譯文（字數 3340）

營運資本管理對中小企業盈利能力的影響

公司財務文獻一直側重于長期財務決策的研究。研究人員特別提供了研究分析投資，資本結構，股息或公司估值，以及其他主題。但企業投資形成的短期資產，和下一年到期的資源，代表著對公司資產負債表項目的主要份額。事實上，在我們的樣本中，中小型西班牙公司的流動資產占其資產的百分之69.48，同時他們的流動負債占負債的百分之52.82以上。

營運資本管理是重要的，因為它的影響，公司的盈利能力和風險，因此其價值（史米斯，1980）。一方面，保持較高的庫存水平，減少生產過程中的可能的中斷成本，或企業因產品稀缺的損失，降低供應成本，并防止價格波動，在其他優勢（布林德和布林德和曼西尼，1991）。另一方面，給予商業信用有利于公司的銷售以各種方式。貿易信貸可以作為一個有效的降價（布倫南，Maksimovic，1988；彼得森和Zechner，Rajan，1997），刺激顧客在低需求時獲得商品（Emery，1987），允許客戶檢查他們收到的商品如同意（數量和質量），確保服務承包進行（史米斯，1987），并幫助企業加強與顧客的長期關系（吳，史米斯和史密斯，1999）。然而，大量投資于庫存和貿易信貸的企業可能會遭受盈利能力下降。因此，流動資產的投資越大，風險越低，盈利能力也就越低。

另一方面，貿易信貸是一種自發的融資來源，它減少了存貨和客戶賬戶所需資金的數額。但是我們應該牢記，如果提前付款折扣，供應商的融資可以有很高的隱性成本。事實上，機會成本可能超過百分之20，根據不同的折扣率和折扣期授予（Wilner，2000；吳，史米斯和史密斯，1999）。在這方面，以往的研究已經分析了貿易信貸成本高，發現公司財務自己賣家信用時，他們沒有其他更多的經濟提供資金來源（彼得森和拉詹，1994和1997）。 

外文原文（字符數 10907）

EFFECTS OF WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT ON SME PROFITABILITY

The corporate finance literature has traditionally focused on the study of longterm 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 important 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).