Growth opportunities and trade credit: evidence from Chinese listed firms

Private firms in China have led the explosive growth of the country’s economy, but with restricted or no access to formal financing. It is puzzling that these firms use relatively less trade credit than their counterparts in developed countries. We argue that firms with more growth opportunities should rely mainly on internal financing owing to high asymmetric information, especially in a financial market environment biased towards state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as China. To explore growth opportunities, these firms may reduce their level of trade credit in the trade-off they face in deciding where to invest. Using panel data of Chinese non-financial listed firms for the period 2003–2013, we find that the relationship between growth opportunities and trade credit (both accounts receivable and payable) is significantly negative and is more pronounced in private firms than in SOEs. Furthermore, we also find that subsequent to the new receivable pledge policy being introduced, Chinese firms with more growth opportunities have higher accounts receivable, but similar levels of accounts payable.     

中小企业应收账款的风险防范问题探析

应收账款是企业资产的重要组成部分,企业应收账款管理的有效与否直接影响到企业资金的流动和收益的实现。对中小企业而言,随着竞争的不断加剧和资金的紧张,应收账款不能按期收回,企业的资金周转率低,就会导致企业生产经营陷入困境。因此对应收账款风险的防范已成为中小企业经营管理中不容忽视的重要课题。