营运资金管理对中小企业的盈利能力的影响[外文翻译]

本科毕业论文（设计）

外文翻译

原文：

Effects Of Working Capital Management On Sme Profitability

The 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 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 firm’s balance sheet. In fact, in our sample the current assets of small and medium-sized Spanish firms represent 69.48 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 impo rtant because of its effects on the firm’s profitability and risk, and consequently its value (Smith, 1980). On the one hand, maintaining 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 credit favors the firm’s 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 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 profitability. 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. 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 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 inventory accounts, and how much credit to accept from suppliers, are reflected in the firm’s 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 previous studies have used this measure to analyze whether shortening t he cash conversion cycle has positive or negative effects on the firm’s 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 stock 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 improve 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 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 long-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 financing 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 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 developed capital markets (La Porta, López-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny, 1997), and by the fact that most resources are channeled through financial intermediaries (Pampillón, 2000). All this suggests that Spanish SMEs have fewer alternative sources of external finance available, which makes them more 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 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 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 firm’s number of days accounts receivable and inventories. Similarly, shortening the cash conversion cycle also improves the firm’s profitability.

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 the requirements established by the European

Commission’s 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 than €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, fixed 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 presented 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 analyze the effects of working capital management on the firm’s 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 management 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 to 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 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 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 cycle, 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 assets, 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 significant 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 include this variable.

Furthermore, and since good economic conditions tend to be reflected in a firm’s 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 characteristics 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 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, 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 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 construction 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 – 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 funding 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 number 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 of 3.66 percent in Spain.

Source: Pedro Juan García-Teruel and Pedro Martínez-Solano ,2006.“Effec ts 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、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，并且与此同时，他们从他们自己的供应商那里获得更多的资金。第二个贡献是，不同于施尼和索能（1998）和迪罗夫（2003）以往的研究，当前的工作我们已经测试出了可能存在的内生性问题，其目的是确保在分析中发现是因为现金转换周期影响公司盈利能力而不是反过来。

我们的研究结果表明，管理者可以通过减少其公司的应收账款和库存的周转天数可以为公司创造价值。同样，缩短资金周转周期也可以提高公司的盈利能力。

我们从AMADEUS数据库中得到了这项研究所需要的数据，这个数据库由布鲁

范迪克进行了升级，包含了欧洲公司的财务和经济数据。样本包括来自西班牙的小型和中型公司，中小企业的选择主要是根据欧盟委员会在1996年4月3日依据96/280/CE的规定对小型和中型公司的定义。具体来说，我们选择了的公司至少三年应符合下列条件：第一，少于250名员工；第二，营业额少于40万欧元；第三，总资产不少于27万欧元。

除了这些选择标准的应用，我们还设置了一系列的过滤条件。因此，我们剔除了他们的帐户的异常现象，如负异常值的资产、流动资产、固定资产、负债、流动负债、资本、折旧或利息支付。我们会剔除一些会直接导致资产负债表和损益表表现出的与合理的期望值相反的一些因素。最后，我们剔除了由一些变量测试出的百分之一的极端值。由于实施这些过滤器的结果，我们最终将获得一个38464个观测样本。

为了介绍营运资本投资水平对经济周期的影响，我们从欧盟统计局获得了西班牙国内生产总值增长情况的资料。

为了分析对公司的营运资本管理的影响盈利能力，我们使用资产回报率（ROA）为因变量的回报。我们定义这个变量为息税前资产收益率的变量。

至于自变量，我们通过使用应收账款周转天数、存货周转天数和应付账款周转天数来度量营运资本管理工作。在这方面，应收账款周转天数（AR）的计算为365×[应收账款/销售收入]。这个变量代表的是公司向客户收取的款项所需的平均天数。该值越高，表示公司在应收账款上的投资越大。

我们通过365×[库存量/购买成本]计算出存货周转天数(INV)。这个变量反映了公司持有库存的平均天数。更长的存储时间表示在存货上投资越大的一种特殊的经营方式。

应付账款周转天数反映公司支付给他们的供应商账款的平均时间。我们计算这个值通过365×[应付帐款/购买成本]，该值越高，表明公司需要越长的时间来履行其对他们的供应商的付款承诺。

同时考虑这三个时期，我们估计出现金转换周期。这个变量是通过应收帐款周转天数加上存货周转天数减去应付账款周转天数计算出的，现金转换周期越长，流动资产净投资就会越大，从而流动性资产的融资需求就会增加。

这三个变量是作为控制变量，通过他们可以确定公司的大小，销售的增长水

平以及其杠杆作用的大小。我们通过资产对数的测算出公司的大小，通过本期的销售减去机器的销售再除以机器的销售计算出销售增长率，用资产负债率表示公司的杠杆水平。迪罗夫在比利时的大型公司的研究报告中（2003）也是把固定金融资产对总资产比作为控制变量。因为在他的研究中有一些公司的这样的资产是总资产的重要组成部分。然而，我们的研究着重于中小型企业，其固定金融资产不是很重要。事实上，我们的样本公司在固定金融资产上的投资平均在百分之3.92的水平，上下浮动百分之0.05。然而，即便包含了这个变量，测算结果也会保持不变的。

此外，由于良好的经济条件往往可以带动公司盈利能力的增长，我们使用国内生产总值这个变量来确定经济周期所处的阶段。

流动资产及负债根据公司所属行业运营活动的不同都有着一系列各自不同的特征。因此，表一反映的是资产收益率和应收账款周转天数，库存天数和应付账款周转天数。采矿业和服务业这两个行业有着最高的资产回报率，高达百分之十。那些致力于农业、贸易（批发或零售）、运输和公共服务的公司，其回报率都是低于百分之七的。

关于行业的平均周期，我们发现，正如我们所期望的那样，从事零售贸易的公司至少需要平均38天的时间才可以收回他们客户的款项。建筑行业的公司授予其客户最长的支付时间，可以超过145天，接下来，我们发现采矿业公司，其应收账款周转天数长达116天。我们还发现，农业的平均存货周期最长，运输业及公共服务业的平均库存量最少。关于应付帐款周转天数，支付给供应商的款项，零售商为56天低于批发商的77天。建筑行业和采矿业的公司还要更慢，平均支付给他们的供应商的款项至少要超过140天。然而，正如我们所提到的，这些企业也给予他们自己的客户最长的时间去付款。考虑到所有的平均周期，我们注意到，只有交通和公共服务业的现金转换周期为负。这是短期平均库存行业的原因。在这方面，农业和制造业的公司花费最长的时间产生现金，分别为95天和96天，因此需要最多的资源以维持其运营的资金需求。

表二提供了有关整个样本中使用的变量的描述性数据。这些是一些拥有6百万欧元平均资产普通小企业，他们的资产收益率约为8%；应收账款周转天数是96天左右；它们的应付账款周转天数近似于97天左右。还有，样本公司的年

平均销售增长将近13%，它们负债中的24.74%被借款占去。在分析期间（1996-2002年），西班牙的国内生产总值年平均增长率达到3.66%。

出处: 佩德罗·胡安·加西亚·特鲁埃尔和佩德罗·马丁内斯·索拉诺，《营运资金管理对中小企业的盈利能力的影响》，国际金融管理,第三卷

(2),2006(4)：164-167.