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1、本科毕业论文（设计）外 文 翻 译原文：An Analysis of Working Capital Management Results Across IndustriesAbstract Firms are able to reduce financing costs and/or increase the funds available for expansion by minimizing the amount of funds tied up in current assets. We provide insights into the performance of surveyed
2、 firms across key components of working capital management by using the CFO magazines annual Working Capital Management Survey. We discover that significant differences exist between industries in working capital measures across time. In addition. we discover that these measures for working capital
3、change significantly within industries across time. Introduction The importance of efficient working capital management is indisputable. Working capital is the difference between resources in cash or readily convertible into cash (Current Assets) and organizational commitments for which cash will so
4、on be required (Current Liabilities). The objective of working capital management is to maintain the optimum balance of each of the working capital components. Business viability relies on the ability to effectively manage receivables. inventory. and payables. Firms are able to reduce financing cost
5、s and/or increase the funds available for expansion by minimizing the amount of funds tied up in current assets. Much managerial effort is expended in bringing non-optimal levels of current assets and liabilities back toward optimal levels. An optimal level would be one in which a balance is achieve
6、d between risk and efficiency. A recent example of business attempting to maximize working capital management is the recurrent attention being given to the application of Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma methodologies help companies measure and ensure quality in all areas of the enterprise. When use
7、d to identify and rectify discrepancies. inefficiencies and erroneous transactions in the financial supply chain. Six Sigma reduces Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). accelerates the payment cycle. improves customer satisfaction and reduces the necessary amount and cost of working capital needs. There ap
8、pear to be many success stories. including Jennifer Townes (2002) report of a 15 percent decrease in days that sales are outstanding. resulting in an increased cash flow of approximately $2 million at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center. Furthermore. bad debts declined from $3.4 million to $600.000. H
9、owever. Waxers (2003) study of multiple firms employing Six Sigma finds that it is really a “get rich slow” technique with a rate of return hovering in the 1.2 4.5 percent range. Even in a business using Six Sigma methodology. an “optimal” level of working capital management needs to be identified.
10、Even in a business using Six Sigma methodology. an “optimal” level of working capital management needs to be identified. Industry factors may impact firm credit policy. inventory management. and bill-paying activities. Some firms may be better suited to minimize receivables and inventory. while othe
11、rs maximize payables. Another aspect of “optimal” is the extent to which poor financial results can be tied to sub-optimal performance. Fortunately. these issues are testable with data published by CFO magazine. which claims to be the source of “tools and information for the financial executive.” an
12、d are the subject of this research. In addition to providing mean and variance values for the working capital measures and the overall metric. two issues will be addressed in this research. One research question is. “are firms within a particular industry clustered together at consistent levels of w
13、orking capital measures?” For instance. are firms in one industry able to quickly transfer sales into cash. while firms from another industry tend to have high sales levels for the particular level of inventory . The other research question is. “does working capital management performance for firms
14、within a given industry change from year-to-year?” The following section presents a brief literature review. Next. the research method is described. including some information about the annual Working Capital Management Survey published by CFO magazine. Findings are then presented and conclusions ar
15、e drawn.Related Literature The importance of working capital management is not new to the finance literature. Over twenty years ago. Largay and Stickney (1980) reported that the then-recent bankruptcy of W.T. Grant. a nationwide chain of department stores. should have been anticipated because the co
16、rporation had been running a deficit cash flow from operations for eight of the last ten years of its corporate life. As part of a study of the Fortune 500s financial management practices. Gilbert and Reichert (1995) find that accounts receivable management models are used in 59 percent of these fir
17、ms to improve working capital projects. while inventory management models were used in 60 percent of the companies. More recently. Farragher. Kleiman and Sahu (1999) find that 55 percent of firms in the S&P Industrial index complete some form of a cash flow assessment. but did not present insights r
18、egarding accounts receivable and inventory management. or the variations of any current asset accounts or liability accounts across industries. Thus. mixed evidence exists concerning the use of working capital management techniques. Theoretical determination of optimal trade credit limits are the su
19、bject of many articles over the years (e.g. Schwartz 1974; Scherr 1996). with scant attention paid to actual accounts receivable management. Across a limited sample. Weinraub and Visscher (1998) observe a tendency of firms with low levels of current ratios to also have low levels of current liabilit
20、ies. Simultaneously investigating accounts receivable and payable issues. Hill. Sartoris. and Ferguson (1984) find differences in the way payment dates are defined. Payees define the date of payment as the date payment is received. while payers view payment as the postmark date. Additional WCM insig
21、ht across firms. industries. and time can add to this body of research. Maness and Zietlow (2002. 51. 496) presents two models of value creation that incorporate effective short-term financial management activities. However. these models are generic models and do not consider unique firm or industry
22、 influences. Maness and Zietlow discuss industry influences in a short paragraph that includes the observation that. “An industry a company is located in may have more influence on that companys fortunes than overall GNP” (2002. 507). In fact. a careful review of this 627-page textbook finds only sp
23、oradic information on actual firm levels of WCM dimensions. virtually nothing on industry factors except for some boxed items with titles such as. “Should a Retailer Offer an In-House Credit Card” (128) and nothing on WCM stability over time. This research will attempt to fill this void by investiga
24、ting patterns related to working capital measures within industries and illustrate differences between industries across time. An extensive survey of library and Internet resources provided very few recent reports about working capital management. The most relevant set of articles was Weisel and Bra
25、dleys (2003) article on cash flow management and one of inventory control as a result of effective supply chain management by Hadley (2004).Research MethodThe CFO Rankings The first annual CFO Working Capital Survey. a joint project with REL Consultancy Group. was published in the June 1997 issue of
26、 CFO (Mintz and Lezere 1997). REL is a London. England-based management consulting firm specializing in working capital issues for its global list of clients. The original survey reports several working capital benchmarks for public companies using data for 1996. Each company is ranked against its p
27、eers and also against the entire field of 1.000 companies. REL continues to update the original information on an annual basis. REL uses the “cash flow from operations” value located on firm cash flow statements to estimate cash conversion efficiency (CCE). This value indicates how well a company tr
28、ansforms revenues into cash flow. A “days of working capital” (DWC) value is based on the dollar amount in each of the aggregate. equally-weighted receivables. inventory. and payables accounts. The “days of working capital” (DNC) represents the time period between purchase of inventory on acccount f
29、rom vendor until the sale to the customer. the collection of the receivables. and payment receipt. Thus. it reflects the companys ability to finance its core operations with vendor credit. A detailed investigation of WCM is possible because CFO also provides firm and industry values for days sales o
30、utstanding (A/R). inventory turnover. and days payables outstanding (A/P). Research FindingsAverage and Annual Working Capital Management Performance Working capital management component definitions and average values for the entire 1996 2000 period . Across the nearly 1.000 firms in the survey. cas
31、h flow from operations. defined as cash flow from operations divided by sales and referred to as “cash conversion efficiency” (CCE). averages 9.0 percent. Incorporating a 95 percent confidence interval. CCE ranges from 5.6 percent to 12.4 percent. The days working capital (DWC). defined as the sum o
32、f receivables and inventories less payables divided by daily sales. averages 51.8 days and is very similar to the days that sales are outstanding (50.6). because the inventory turnover rate (once every 32.0 days) is similar to the number of days that payables are outstanding (32.4 days). In all inst
33、ances. the standard deviation is relatively small. suggesting that these working capital management variables are consistent across CFO reports. Industry Rankings on Overall Working Capital Management Performance CFO magazine provides an overall working capital ranking for firms in its survey. using
34、 the following equation: Industry-based differences in overall working capital management are presented for the twenty-six industries that had at least eight companies included in the rankings each year. In the typical year. CFO magazine ranks 970 companies during this period. Industries are listed
35、in order of the mean overall CFO ranking of working capital performance. Since the best average ranking possible for an eight-company industry is 4.5 (this assumes that the eight companies are ranked one through eight for the entire survey). it is quite obvious that all firms in the petroleum indust
36、ry must have been receiving very high overall working capital management rankings. In fact. the petroleum industry is ranked first in CCE and third in DWC (as illustrated in Table 5 and discussed later in this paper). Furthermore. the petroleum industry had the lowest standard deviation of working c
37、apital rankings and range of working capital rankings. The only other industry with a mean overall ranking less than 100 was the Electric & Gas Utility industry. which ranked second in CCE and fourth in DWC. The two industries with the worst working capital rankings were Textiles and Apparel. Textil
38、es rank twenty-second in CCE and twenty-sixth in DWC. The apparel industry ranks twenty-third and twenty-fourth in the two working capital measuresConclusions The research presented here is based on the annual ratings of working capital management published in CFO magazine. Our findings indicate a c
39、onsistency in how industries “stack up” against each other over time with respect to the working capital measures. However. the working capital measures themselves are not static (i.e. averages of working capital measures across all firms change annually); our results indicate significant movements
40、across our entire sample over time. Our findings are important because they provide insight to working capital performance across time. and on working capital management across industries. These changes may be in explained in part by macroeconomic factors. Changes in interest rates. rate of innovati
41、on. and competition are likely to impact working capital management. As interest rates rise. there would be less desire to make payments early. which would stretch accounts payable. accounts receivable. and cash accounts. The ramifications of this study include the finding of distinct levels of WCM
42、measures for different industries. which tend to be stable over time. Many factors help to explain this discovery. The improving economy during the period of the study may have resulted in improved turnover in some industries. while slowing turnover may have been a signal of troubles ahead. Our resu
43、lts should be interpreted cautiously. Our study takes places over a short time frame during a generally improving market. In addition. the survey suffers from survivorship bias only the top firms within each industry are ranked each year and the composition of those firms within the industry can cha
44、nge annually.Source: Thomas M. Krueger, “An Analysis of Working Capital Management Results Across Industries” . American Journal of Business,vol.20,no.2,2005(20),pp.11-18.译文：对整个行业中营运资金管理的研究摘 要:企业能够降低融资成本或者尽量减少绑定在流动资产上的成立基金数额来用于扩大现有的资金。我们提供了在调查公司时出具报告中的关键组成部分，调查公司营运资金管理的报告是运用首席财务官杂志的年度资金管理的调查报告。我们发现，
45、行业间的明显差异存在于跨时资金的工作措施上。此外，这些措施在企业营运资金管理中实施后有了显著改变。导 言高效率的营运资金管理的重要性是不容置疑的。营运资金是资源或随时兑换成现金（流动资产）和即将的现金需要（流动负债）之间的差额。营运资金管理的目标是维持周转的流动资产和流动负债都达到最佳平衡。商业可行性的能力依赖于有效的应收账款、库存和应付帐款的管理。企业能够降低融资成本或增加通过最小化绑定在流动资产上的成立基金数额的资金用于扩大现有。太多的管理工作是消耗在带动流动资产和负债水平回到最佳水平。最理想的水平是达到在风险和效率之间的平衡。一个最近企业的例子是其试图最大限度地运用营运资金管理。这就是经
46、常受到重视的六西格玛方法的应用。六西格玛方法适用于企业涉及所有范围，能帮助公司测量和保证质量。当前这个方法用来识别和纠正错误的交易效率差异及财务供应链。六西格玛方法减少每天天销售最杰出，以达到加速支付周期、提高顾客满意度、降低成本的数量和流动资金的需求。似乎有许多成功的事例，包括珍妮汤的（2002）的关于销售天数减少了百分之十五的优秀的销售报告。造成的结果是在蒂博多万区域医疗中心产生的现金流量增加了大约200万美元。此外，坏帐从340万美元下降到60万美元。然而，外克瑟的(2003)研究多个公司雇用六西格玛发现它确实是一个“缓慢致富”技术与回报率悬停在1.2%-4.5%的范围。即使在一个业务中
47、使用，六西格玛方法论的“最佳”的营运资金管理需要被确认即使在一个业务中使用，六西格玛方法论的“最佳”的营运资金管理需要被确认。行业因素可能会影响企业的信贷政策、库存管理和账单支付活动。一些公司可能会更适合尽量减少应收账款和存货，而其他则适应应付款最大化。“最优”的另一个方面是槽糕的财务成果却是使用了最优性能。幸运的是，这些问题是可测试的并被首席财务官杂志所发表。这声称是“工具的来源和财务主管信息”即是本研究的主题。除了提供均值和营运资金的措施和整体度量。这两个问题将在本研究处其理差异值。一个研究问题是：“在特殊产业内的企业一起采用同样的的营运资金管理措施就能使其的水平一致吗？”例如，在同一行业
48、的企业能够迅速转化为现金销售（即有占应收水平低）。而来自其他行业的企业往往有较高的销售水平。特别是库存水平（即存货周转率高）。另一个研究问题是，“企业营运资金管理能否对企业绩效在行业内逐年改变起做作用？” 以下部分提供了一个简短的文献回顾。对下一步研究方法进行了介绍，包括一些有关这个一年一度的营运资金管理及财务官杂志公布的调查。调查是再提出和结论。相关文献 营运资金管理的重要性在于它并不是新的金融文学。20多年前，斯蒂克尼（1980）报告说。当时的小波格兰特的全国连锁百货公司相继破产，应该是因为公司经营了最后10年里经营里有8年的经营赤字，这早就作为一个世界500强的财务管理实践研究的一部分。
49、吉尔伯特和锐彻(1995)发现应收账款的管理模式在使用后，有百分之五十九的公司提高营运资金项目，而库存管理模型应用于百分之六十的公司。最近，法瑞芬.克莱曼和萨胡（1999年）发现百分之五十五的公司中，标准普尔工业指数完成是某种形式的现金流量的评估，但并未提出关于应收账款和存货管理的见解，或任何流动资产的变化帐户或各行业现有资产负债账户的变化。因此，混合证据表明有关营运资金管理技术的使用。优化贸易信贷限额理论是多年来自许多文章的主题（例如，施瓦茨1974，谢尔，1996）注重实际的应收账款的管理。通过有限的样本，温劳布和菲斯海尔(1998)观察到的趋势是目前比率低的公司也有低水平的流动负债。同时调查应收账款和应付账款的问题。希尔萨尔托里斯和弗格森（1984年）发现方式付款日期的不同的定义。收款人定义付款日期为收到货款的日期，而付款人查看付款日期的邮戳，额外的协作平台了解各企业、行业和时间能够增加这方面的研究机构。玛尼思和泽特罗（2002年）提供了两个价值创造的模式。纳入有效的短期的财务管理活动。但是，这些模型都是通用的模型并没有考虑独特的