外文翻譯--現(xiàn)金流對營運資本管理的影響和資金投資

1、中文2653字外文翻譯原文 The Cash Flow Implications of Managing Working Capital and Capital InvestmentMaterial Source: Journal of Business & Economic StudiesAuthor: Russell P. BoisjolyINTRODUCTIONIn recent years major corporations have discovered that there are important cash flow streams available to them if

2、they aggressively manage their working capital accounts (accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, and advance payments).While some have argued that cash flows generated through working capital management (improving inventory turnover, aggressive accounts receivable collection policies or su

3、pplier management programs, lengthening accounts payable payment periods, etc.) are transitory and, therefore, are not indicative of a fundamental improvement in the internal value creation process (business model), there is limited empirical evidence on whether these practices (a) have changed the

4、underlying probability distributions of the related financial ratios, (b) persisted over several years rather than just 2 or 3 years as implied by Mulford and Ely who purport that changes are transitory or temporary, (c) whether these changes in working capital management policies have impacted mark

5、et values positively (or negatively) or (d) whether we understand the model for cash flows through the firm adequately to properly conduct empirical tests or forecast cash flows. In addition to managerial policies, one should probably consider changes in technology and changes in the financial envir

6、onment. Typical DSO or ACP ratios have been radically lowered for most merchandisers by the nearly universal outsourcing of the credit function to credit card companies. Also, the decline of short-term interest rates most certainly affected WC policies during the period in question, making firms les

7、s willing to hold cash, and perhaps more willing to increase short-term liabilities. This issue is important to examine not only to determine if changes in management practices have impacted cash flow and value creation, but also to investigate whether ratio norms may have changed and shifted the be

8、nchmarks for comparisons between firms. Furthermore, these benchmarks are derived from the measures of central tendency, but the appropriate use of these benchmarks may be influenced (or biased) by the third (skewness) and fourth (kurtosis) moments of the ratio distributions or industry effects or f

9、inancial condition. If the bias exists and if the skewness is significant, then the appropriate benchmarks may deviate significantly from the mean, median, or mode. In the past, some researchers excluded “outliers,” e.g., introduced by skewness, from their studies because they were responsible for d

10、epartures from normality, or they made square root or logarithmic transformations to the data to reestablish or more nearly approach normality. These adjustments theoretically would leave the “benchmarks” unaltered. But, there is substantial evidence the distributions of financial ratios exhibit pos

11、itive skewness. Previous studies show that distributions of financial ratios exhibit positive skewness and departures from normality. However there have been no attempts to explain the source of the skewness. If management has engaged in practices that should attenuate mean deviations, skewness, or

12、kurtosis, then there may be evidence of this that can be discovered by following firms over time. If distributions have shifted (mean, variance, skewness, and/or kurtosis), then a longitudinal investigation may lead to the establishment of new benchmarks or a new benchmark measurement process, as we

13、ll as examine the impact on stock price performance.Also, if evidence exists for ratio distribution shifts, then there is cause to reexamine the value creation process and the causality of cash flow generation to value creation. Therefore,the starting point is this longitudinal study of an original

14、sample of 50 firms to determine if distributions have shifted due to changes in working capital management and corporate reinvestment policies. HYPOTHESIS FORMULATIONThis study will look at the distributional properties of several financial ratios tied to the working capital management and capital i

15、nvestment processes of the firm. We will investigate whether there is evidence to support the acceptance of the hypotheses that corporations, especially the largest firms, have become more vigorous in managing their working capital processes or capital investment practices to generate significant im

16、provements in cash flow. Specifically, corporations may have improved the management of accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, and advance payments to such an extent that distributions of the related financial ratios have shifted significantly. The distributions also may be more skewed as

17、 a result of these changes in corporate policy to accelerate customer payments or extend the period taken to pay suppliers. In addition, corporations may have reduced their reinvestment in the firm as a result of productivity improvements that have been achieved over the last 15 years. The reduction

18、 in capital investment may have improved the cash flow position of the firms that experienced significant productivity improvements. Hypothesis 1: There has been a significant improvement in the management of accounts receivable that has led to a significant improvement in the accounts receivable tu

19、rnover during the period 1990 to 2004. Hypothesis 1a: The distribution of the accounts receivable turnover ratio has become more positively skewed over the 1990-2004 time period. Hypothesis 2: There has been a significant improvement in the management of inventory that has led to a significant impro

20、vement in the inventory turnover during the period 1990 to 2004. Hypothesis 2a: The distribution of the inventory turnover ratio has become more positively skewed over the 1990-2004 time period. Hypothesis 3: There has been a significant improvement in the management of accounts payable that has led

21、 to a significant decrease in the accounts payable turnover during the period 1990 to 2004. Hypothesis 3a: The distribution of the accounts payable turnover ratio has become more negatively skewed over the 1990-2004 time period. Hypothesis 4: There has been a significant improvement in the managemen

22、t of working capital that has led to a significant improvement in the working capital per share during the period 1990 to 2004. Hypothesis 4a: The distribution of the working capital per share ratio has become more positively skewed over the 1990-2004 time period Hypothesis 5: There has been a signi

23、ficant improvement in the management of working capital that has led to a significant improvement in the cash flow per share during the period 1990 to 2004. Hypothesis 5a: The distribution of the cash flow per share ratio has become more positively skewed over the 1990-2004 time period. Hypothesis 6

24、: There has been a significant improvement in the management of capital expenditures that has led to a significant reduction in the investment ratio during the period 1990 to 2004. Hypothesis 6a: The distribution of the investment ratio has become less positively skewed over the 1990-2004 time perio

25、d. METHODOLOGYThe empirical tests of these hypotheses were conducted on an original sample of 50 selected at random from the 2005 Fortune 500. We excluded banking institutions and firms from the oil and gas industries since they have unique characteristics and two firms selected at random were elimi

26、nated from consideration because they were in bankruptcy. The final viable sample was 48 spread across industries and then Delphi declared bankruptcy during the analysis period. Data were collected from Compustat for the years 1990-2004. After calculating the ratios some firms were eliminated from c

27、onsideration for individual ratios because they did not have enough data points; because they were acquired or were formed through acquisition during the study period; because they went bankrupt during the study period; or they did not report the data categories needed to calculate a specific ratio

28、during an extended period of time during the study time frame. This sample consisted of non-bank institutions across a variety of industries. The purpose of this study is to determine whether any evidence exists to support the hypotheses stated above. And, if any of the hypotheses are confirmed, thi

29、s would be one of the first studies to attribute empirical results for financial ratios to changes in management practices over time. EMPIRICAL RESULTSThe data were analyzed and summary statistics were calculated for the sample firms.It reports the means of five financial ratios of interest: account

30、s receivable turnover, inventory turnover, accounts payable turnover, working capital per share, and cash flow per share. As expected, account receivable turnover and inventory turnover increase monotonically over the 15 year time period. Corporations have focused on improving these measures using a

31、 variety of managerial techniques. In managing accounts receivable corporations have utilized techniques such as employing more vigorous collection procedures, offering more generous cash discounts to early payers, paying early and taking discounts even when discounts are not offered, factoring rece

32、ivables, improving product quality to reduce disputed receivables which tend not to be paid while the dispute remains unresolved, etc. In managing inventory firms have utilized just-in-time procedures with suppliers to reduce storage while awaiting production; make-to-order procedures to reduce work

33、-in-process inventory, lean manufacturing initiatives to reduce the order-to-ship cycle time, quality programs that emphasize design for manufacture to reduce the number of parts, supplier rationalization to reduce the number of suppliers which reduces the number of different parts, etc. The numbers

34、 reported by writer verify that these corporate initiatives and programs seem to be working and improving results. 譯文 現(xiàn)金流對營運資本管理的影響和資金投資資料來源: 商業(yè)雜志和經(jīng)濟研究作者: Russell P. Boisjoly相關介紹近年來很多大型企業(yè)發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果他們能積極地管理其營運資金帳戶(應收賬款， 存貨， 應付帳款，以及預付款)，就能擁有大量的現(xiàn)金流。然而一些人認為，那些通過營運資金管理 (提高存貨周轉(zhuǎn)率，積極的應收帳款催收政策或者是供應商管理程序， 延長應付帳款付款

35、期等) 而產(chǎn)生的現(xiàn)金流量是暫時的。所以，并不能說明在內(nèi)部價值創(chuàng)造過程(業(yè)務模型) 中會有根本的好轉(zhuǎn)，關于這些做法有相關的實驗性證據(jù): (1) 已改變了相關的財務比率的基本概率分布;(2) 在持續(xù)數(shù)年間，而不是只有2或 3年里，已經(jīng)被馬爾福德和伊利預測到，他們曾聲稱改變是暫時的或是臨時的; (3) 在考慮營運資本管理政策時，這些變化對市場價值的影響是肯定的(或是消極的);(4) 我們通過企業(yè)是否能充分地理解現(xiàn)金流模型，來妥善進行實證試驗或預測現(xiàn)金流量。除了管理政策，我們可能考慮那些在技術和金融環(huán)境的變化下而產(chǎn)生的變化。典型的 DSO 或 ACP比例通過信貸功能的信用卡公司外包已經(jīng)從根本上削弱了

36、多數(shù)的推銷商。此外 在討論期間，短期利率下降必然影響有關 WC 政策，使得企業(yè)不太愿意持有現(xiàn)金，也許更愿意增加短期負債。這個問題很重要，不僅要審查，以確定管理實務的改變是否已經(jīng)影響了現(xiàn)金流和創(chuàng)造價值，而且也要調(diào)查比率基準是否已經(jīng)改變， 在企業(yè)之間已經(jīng)替換了類似的基準。此外，這些基準是來自集中趨勢測量，但這些基準的適當應用也可能受到比率分派或者是產(chǎn)業(yè)效果或者財政狀況的影響(或有偏差) ，影響可能是三分之一(偏斜度) 或在第四(峰態(tài)) 。如果存在偏差，或者偏差的存在能產(chǎn)生一定的影響，那么適當?shù)幕鶞试谀骋怀潭壬峡赡軙x平均數(shù)、中位數(shù)，或者在模式上也有一定的偏差。在過去，一些研究人員會排除異常值。例

37、如，他們從研究中引入偏度，為了對違反常態(tài)負責; 或者他們對數(shù)據(jù)提出平方根或?qū)?shù)轉(zhuǎn)換來恢復或更接近正常的做法。這些調(diào)整理論上會讓 “基準” 保持不變。但是，有大量證據(jù)表明財務比率呈現(xiàn)正偏態(tài)分布。以往的研究表明，財務比率呈現(xiàn)正偏態(tài)分布和反常態(tài)分布。但是大家也沒 有嘗試著去解釋怎么會產(chǎn)生偏度。如果管理層在實際過程中減弱平均偏差，偏度或者峰度，那么經(jīng)過一段時間，通過所舉例的企業(yè)可能會找到相關的證據(jù)。如果比率分布在一段時間內(nèi)轉(zhuǎn)移，然后一項縱向研究可能有助于確定轉(zhuǎn)移是暫時的或長期的。如果分布有轉(zhuǎn)移(均值，方差，偏度和/或峰度)，那么一個縱向調(diào)查可能會導致新的基準或新基準測量過程的建立， 以及研究對股票價格

38、績效的影響。同樣，如果有證據(jù)證明比率分布在變化，那么我們有理由要重新審視價值創(chuàng)造過程和現(xiàn)金流量產(chǎn)生創(chuàng)造價值的因果關系。因此，出發(fā)點就是通過 50 家公司的一個原始樣品的縱向研究，以確定分布的轉(zhuǎn)移是由于營運資金的管理和企業(yè)再投資政策的變化所造成的。 假設規(guī)劃這項研究將著眼于營運資金管理與企業(yè)資本投資過程的幾種財務比率的分布性質(zhì)。我們將調(diào)查是否有證據(jù)可以支持假設，那就是一些企業(yè)，特別是規(guī)模較大的企業(yè)，通過管理其營運資金或資本投資實踐過程而產(chǎn)生更大的現(xiàn)金流，它們在這方面的成績顯得更加有力。具體來說，企業(yè)可能有完善的應收賬款，存貨，應付帳款，預付款管理。在這樣的條件下，相關的財務比率的分布就會有明顯的轉(zhuǎn)變。這樣的分布可能更多地會被認為是企業(yè)政策，用來加速客戶付款或延長供應商支付現(xiàn)金的期限。此外，公司 如果在過去 15 年里生產(chǎn)力有很大的進步，成果顯著就可能因此而降低該公司的再投資。如果一個企業(yè)在生產(chǎn)力上有明顯的提高，那么企業(yè)資本性投資的減少就會提高該企業(yè)的現(xiàn)金流狀況。假設 1: 在 1990 至 2004 年期間， 應收賬款管理很大程度上的改善促進了應收賬款周轉(zhuǎn)率的顯著提高。 假設 1a: 在 1990年至 2004年時間內(nèi)，應收賬款周轉(zhuǎn)率的比例分配呈正偏態(tài)分布。 假設 2: 在 1990 至 2004 年期間，庫存管理的改善使存貨周轉(zhuǎn)有很大的提高。假設 2a