmtakestocollectpaymentsfromitscustomers.Thehigherthevalue,thehigheritsinvestmentinaccountsreceivable.

Wecalculatedthenumberofdaysofinventory（INV）as365×[inventories/purchases].Thisvariablereflectstheaveragenumberofdaysofstockheldbythefirm.Longerstoragetimesrepresentagreaterinvestmentininventoryforaparticularlevelofoperations.

Thenumberofdaysaccountspayable（AP）reflectstheaveragetimeittakesfirmstopaytheirsuppliers.Wecalculatedthisas365×[accountspayable/purchases].Thehigherthevalue,thelongerfirmstaketosettletheirpaymentcommitmentstotheirsuppliers.

C