译文（字数 3340）

营运资本管理对中小企业盈利能力的影响

公司财务文献一直侧重于长期财务决策的研究。研究人员特别提供了研究分析投资，资本结构，股息或公司估值，以及其他主题。但企业投资形成的短期资产，和下一年到期的资源，代表着对公司资产负债表项目的主要份额。事实上，在我们的样本中，中小型西班牙公司的流动资产占其资产的百分之69.48，同时他们的流动负债占负债的百分之52.82以上。

营运资本管理是重要的，因为它的影响，公司的盈利能力和风险，因此其价值（史米斯，1980）。一方面，保持较高的库存水平，减少生产过程中的可能的中断成本，或企业因产品稀缺的损失，降低供应成本，并防止价格波动，在其他优势（布林德和布林德和曼西尼，1991）。另一方面，给予商业信用有利于公司的销售以各种方式。贸易信贷可以作为一个有效的降价（布伦南，Maksimovic，1988；彼得森和Zechner，Rajan，1997），刺激顾客在低需求时获得商品（Emery，1987），允许客户检查他们收到的商品如同意（数量和质量），确保服务承包进行（史米斯，1987），并帮助企业加强与顾客的长期关系（吴，史米斯和史密斯，1999）。然而，大量投资于库存和贸易信贷的企业可能会遭受盈利能力下降。因此，流动资产的投资越大，风险越低，盈利能力也就越低。

另一方面，贸易信贷是一种自发的融资来源，它减少了存货和客户账户所需资金的数额。但是我们应该牢记，如果提前付款折扣，供应商的融资可以有很高的隐性成本。事实上，机会成本可能超过百分之20，根据不同的折扣率和折扣期授予（Wilner，2000；吴，史米斯和史密斯，1999）。在这方面，以往的研究已经分析了贸易信贷成本高，发现公司财务自己卖家信用时，他们没有其他更多的经济提供资金来源（彼得森和拉詹，1994和1997）。 

外文原文（字符数 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).