企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献.doc

1、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：Effects Of Working Capital Management On Sme ProfitabilityThe corporate finance literature has traditionally focused on the study of long-term financial decisions. Researchers have particularly offered studies analyzing investments, capital structure, dividends or company

2、 valuation, among other topics. But the investment that firms make in short-term assets, and the resources used with maturities of under one year, represent the main share of items on a firms balance sheet. In fact, in our sample the current assets of small and medium-sized Spanish firms represent 6

3、9.48 percent of their assets, and at the same time their current liabilities represent more than 52.82 percent of their liabilities.Working capital management is important because of its effects on the firms profitability and risk, and consequently its value (Smith, 1980). On the one hand, maintaini

4、ng high inventory levels reduces the cost of possible interruptions in the production process, or of loss of business due to the scarcity of products, reduces supply costs, and protects against price fluctuations, among other advantages (Blinder and Manccini, 1991). On the other, granting trade cred

5、it favors the firms sales in various ways. Trade credit can act as an effective price cut (Brennan, Maksimovic and Zechner,1988; Petersen and Rajan, 1997), incentivizes customers to acquire merchandise at times of low demand (Emery, 1987), allows customers to check that the merchandise they receive

6、is as agreed (quantity and quality) and to ensure that the services contracted are carried out (Smith, 1987), and helps firms to strengthen long-term relationships with their customers (Ng, Smith and Smith, 1999). However, firms that invest heavily in inventory and trade credit can suffer reduced pr

7、ofitability. Thus,the greater the investment in current assets, the lower the risk, but also the lower the profitability obtained.On the other hand, trade credit is a spontaneous source of financing that reduces the amount required to finance the sums tied up in the inventory and customer accounts.

8、But we should bear in mind that financing from suppliers can have a very high implicit cost if early payment discounts are available. In fact the opportunity cost may exceed 20 percent, depending on the discount percentage and the discount period granted (Wilner,2000; Ng, Smith and Smith, 1999). In

9、this respect, previous studies have analyzed the high cost of trade credit, and find that firms finance themselves with seller credit when they do not have other more economic sources of financing available (Petersen and Rajan, 1994 and 1997).Decisions about how much to invest in the customer and in

10、ventory accounts, and how much credit to accept from suppliers, are reflected in the firms cash conversion cycle, which represents the average number of days between the date when the firm must start paying its suppliers and the date when it begins to collect payments from its customers. Some previo

11、us studies have used this measure to analyze whether shortening the cash conversion cycle has positive or negative effects on the firms profitability.Specifically, Shin and Soenen (1998) analyze the relation between the cash conversion cycle and profitability for a sample of firms listed on the US s

12、tock exchange during the period 1974-1994. Their results show that reducing the cash conversion cycle to a reasonable extent increases firms profitability. More recently, Deloof (2003) analyzes a sample of large Belgian firms during the period 1992-1996. His results confirm that Belgian firms can im

13、prove their profitability by reducing the number of days accounts receivable are outstanding and reducing inventories. Moreover, he finds that less profitable firms wait longer to pay their bills. These previous studies have focused their analysis on larger firms. However, the management of current

14、assets and liabilities is particularly important in the case of small and medium-sized companies. Most of these companies assets are in the form of current assets. Also, current liabilities are one of their main sources of external finance in view of their difficulties in obtaining funding in the lo

15、ng-term capital markets(Petersen and Rajan, 1997) and the financing constraints that they face (Whited, 1992; Fazzari and Petersen, 1993). In this respect, Elliehausen and Woken (1993), Petersen and Rajan (1997) and Danielson and Scott (2000) show that small and medium-sized US firms use vendor fina

16、ncing when they have run out of debt. Thus, efficient working capital management is particularly important for smaller companies (Peel and Wilson,1996).In this context, the objective of the current work is to provide empirical evidence about the effects of working capital management on profitability

17、 for a panel made up of 8,872 SMEs during the period 1996-2002. This work contributes to the literature in two ways. First, no previous such evidence exists for the case of SMEs. We use a sample of Spanish SMEs that operate within the so-called continental model, which is characterized by its less d

18、eveloped capital markets (La Porta, Lpez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny, 1997), and by the fact that most resources are channeled through financial intermediaries (Pampilln, 2000). All this suggests that Spanish SMEs have fewer alternative sources of external finance available, which makes them mo

19、re dependent on short-term finance in general, and on trade credit in particular. As Demirguc-Kunt and Maksimovic (2002) suggest, firms operating in countries with more developed banking systems grant more trade credit to their customers, and at the same time they receive more finance from their own

20、 suppliers. The second contribution is that, unlike the previous studies by Shin and Soenen (1998) and Deloof (2003), in the current work we have conducted tests robust to the possible presence of endogeneity problems. The aim is to ensure that the relationships found in the analysis carried out are

21、 due to the effects of the cash conversion cycle on corporate profitability and not vice versa.Our findings suggest that managers can create value by reducing their firms number of days accounts receivable and inventories. Similarly, shortening the cash conversion cycle also improves the firms profi

22、tability.We obtained the data used in this study from the AMADEUS database. This database was developed by Bureau van Dijk, and contains financial and economic data on European companies. The sample comprises small and medium-sized firms from Spain. The selection of SMEs was carried out according to

23、 the requirements established by the European Commissions recommendation 96/280/CE of 3 April, 1996, on the definition of small and medium-sized firms. Specifically, we selected those firms meeting the following criteria for at least three years: a) have fewer than 250 employees; b) turn over less t

24、han 40 million; and c) possess less than 27 million of total assets. In addition to the application of those selection criteria, we applied a series of filters. Thus, we eliminated the observations of firms with anomalies in their accounts, such as negative values in their assets, current assets, fi

25、xed assets, liabilities, current liabilities, capital, depreciation, or interest paid. We removed observations of entry items from the balance sheet and profit and loss account exhibiting signs that were contrary to reasonable expectations. Finally, we eliminated 1 percent of the extreme values pres

26、ented by several variables. As a result of applying these filters, we ended up with a sample of 38,464 observations.In order to introduce the effect of the economic cycle on the levels invested in working capital, we obtained information about the annual GDP growth in Spain from Eurostat.In order to

27、 analyze the effects of working capital management on the firms profitability, we used the return on assets (ROA) as the dependent variable. We defined this variable as the ratio of earnings before interest and tax to assets. With regards to the independent variables, we measured working capital man

28、agement by using the number of days accounts receivable, number of days of inventory and number of days accounts payable. In this respect, number of days accounts receivable (AR) is calculated as 365 accounts receivable/sales. This variable represents the average number of days that the firm takes t

29、o collect payments from its customers. The higher the value, the higher its investment in accounts receivable.We calculated the number of days of inventory (INV) as 365 inventories/purchases. This variable reflects the average number of days of stock held by the firm. Longer storage times represent

30、a greater investment in inventory for a particular level of operations. The number of days accounts payable (AP) reflects the average time it takes firms to pay their suppliers. We calculated this as 365 accounts payable/purchases. The higher the value, the longer firms take to settle their payment

31、commitments to their suppliers.Considering these three periods jointly, we estimated the cash conversion cycle(CCC). This variable is calculated as the number of days accounts receivable plus thenumber of days of inventory minus the number of days accounts payable. The longerthe cash conversion cycl

32、e, the greater the net investment in current assets, and hence the greater the need for financing of current assets. Together with these variables, we introduced as control variables the size of the firm, the growth in its sales, and its leverage. We measured the size (SIZE) as the logarithm of asse

33、ts, the sales growth (SGROW) as (Sales1 Sales0)/Sales0, the leverage(DEBT) as the ratio of debt to liabilities. Dellof (2003) in his study of large Belgian firms also considered the ratio of fixed financial assets to total assets as a control variable. For some firms in his study such assets are a s

34、ignificant part of total assets.However our study focuses on SMEs whose fixed financial assets are less important. In fact, companies in our sample invest little in fixed financial assets (a mean of 3.92 percent, but a median of 0.05 percent). Nevertheless, the results remain unaltered whenwe includ

35、e this variable. Furthermore, and since good economic conditions tend to be reflected in a firms profitability, we controlled for the evolution of the economic cycle using the variable GDPGR, which measures the annual GDP growth.Current assets and liabilities have a series of distinct characteristic

36、s according to the sector of activity in which the firm operates. Thus, Table I reports the return on assets and number of days accounts receivable, days of inventory, and days accounts payable by sector of activity. The mining industry and services sector are the two sectors with the highest return

37、 on their assets, with a value of 10 percent. Firms that are dedicated to agriculture, trade (wholesale or retail), transport and public services, are some way behind at 7 percent.With regard to the average periods by sector, we find, as we would expect, that the firms dedicated to the retail trade,

38、 with an average period of 38 days, take least time to collect payments from their customers. Construction sector firms grant their customers the longest period in which to pay more than 145 days. Next, we find mining sector firms, with a number of days accounts receivable of 116 days. We also find

39、that inventory is stored longest in agriculture, while stocks are stored least in the transport and public services sector. In relation to the number of days accounts payable, retailers (56 days) followed by wholesalers (77 days) pay their suppliers earliest. Firms are much slower in the constructio

40、n and mining sectors, taking more than 140 days on average to pay their suppliers. However, as we have mentioned, these firms also grant their own customers the most time to pay them. Considering all the average periods together, we note that the cash conversion cycle is negative in only one sector

41、that of transport and public services. This is explained by the short storage times habitual in this sector. In this respect, agricultural and manufacturing firms take the longest time to generate cash (95 and 96 days, respectively), and hence need the most resources to finance their operational fun

42、ding requirements.Table II offers descriptive statistics about the variables used for the sample as a whole. These are generally small firms, with mean assets of more than 6 million; their return on assets is around 8 percent; their number of days accounts receivable is around 96 days; and their num

43、ber of days accounts payable is very similar: around 97 days. Together with this, the sample firms have seen their sales grow by almost 13 percent annually on average, and 24.74 percent of their liabilities is taken up by debt. In the period analyzed (1996-2002) the GDP has grown at an average rate

44、of 3.66 percent in Spain.Source: Pedro Juan Garca-Teruel and Pedro Martnez-Solano ,2006.“Effects of Working Capital Management on SME Profitability” .International Journal of Managerial Finance ,vol. 3, issue 2, April,pages 164-167.译文：营运资金管理对中小企业的盈利能力的影响公司理财著作历来把注意力集中在了长期财务决策研究，研究者详细的提供了投资决策分析、资本结构、

45、股利分配或公司估值等主题的研究，但是企业投资形成的短期资产和以一年内到期方式使用的资源，表现为公司资产负债表的有关下昂目的主要部分。实际上，在我们抽样调查的中小型西班牙企业的流动资产占他们总资产的69.48%，同时他们的流动负债同时占到他们的负债总额的52.82%。营运资金管理之所以重要是因为它会影响到公司的收益与风险水平以及公司价值（史密斯，1980）。一方面，维持较高的库存水平可以降低生产过程中的中断产生的成本的可能性，或减少了企业因产品的稀缺造成的商业损失，降低供应成本并使价格免受波动影响等优势（布林德和曼克思尼，1991）。另一方面，公司以各种方式授予的商业信用有利于公司的销售。信用交

46、易可以充当一种有效的降价手段（布伦南，马科斯毛维克和则迟勒，1988年；彼得森和纳简，1997），在需求紧缩的时期可以激励客户增加商品需求（艾莫瑞，1987）。允许客户检查他们收到的商品是否符合约定数量和质量，并确保服务合同有效执行（史密斯，1987），并帮助企业加强了与他们的客户之间的长期合作关系（史密斯，1999）。然而,大力投资于公司库存及贸易信贷可能会减少利润。可以这样说，投资于流动资产越多，企业面临的风险越低，而企业所获得的利润也就越低。另一方面，商业信用是一种自发性的资金来源，降低了所需的经费绑定在存货和客户帐户的款项。不过，我们应该认识到如果提前付款可享受折扣，从供应商的获得融资

47、其隐性成本非常高。事实上机会成本可能超过20%,这取决于折扣比例和折扣期限（维尔纳和史密斯，1999)。在这方面，过去的研究已经分析了贸易信贷成本高，发现只有当他们自己没有其他可提供更多的资金来源融资渠道时公司才会与卖方信贷融资（彼得森和纳简，1994年和1997年）。决定投资多少在存货和客户帐户，接受多少来自于供应商的信贷，已反映在公司的现金转换周期上，它表示从公司必须开始支付其供应商的日期开始时到收到客户的款项之间的平均天数。以前的一些研究已经采用这种方式分析缩短现金转换周期对公司的盈利能力的积极或消极的影响。具体来说，施尼和索能(1998)分析了1974年至1994年期间在美国证券交易所

48、上市股票的样本的现金转换周期和盈利能力，他们的研究结果显示，在合理范围内减少现金转换周期可以增加企业的盈利能力。最近，迪罗夫（2003）分析了1992-1996年期间的一些比利时的大公司，他的研究结果证实，比利时企业通过减少应收账款的天数使他们的盈利能力非常优秀并且减少了库存。此外，他发现利润较少的企业需要更长的时间来支付款项。这些以前的研究都集中在大型企业的分析，然而，目前的流动资产和负债管理对小型和中型公司而言也是十分重要的。这些公司的资产大多以流动性资产的形式存在。另外，考虑到他们在长期资本市场上筹资的困难（彼得森和瑞简，1997）以及他们所面临的融资约束(怀特德，1992；法然瑞和彼得

49、森，1993)，流动负债成为他们主要的资金来源。在这方面，艾利豪森和沃肯（1993），彼得森和纳简（1997）和丹尼尔森和斯科特（2000）表示，美国小型和中型公司当他们已经还清债还清债务时会利用卖方进行融资。因此，高效的营运资金管理对规模较小的公司特别重要（皮尔和威尔森，1996）。在此背景下，当前工作的目标是通过对1996年到2002期间的8872家中小型企业营运资金管理对其盈利能力的影响的研究得出实证性证据，这项工作有两个方面的贡献。首先，以前没有这样的证据存在于中小企业的案件分析中。我们使用的西班牙中小企业的样本，他们的经营采用的是所谓的以欠发达的资本市场为特点的欧洲模式（拉颇特，洛佩兹德赛南斯, 施莱弗和威施尼，1997），并且事实上大多数筹资来源于金融中介机构（帕姆皮隆，2000）。这些都表明西班牙中小企业的可选择的外部有效地融资渠道很少，这使得他们更多的依赖短期融资，特别是商业信用。正如德米库克昆特和马科斯毛维克（2002）所说的，企业在有着比较发达的银行系统的国家经营会给予更多的商业信用给他们的客户，并且与