盈利能力外文资料翻译译文

企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)原文：Measuring the quality of earnings1. IntroductionGenerally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) offer some flexibility in preparing the financial statements and give the financial managers some freedom to select among accounting policies and alternatives. Earning management uses the flexibility in financial reporting to alter the financial results of the firm (Ortega and Grant, 2003).In other words, earnings management is manipulating the earning to achieve a企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献predetermined target set by the management. It is a purposeful intervention in the external reporting process with the intent of obtaining some private gain (Schipper, 1989).Levit (1998) defines earning management as a gray area where the accounting is being perverted; where managers are cutting corners; and, where earnings reports reflect the desires of management rather than the underlying financial performance of the company.The popular press lists several instances of companies engaging in earnings management. Sensormatic Electronics, which stamped shipping dates and times on sold merchandise, stopped its clocks on the last day of a quarter until customer shipments reached its sales goal. Certain business units of Cendant Corporation inflated revenues nearly $500 million just prior to a merger; subsequently, Cendant restated revenuesand agreed with the SEC to change revenue recognition practices. AOL restated earnings for $385 million in improperly deferred marketing expenses. In 1994, the Wall Street Journal detailed the many ways in which General Electric smoothed earnings, including the careful timing of capital gains and the use of restructuring charges and reserves, in response to the article, General Electric reportedly received calls from other corporations questioning why such common practices were“front-page〞 news.Earning management occurs when managers use judgment in financial reporting and in structuring transactions to alter financial reports to either mislead some stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of the company or to influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers (Healy and Whalen, 1999).Magrath and Weld (2002) indicate that abusive earnings management and fraudulent practices begins by engaging in earnings management schemes designed primarily to “smooth〞 earnings to meet internally or externally imposed earnings forecasts and analysts’ expectations. Even if earnings management does not explicitly violate accounting rules, it is an ethically questionable practice. An organization that manages its earnings sends a企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献message to its employees that bending the truth is an acceptable practice. Executives who partake of this practice risk creating an ethical climate in which other questionable activities may occur. A manager who asks the sales staff to help sales one day forfeits the moral authority to criticize questionable sales tactics another day.Earnings management can also become a very slippery slope, which relatively minor accounting gimmicks becoming more and more aggressiveuntil they create material misstatements in the financial statements (Clikeman, 2003)The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued three staff accounting bulletins (SAB) to provide guidance on some accounting issues in order to prevent the inappropriate earnings management activities by public companies: SAB No. 99 “Materiality〞, SAB No. 100 “Restructuring and Impairment Charges〞 and SAB No. 101 “Revenue Recognition〞.Earnings management behavior may affect the quality of accounting earnings, which is defined by Schipper and Vincent (2003) as the extent to which the reported earnings faithfully represent Hichsian economic income, which is the amount that can be consumed (i.e. paid out as dividends) during a period, while leaving the firm equally well off at the beginning and the end of the period.Assessment of earning quality requires sometimes the separations of earnings into cash from operation and accruals, the more the earnings is closed to cash from operation, the higher earnings quality. As Penman (2001) states that the purpose of accounting quality analysis is to distinguish between the “hard〞 numbers resulting from cash flows and the “soft〞 numbers resulting from accrual accounting.The quality of earnings can be assessed by focusing on the earning persistence; high quality earnings are more persistent and useful in the process of decision making.Beneish and Vargus (2002) investigate whether insider trading is informative about earnings quality using earning persistence as a measure for the quality of earnings, they find that income-increasing accruals are significantly more persistent for firms with abnormal insider buying and significantly less persistent for firms with abnormal insider selling, relative to firms which there is no abnormal insider trading.Balsam et al. (2003) uses the level of discretionary accruals as a direct measure企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献for earning quality. The discretionary accruals model is based on a regression relationship between the change in total accruals as dependent variable and change in sales and change in the level of property, plant and equipment, change in cash flow from operations and change in firm size (total assets) as independent variables. If the regression coefficients in this model are significant that means that there is earning management in that firm and the earnings quality is low.This research presents an empirical study on using three different approaches of measuring the quality of earnings on different industry. The notion is; if there is a complete consistency among the three measures, a general assessment for the quality of earnings (high or low) can be reached and, if not, the quality of earnings is questionable and needs different other approaches for measurement and more investigations and analysis.The rest of the paper is divided into following sections: Earnings management incentives, Earnings management techniques, Model development, Sample and statistical results, and Conclusion.2. Earnings management incentives 2.1 Meeting analysts’ expectations In general, analysts’ expectations and company predictions tend to address two high-profile components of financial performance: revenue and earnings from operations.The pressure to meet revenue expectations is particularly intense and may be the primary catalyst in leading managers to engage in earning management practices that result in questionable or fraudulent revenue recognition practices. Magrath and Weld (2002) indicate that improperrevenue recognition practices were the cause of one-third of all voluntary or forced restatements of income filed with the SEC from 1977 to 2000. Ironically, it is often the companies themselves that create this pressure to meet the market’s earnings expectations. It is common practice for companies to provide earnings estimates to analysts and investors. Management is often faced with the task of ensuring their targeted estimates are met.企业盈利质量分析中英文对照外文翻译文献Several companies, including Coca-Cola Co., Intel Corp., and Gillette Co., have taken a contrary stance and no longer provide quarterly and annual earnings estimates to analysts. In doing so, these companies claim they have shifted their focus from meeting short-term earnings estimates to achieving their long-term strategies (Mckay and Brown, 2002).2.2 To avoid debt-covenant violations and minimize political costs Some firms have the incentive to avoid violating earnings-based debt covenants. If violated, the lender may be able to raise the interest rate on the debt or demand immediate repayment. Consequently, some firms may use earnings-management techniques to increase earnings to avoid such covenant violations. On the other hand, some other firms have the incentive to lower earnings in order to minimize political costs associated with being seen as too profitable. For example, if gasoline prices have been increasing significantly and oil companies are achieving record profit level, then there may be incentive for the government to intervene and enact an excess-profit tax or attempt to introduce price controls.2.3 To smooth earnings toward a long-term sustainable trendFor many years it has been believed that a firm should attempt to reduce the volatility in its earnings stream in order to maximize share price. Because a highly violate earning pattern indicates risk, therefore thestock will lose value compared to others with more stable earnings patterns. Consequently, firms have incentives to manage earnings to help achieve a smooth and growing earnings stream (Ortega and Grant, 2003).2.4 Meeting the bonus plan requirementsHealy (1985) provides the evidence that earnings are managed in the direction that is consistent with maximizing executives’ earnings-based bonus. When earnings will be below the minimum level required to earn a bonus, then earning are managed upward so that the minimum is achieved and a bonus is earned. Conversely, when earning will be above the maximum level at which no additional bonus is paid, then earnings are managed downward. The extra earnings that will not generate extra bonus this current period are saved to be used to earn a bonus in a future period.。

本科毕业论文外文参考文献译文及原文学院经济与贸易学院专业经济学（贸易方向）年级班别学号学生姓名指导教师目录1 外文文献译文（一）中国银行业的改革和盈利能力（第1、2、4部分） (1)2 外文文献原文（一）CHINA’S BANKING REFORM AND PROFITABILITY（Part 1、2、4） (9)1概述世界银行（1997年）曾声称，中国的金融业是其经济的软肋。

当一国的经济增长的可持续性岌岌可危的时候，金融业的改革一直被认为是提高资金使用效率和消费型经济增长重新走向平衡的必要（Lardy，1998年，Prasad，2007年）。

事实上，不久前，中国的国有银行被视为“技术上破产”，它们的生存需要依靠充裕的国家流动资金。

但是，在银行改革开展以来，最近，强劲的盈利能力已恢复到国有商业银行的水平。

但自从中国的国有银行在不久之前已经走上了改革的道路，它可能过早宣布银行业的改革尚未取得完全的胜利。

此外，其坚实的财务表现虽然强劲，但不可持续增长。

随着经济增长在2008年全球经济衰退得带动下已经开始软化，银行预计将在一个比以前更加困难的经济形势下探索。

本文的目的不是要评价银行业改革对银行业绩的影响，这在一个完整的信贷周期后更好解决。

相反，我们的目标是通过审查改革的进展和银行改革战略，并分析其近期改革后的强劲的财务表现，但是这不能完全从迄今所进行的改革努力分离。

本文有三个部分。

在第二节中，我们回顾了中国的大型国有银行改革的战略，以及其执行情况，这是中国银行业改革的主要目标。

第三节中分析了2007年的财务表现集中在那些在市场上拥有浮动股份的四大国有商业银行：中国工商银行（工商银行），中国建设银行（建行），对中国银行（中银）和交通银行（交通银行）。

引人注目的是中国农业银行，它仍然处于重组上市过程中得适当时候的后期。

第四节总结一个对银行绩效评估。

2 银行改革战略及其实施2.1 银行改革战略改革前，国有独资银行由国家拥有并服务于国家经济政策的目标。

客户盈利能力分析外文文献翻译(含：英文原文及中文译文)文献出处：Raaij E M V, Vernooij M J A, Triest S V. The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case study[J]. Industrial Marketing Management, 2003, 32(7):573-583.英文原文The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case studyRaaij E M V, Vernooij M J A, Triest S VAbstractBy using customer profitability analysis (CPA), firms can determine the profit contribution of customer segments and/or individual customers. This article presents an approach for the implementation of CPA. The implementation process is illustrated using a case study of a firm producing and selling professional cleaning products. The case study highlights specific issues related to CPA in an industrial setting,and the results provide examples of the possible benefits of implementing a process of regular CPA.D 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Customer profitability; Customer relationship management (CRM); Implementation; Case study1. IntroductionWithin any given customer base, there will be differences in the revenues customers generate for the firm and in the costs the firm has toincur to secure those revenues. While most firms will know the customer revenues, many firms are unaware of all costs associated with customer relationships. In general, product costs will be known for each customer, but sales and marketing, service, and support costs are mostly treated as overhead. Customer profitability analysis (CPA) refers to the allocation of revenues and costs to customer segments or individual customers, such that the profitability of those segments and/or individual customers can be calculated.The impetus for the increasing attention for CPA is twofold. First, the rise of activity-based costing (ABC) in the 1990s led to an increased understanding of the varying extent to which the manufacturing of different products used a firm’s resources (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991; Foster &Gupta, 1994). When using ABC, firms first identify cost pools: categories of activities performed within the organization(e.g., procurement).Second, information technology makes it possible to record and analyze more customer data— both in type and in amount. As data such as number of orders, number of sales visits, number of service calls, etc. are stored at the level of the individual customer, it becomes possible to actually calculate customer profitability.It is considered good industrial marketing practice to build and nurture profitable relationships with customers. To be able to do this, afirm should know how current customer relationships differ in profitability, as well as what customer segments offer higher potential for future profitable customer relationships.2. The potential benefits of CPAThe direct benefits of CPA lie in the insight it provides in the uneven distribution of costs and revenues over customers. The information on the spread of costs among customers will be valuable in particular, as the distribution of revenues will generally be known to the firm. This insight in the extent to which specific customers consume the firm’s resources generates new opportunities for the firm in three areas: cost management, revenue management, and strategic marketing management.First, CPA uncovers opportunities for targeted cost management and profit improvement programs. Published figures show examples where 20% of customers generate 225% of profits (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991), where more than half of the customers is unprofitable (Storbacka, 1997)or where the loss on a customer can be as high as 2.5 times sales revenue (Niraj, Gupta, & Narasimhan, 2001). CPA, as a specific application of ABC, reveals the links between activities and resource consumption, and it therefore points directly to profit opportunities (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991). Second, CPA provides a basis for well-informed pricing decisions, bonus plans, and discounts to customers. It shows why filling some orders cost more than others and enables firms to have their prices reflectthose differences (Shapiro et al., 1987).The analysis outcomes may also help in revising existing discounting structures to improve profitability (cf. Kalafatis & Denton, 2000).Third, CPA opens up possibilities for segmentation and targeting strategies based on cost and profitability profiles. Some companies have segmented their customer base in platinum, gold, iron, and lead customers, based on their contributions to profits.These potential benefits of CPA are frequently cited in the literature. Yet the issues arising in actually implementing CPA are seldom discussed. In the next section, an overall approach for the implementation of CPA is presented.3. An overall approach for implementing CPAThe actual calculation of customer profitability amounts to an extensive ABC exercise. To make CPA really useful, the implementation should go further than drawing up a customer profitability model and plugging data into it, as the value of the analysis is in the actions based on better informed decision-making. Therefore, a six-step approach to implementing CPA is suggested. This approach, outlined in Fig. 1, provides a directive for a team consisting of at least a marketer and a management accountant. Depending on the characteristics of the firm and its information systems, the team can also include operations managers and information specialists.The sixth and final step deals with establishing the necessary infrastructure for the continued use of CPA. Embedding CPA in the daily routines of sales and marketing and accounting may well necessitate changes in procedures(e.g., marketing planning), changes in responsibilities, and changes in systems (e.g., information systems). The next section presents the application of this six-step approach in a business-to-business setting.4. The implementation of CPA in an industrial cleaning firmThe case organization is one of the national sales offices of a multinational firm that engages in the development, production, sales, and marketing of professional cleaning products (chemicals, cleaning systems, and consumables).Among the f irm’s main markets are industrial laundry, office cleaning, hotel cleaning, kitchen hygiene, and personal hygiene. Its products are sold directly (to large end-users such as in-flight caterers and to service integrators such as professional cleaners), as well as through distributors. The firm has divided its market into market sectors based on the nature of the end-user (e.g., healthcare, lodging, or dairy).As with many industrial firms, this firm employs a considerable sales and service force. The sales force is responsible for the initiation, maintenance, and development of customer relationships. The service force is responsible for order processing, customer training, advice, product demonstrations, maintenance, and repair.Procedures are also part of the infrastructure. To improve the accuracy of future customer profitability figures, the sales managers and account managers were requested to start registering the duration of their customer visits. In the absence of such a registration in the first round of analysis, sales costs were allocated to customers as a percentage of revenues. The willingness of the sales force to record their time spent for customers was high, as they understood the importance of this information for accurate analyses of customer profitability.5. Learning from CPAThe exercise described above was this firm’s first experience with CPA. As Ward and Ryals (2001) suggest, the most effective approach for attaining accurate valuations of customer relationships is an iterative approach in which a customer profitability model is progressively implemented in the organization. This means that, with each cycle, the model is to be improved until the calculations are sufficiently accurate for marketing purposes. For this firm, the first improvement for the next iteration concerns the registration of sales force hours to allocate sales costs more accurately. It has further decided to repeat the CPA exercise every 6 months and implement improvements along the way. For the firm, the exercise has sparked learning on three different levels: On the first, and most basic level, the firm has learned what each customer’s last year contribution has been to the firm’s operating income and how thisinformation can be used for cost management, revenue management, and marketing management. Second, the firm is learning how revenues and costs are best allocated to individual customers. The first attempt described in this article is only the start of a continuous improvement of such allocation methods. And third, the firm is learning what the various factors are that determine the value of each individual customer (customer profitability being but one of those factors).6. DiscussionThere are a few things you should know about CPA users. First, CPA numbers are constructed from multiple data sources. The accuracy of these data sources limits the possible accuracy of customer profitability figures. In addition, the CPA model must be a good representation of actual processing.The CPA exercise reported here is a retrospective analysis, which is an example of an analysis of past revenues and costs incurred by customers in a particular cycle. Managers will also be interested in prospective customer profit analysis. The quasi-CPA calculates the net present value of the future expected costs and revenues associated with serving the customer throughout his future life. The Quasi-Accountant Office is also known as the customer lifetime value analysis.To be able to estimate future costs and benefits, and the analysis of customer profitability is a valuable, if not necessary, first step.7. ConclusionIn this case, a six-step approach to implementing CPA within the company. Costs and revenue should be allocated to the only active customer, which means that the customer who starts analysis and identification can consider the active customer's customer database. The second step involves the company's internal production to serve the customer's costs, analysis of all activities. For all activities, the cost driver has to be calculated in such a way that it can be calculated for each cost driver how many units are identified for each individual customer. The actual calculation step 3 performs subsequent interpretation of the results and weighs the customer's a priori expectations of profit distribution. Based on the discussion of (preliminary) outcomes, the related costs allocated to the customer's previous decisions may be modified to improve the accuracy and/or fairness of the distribution. Once the number of calculation methods agreed, marketing strategies, procedures and actions can taste new information. It may require very unprofitable accounts to act immediately, improvement programs can be installed to reduce unnecessary costs, and new strategies may be targeted at the development of a particular customer base. As a sixth process, it may be necessary to adjust the organization to establish an infrastructure Use CPA in your organization.Regarding the third issue, which is the CPA-based differentiatedmarketing strategy, industrial companies should consider adopting profitability-based market segmentation and have been applied to financial services and other non-major industries and market differentiation strategies. Once a customer’s profit figures are established within a customer pyramid rated by customers as platinum, gold, iron, lead or customers, customers can serve at their own level. Since profit base segmentation is a new industrial enterprise, the first effective implementation of this may be to gain a disproportionate share of returns.The CPA will bring a lot of new information to the company for the first time. Therefore, the CPA is its own value. At this point, there is little evidence of its widespread use, and the actual implementation of companies in industry. In an increasingly focused era of CRM, customer loyalty, CPA is likely to be in urgent need of such efforts.中文译文客户盈利能力分析的实施:案例研究Raaij E M V, Vernooij M J A, Triest S V摘要通过使用客户盈利能力分析(CPA ),企业可以决定客户群和/或个人客户的利润贡献。

Profitability of Chinese listed companies1 Profitability study: Significance and key conclusions1.1 Significance of profitability studyProfits are the core of business operations in a modern economy. Drive for profits keep producers producing and retailers selling. As companies expand, capacity expansion starts to grow beyond its own means. Fund raising becomes a necessity. This can be achieved through loans, bonds or stocks. The key for bank loans or bond issuance is credit worthiness, or borr owers’ ability to pay back debt. For the stock market, the focus is on present and future profitability, in terms of earnings, earnings growth, cash flows, margins and market shares. In the direct capital market, capital investment destinations are determined through comparing return on equity (ROE). Companies that can deliver earnings and create maximum return on investment deserve the top picks.Unlike the original capitalist or entrepreneur, money at the stock market level has many choices of investment. It is much less attached to the original investment plan and typically less picky about which industry or management (smart investors do care about sector and management, but mainly from an investment perspective, not from a personal one) it will invest in. Money is committed to make money. The higher and the stronger profits are, the bigger the returns the investment will reap.While ROE profitability is at the centre of equity markets worldwide, less emphasis to it has been given in China. The short life span of China’ s stock exchange, excessive domestic liquidity in the past years and restrictions on capital flow all appear to have directed attention away from profitability. Management of some listed Chinese companies may also not to be focusing on this issue.In overseas markets, Chinese companies’ lack of profitability is probably the most frequently cited concern amongst equity investors. Less anxiety is expressed in 4 the domestic A-shares markets, but a rising awareness of earnings and other fundamentals has been evident recently. As Chinese equity markets develop and mature, we believe that domestic investors will place a stronger emphasis on profitability and demand higher returns on equity.The profitability i ssue goes beyond capital markets and investors’ interests. It is also a central pillar of a country’ s sustainable growth path, because profits represent wealth accumulation. Improvement in profitability is a proxy of productivity gains. One key lesson to be learnt from the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s is that economic growth must be associated with improvement in productivity and profitability. The old Asian model of pursuing high growththrough continued capital and labour inputs delivered impressive results for years or even decades, but ultimately failed. There is an abundant amount of economics literature detailing the “ Asian model” and its flaws, so we shall not extend the discussion further in this paper.Nonetheless, it is clear that shifting away from “ quantitative expansion” or a market share driven development pattern to “ qualitative expansion” or a productivity driven development pattern is crucial for Chin a’ s long term development strategy. This is about the sustainability of on-going rapid economic development. This is about the long-term prospects of China.Research articles focusing on the profitability and corporate governance of Chinese listed companies from a macro perspective from China or international financial institutions have been few and far between until recent years. Moreover, we took our study a little further by comparing profitability on a global scale as well as on an industry basis. To our knowledge, this has never been done before, but is significant in order to understand the strength and weakness of the listed companies. We also surveyed institutional investors, domestic and aboard, taking advantage of the unique combination of this project. Again, we believe this to bea new attempt at such work. 51.2 Basic conclusionsThe key findings and conclusions from this project are listed below.1) The Chinese listed companies in our survey generally recorded respectable profitability, in comparison to listed companies in US, Europeand Japan. A-shares companies seem to have higher ROE and marginsthan those listed in Hong Kong, though a bad macro environment in HongKong in the past few years probably lowered the profitability of Chinese companies, which receive a large source of their revenue flow from theSAR. Most overseas investors do not seem to be aware of the fact that theA-shares have a higher profitability than the Hong Kong listed Chinese companies.2) There is a clear trend of declining R OE and net income margins amongst companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen. While average margins inthe mid-1990s are in line with world standards; by the end of the 1990s,they had fallen significantly. This may be related to the deflationary environment at the macro level; this downward momentum in profitability is worrying. Hong Kong listed Chinese companies do not seem to be afflictedwith this problem.3) The falling margins of the Chinese manufacturing and consumer product sectors are particularly alarming, because these of the key sectors ofChina’ s economy. Profitability of some industries may be tied to the global cycle, such as petrochemicals and aviation sectors, where pricemovements and demand/supply balances are determined by globalmarkets. Utility companies have the steadiest ROE amongst the surveyed companies, and enjoy higher margins and returns than their international peers.4) Both ROE and net income margins of the China listed companies tend to fall once the listing process is completed. We divided companies by theiryear of listing. From 1994 to 2000, each and every category saw their 6ROE peak in either the year immediately before listing or in the listing year. Most classes recorded consecutive falls in profitability since then. There isno clear evidence that the Hong Kong listed Chinese companies follow the same pattern.5) In a poll we conducted amongst overseas and domestic institutional investors, all the fund mangers surveyed marked profitability high on their priority list. Most of them also think the margins of Chinese companies are probably below the world average. While domestic investors areenthusiastic to invest in the Hong Kong market through the QDII scheme,only one third of the surveyed international fund managers indicated they would invest in the A-shares market once QFII is introduced.Our basic conclusion from this study is: listed companies, investors and stock exchange authorities all need to place more emphasis on profitability and ROE because they are the cornerstones of modern capitalism and capital markets. It is a particularly challenging task, as China is set to liberalise its capital markets in the next decade. This means both domestic and international capital would have more options on what, or even whether, to invest in Chinese companies in the future. Chinese companies will have to compete against their global peers for capital. Profitability and return on equity are key valuation tools to attract investors. Improving profita bility is also crucial for China’ s long-term prospects, as the economy needs to raise productivity.。

原文Financial management and profitability of small and medium enterprisesMaterial Source:Southern Cross University Author:Kieu Minh Nguyen1. Objectives of financial managementLike many other management sciences, financial management, firstly, establishes its goal and objectives. Objectives of financial management are foundations or bases for comparing and evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of financial management. The final goal of financial management is to maximize the financial wealth of the business owner (McMahon, 1995). This general goal can be viewed in terms of two much more specific objectives: profitability and liquidity.* Profitability management is concerned with maintaining or increasing a business’s earnings through a ttention to cost control, pricing policy, sales volume, stock management, and capital expenditures. This objective is also consistent with the goal of most businesses.* Liquidity management, on one hand, ensures that the business’s obligations (wages, bills, loan repayments, tax payments, etc.) are paid. The owner wants to avoid any damage at all to a business’s credit rating, due to a temporary inability to meet obligation by: anticipating cash shortages, maintaining the confidence of creditors, bank managers, pre-arranging finance to cover cash shortages. On the other hand, liquidity management minimizes idle cash balances, which could be profitable if they are invested (McMahon, 1995).While discussing the objective function of a privately held small firm, Ang (1992) indicated that its objective function is to maximize three components. The first is to maximize its current market price, to avoid unwanted mergers and to obtain outside financing in the securities market. The second is to maximize long term or intrinsic value, if the two values diverge. The last is to maximize non-owner manager’s own pecuniary and non-pecuniary incomes by avoiding control rights. Whether the absence of marketable securities means that small firms need not be concerned with current performance and can concentrate on long-term values, depends on the organizational types and circumstances. Profitable firms, whereoutside funding is not a major concern, can afford to maximize long-term value whereas for those small businesses, which need outside financing, current performance may be very important. Thus, a number of small businesses would have a weighted average objective function consisting of both current profit and long-term value. Weight for current profit is expected to be higher for small businesses approaching loan re-negotiation, initial public offering, potential sale to an acquirer, signing long-term contracts with supplier or customers and possible dissolution of a partnership. On the other hand, its weight will be smaller when the business is due to pay estate taxes, renegotiate employee contracts, discourage a non-managing family member from their shares, and avoid tax on excess accumulation.In making decisions related to financial management, the owner-manager or the financial manager should remember objectives of financial management and balance between liquidity and profitability objectives, and between current and long-term (growth) objectives.2.Major decisions of financial managementGenerally, previous authors had no differences in opinions of major decisions in financial management. Ross, Westerfield and Jaffe (1999, p.1) indicated three kinds of decisions the financial manager of a firm must make in business: (1) the budgeting decision, (2) the financing decision, and (3) decisions involving short-term finance and concerned with the net working capital. Similarly, Ang (1992) also indicated three main financial decisions including the investment decisions, financing decisions and dividend decisions. McMahon (1995) suggested another way of identifying the major decisions of financial management is to look at the balance sheet of a business. There are many decisions regarding items on the balance sheet. However, they are classified into three main types: investment decisions, financing decisions and profit distribution decisions (McMahon, 1995).* Investment decisions: (1) relate to the amount and composition of a business’s investment in short-term assets (cash, stock, debtors, etc.) and fixed assets (equipment, premises, facilities, etc.), and (2) relate to the achievement of an appropriate balance between the two classes of assets.* Financing decisions: (1) relate to the types of finance used to acquire assets, and (2) relate to the achievement of an appropriate balance between short-term and long-term sources, and between debt and equity sources.* Profit distribution decisions: (1) relate to the proportion of profit earned that should be retained in a business to finance development and growth, (2) and the proportion, which may be distributed to the owner (McMahon, 1995).3.The specific areas of financial managementMost authors and researchers approach the specific areas of financial management in different ways depending upon their emphasis. This section reviews the specific areas of financial management, which have regularly been raised and discussed by the recent authors and researchers such as Walker and Petty (1978), Barrow (1984), Meredith (1986), Cohen (1989), English (1990) and McMahon (1995).Meredith (1986) emphasizes information systems as a base for financial management including financial management records and reports. This is considered very important because the owner-managers or financial managers find it is difficult, if not impossible, to make decisions if they lack finance information. Cohen (1989) focuses on working capital management and tools of financial management such as ratio analysis, profitability measures and bread-even analysis. English (1990) emphasizes objectives of financial management including liquidity, profitability and growth. Therefore, the specific areas that financial management should be concerned with are liquidity management (cash flow budgeting, working capital management), profitability management (profit analysis, profit planning), and growth management (capital resource planning and decisions).McMahon (1995) examines specific areas of financial management including all areas that relate to items on the balance sheet of the business. The specific areas financial management covers consist of managing working capital, managing long-lived assets, managing sources of finance, planning financial structure, and planning and evaluating profitability.In summary, financial management is concerned with many specific areas. Probably the balance sheet of a business may demonstrate how to recognize these areas including:* current asset or working capital management,* fixed asset or long-lived asset management,* funding management,* financial budgeting and planning,* leverage and capital structure,* financial analysis and evaluating performance of the business, and* profit distribution (dividends and retained earnings policy).This study examines financial management practices in relation with objectives, decisions and specific areas of financial management. Objectives, decisions and areas of financial management are relevant to financial management practices. The specific areas of financial management are viewed as a theoretical framework for financial management practices while objectives and decisions of financial management are viewed as factors influencing financial management practices.4. FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SMEsThis subsection mainly discusses the concept of financial characteristics of SMEs. It reviews definitions of financial characteristics that were mentioned and used by previous researchers. Stevens (1973), Burns (1985), Hutchinson, Meric and Meric (1988), Jaggi and Considine (1990), Davidson and Dutia (1991), Laitinen (1992), Hutchinson and Mengersen (1993), McMahon et al. (1993), and Meric et al. (1997) are viewed as the key researchers who study financial characteristics. In defining financial characteristics, McMahon et al. (1993, p. 177) states: Financial characteristics of enterprise, often in the form of accounting ratios, derived from financial statements provide useful information for numerous purposes. This information can be used to quantify the position of small business in terms of their profitability, liquidity, and leverage and to compare them with other or large enterprises.Stevens (1973), who studied financial characteristics of acquired firms, conducted factor analysis on several ratios and reduced the number of ratios into the following six factors: leverage, profitability, activity, liquidity, dividend policy and earning ratio identifying financial characteristics. Burns (1985) analyzed financial characteristics and profitability of small companies in the UK. He used the following ratios: quick ratio, current ratio, gearing, long-term debt ratio, and interest cover ratio to define financial characteristics of the companies.Hutchinson, Meric and Meric (1988) studied financial characteristics of small firms, which achieved quotation on the United Kingdom Unlisted Securities Market. They used financial ratios including liquidity ratios, leverage ratios, activity ratios, profitability ratios and growth ratios to identify financial characteristics of the firm. In another study, Hutchinson and Mengersen (1993) examined the effect of growth on financial characteristics. The variables used to define financial characteristics were profitability, liquidity, and leverage.Jaggi and Considine (1990) examined whether financial characteristics ofowner-controlled acquired firms differ from those of the non-owner-controlled acquired firms. Four variables: profitability, liquidity, leverage, and dividend payment capability were used to identify financial characteristics of the firm. To reduce the large number of ratios produced, some researchers such as Stevens (1973), Laitinen (1992) used factor analysis. According to Laitinen (1992) factor analysis is a useful statistical tool reducing a large set of correlated variables to fewer unrelated dimensions and identifying a typology. Laitinen (1992) studied financial characteristics of newly-founded firms and used the following variables: profitability, dynamic liquidity, quick ratio, indebtedness or static solidity, dynamic solidity, logarithmic net sales, and capital intensiveness to identify financial characteristics.Davidson and Dutia (1991) explored whether small firms have distinctively different financial characteristics from larger firms and determined the extent of the under-capitalization problem. In their study, four variables: liquidity, profitability, debt and solvency, and turnover are viewed as the variables to determine financial characteristics of SMEs. Meric et al. (1997) conducted a comparative study on financial characteristics of 87 Japanese and 87 USA chemical firms. In their study, they compared financial characteristics between the USA and Japanese chemical firms by using ten financial ratios. Financial ratios used to define financial characteristics in their study included: (1) operating profit margin, (2) total asset turnover, (3) return on assets, (4) return on equity, (5) fixed charge coverage, (6) common equity ratio, (7) long-term debt ratio, (8) current ratio, (9) quick ratio and (10) inventory turnover.As indicated in the introduction, the objectives of this chapter were to review the literature, find gaps and build a model of the impact of financial management on SME profitability based on this review. These objectives could not be separated as different activities, and all are fulfilled when a model of the impact of financial management on SME profitability was created.Generally, previous researchers provided valuable and detailed insights into financial management, financial management practices and financial characteristics. However, it appears that no investigation has been undertaken of the relationship between financial management including financial management practices and financial characteristics, especially the simultaneous impact of many variables such as accounting information system, financial reporting and analysis, working capital management, fixed asset management, financial planning practices, liquidity,financial leverage and activity ratios on SME profitability.译文财务管理和中小型企业的盈利能力资料来源：南十字星大学作者：Kieu Minh Nguyen1.财务管理目标财务管理像其他许多管理科学一样，首先要建立其目的和目标。

1外文资料翻译译文欧盟国内外银行盈利能力影响因素分析摘要：本文使用银行级数据，通过1995 - 2001年期间国内和外国银行在15个欧盟国家的商业运营情况来了解银行的具体特点和整体银行业环境对影响盈利能力。

结果表明, 国内和外国银行的盈利能力不仅受银行具体特点的影响，也受金融市场结构和宏观经济条件的影响。

除了在集中情况下国内银行利润, 所有的变量都是有重大意义的，尽管它们的影响和关系对国内和国外银行并不总是相同。

1 介绍在过去的几年许多的因素造成了欧盟银行业竞争日益激烈。

最重要的因素之一是针对服务、建立、运行和监督信贷机构的第二个欧洲指令出台，在银行和金融领域放松管制。

这个指令为所有欧洲银行机构在单一欧洲金融市场和提供了平等的竞争条件，因此银行正在先前无法预料的国内外竞争之中。

另外, 最近一些的技术进步对规模经济和范围提供了更多的机会，而采用欧元也加速了行业的变化。

此外,宏观经济政策后大多数国家通货膨胀率和利率逐步降低。

最后,在越来越多的欧洲国家非金融公司被允许提供传统的银行服务,并且在竞争中进一步提高，银行被迫产生新的产品和寻找新客户。

许多银行为了参加欧洲市场和银行业扩大被迫增加规模，通过合并和收购的方式进行了前所未有的整合。

在环境快速变化的情况下，这些变化给在欧盟的银行带来很大的挑战，因此影响了他们的效能。

格林指出，充足的收益是必要的条件让银行保持偿付能力,在一个合适的环境生存、发展和繁荣。

考虑到银行业的健康发展和经济知识增长，影响银行的盈利能力的潜在因素不仅和管理者有关，而且和众多利益相关者如中央银行,银行家协会、政府以及其他金融当局有关。

2 文献综述参考文献与本文可分为三大类。

第一部分是研究集中于银行的盈利能力的决定因素。

第二部分包括研究欧洲银行的利润和成本效率。

第三由研究比较国内外银行。

在下面几个部分中,我们讨论这些类别中的每一个。

3 决定因素和变量选择3．1 因变量本研究使用平均资产回报率(ROAA)来评估银行的性能。

中小企业营运资金管理中英文对照外文翻译文献(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)原文：Effects of working capital management on SME profitability AbstractThe objective of the research presented here is to provide empirical evidence about the effects of working capital management on the profitability of a sample of small and medium-sized Spanish firms. With this in mind, we collected a panel of 8,872 SMEs covering the period 1996-2002. The results, which are robust to the presence of endogeneity, demonstrate that managers can create value by reducing their firm’s number of days accounts receivable and inventories. Equally, shortening the cash conversion cycle also improves the firm’s profitability.IntroductionThe corporate finance literature has traditionally focused on the study of long-term 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 matu rities 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, grant ing 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 theservices 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).Decisions about how much to invest in the customer and inventory accounts, and how much credit to accept from suppliers, are reflected in the firm’s cash conversion cycle, which represents the average number of days between the date when the firm must start paying its suppliers and the date when it begins to collect payments from its customers. Some previous studies have used this measure to analyze whether shortening the cash conversion cycle has positive or negative effects on the firm’s profitability. Specifically, Shin and Soenen (1998) analyze the relation between the cash conversion cycle and profitability for a sample of firms listed on the US stock exchange during the period 1974-1994. Their results show that reducing the cash conversion cycle to a reasonable extent increases firms’ profitability. More recently, Deloof (2003) analyzes a sample of large Belgian firms during the period 1992-1996. His results confirm that Belgian firms can improve their profitability by reducing the number of days accounts receivable are outstanding and reducing inventories. Moreover, he finds that less profitable firms wait longer to pay their bills.These previous studies have focused their analysis on larger firms. However, the management of current assets and liabilities is particularly important in the case ofsmall and medium-sized compan ies. Most of these companies’ assets are in the form of current assets. Also, current liabilities are one of their main sources of external finance in view of their difficulties in obtaining funding in the long-term capital markets (Petersen and Rajan, 1997) and the financing constraints that they face (Whited, 1992; Fazzari and Petersen, 1993). In this respect, Elliehausen and Woken (1993), Petersen and Rajan (1997) and Danielson and Scott (2000) show that small and medium-sized US firms use vendor financing when they have run out of debt. Thus, efficient working capital management is particularly important for smaller companies (Peel and Wilson, 1996).In this context, the objective of the current work is to provide empirical evidence about the effects of working capital management on profitability for a panel made up of 8,872 SMEs during the period 1996-2002.This work contributes to the literature in two ways. First, no previous such evidence exists for the case of SMEs.We use a sample of Spanish SMEs that operate within the so-called continental model, which is characterized by its less developed capital markets (La Porta, López-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny, 1997), and by the fact that most resources are channeled through financial intermediaries (Pampillón, 2000). All this suggests that Spanish SMEs have fewer alternative sources of external finance available, which makes them more dependent on short-term finance in general, and on trade credit in particular. As Demirguc-Kunt and Maksimovic (2002) suggest, firms operating in countries with more developed banking systems grant more trade credit to their customers, and at the same time they receive more finance from their own suppliers. The second contribution is that, unlike the previous studies by Shin and Soenen (1998) and Deloof (2003), in the current work we have conducted tests robust to the possible presence of endogeneity problems. The aim is to ensure that the relationships found in the analysis carried out are due to the effects of the cash conversion cycle on corporate profitability and not vice versa.Our findings suggest that managers can create value by reducing their firm’s number of days accounts receivable and inventories. Similarly, shortening the cash conversion cycle also improves the firm’s profitability.From this point, the work is structured as follows: in Section 2, we describe the sample and variables used; in the third section, we present the analyses carried out and our findings; finally, we end by discussing our main conclusions.Data and Variablesi. DataWe obtained the data used in this study from the AMADEUS database. This database was developed by Bureau van Dijk, and contains financial and economic data on European companies.The sample comprises small and medium-sized firms from Spain. The selection of SMEs was carried out according to the requirements established by the European Commission’s recommendation 96/280/CE of 3rd April, 1996, on the definition of small and medium-sized firms. Specifically, we selected those firms meeting the following criteria for at least three years: a) have fewer than 250 employees; b) turn over less than €40 million; and c) possess less than €27 million of total assets.In addition to the application of those selection criteria, we applied a series of filters. Thus, we eliminated the observations of firms with anomalies in their accounts, such as negative values in their assets, current assets, fixed assets, liabilities, current liabilities, capital, depreciation, or interest paid. We removed observations of entry items from the balance sheet and profit and loss account exhibiting signs that were contrary to reasonable expectations. Finally, we eliminated 1 percent of the extreme values presented by several variables. As a result of applying these filters, we ended up with a sample of 38,464 observations.In order to introduce the effect of the economic cycle on the levels invested in working capital, we obtained information about the annual GDP growth in Spain from Eurostat.ii. VariablesIn or der to analyze the effects of working capital management on the firm’s profitability, we used the return on assets (ROA) as the dependent variable. We defined this variable as the ratio of earnings before interest and tax to assets.With regards to the independent variables, we measured working capitalmanagement by using the number of days accounts receivable, number of days of inventory and number of days accounts payable. In this respect, number of days accounts receivable (AR) is calculated as 365 ×[accounts receivable/sales]. This variable represents the average number of days that the firm takes to collect payments from its customers.The higher the value, the higher its investment in accounts receivable.We calculated the number of days of inventory (INV) as 365 ×[inventories/purchases]. This variable reflects the average number of days of stock held by the firm. Longer storage times represent a greater investment in inventory for a particular level of operations.The number of days accounts payable (AP) reflects the average time it takes firms to pay their suppliers. We calculated this as 365 ×[accounts payable/purchases]. The higher the value, the longer firms take to settle their payment commitments to their suppliers.Considering these three periods jointly, we estimated the cash conversion cycle (CCC). This variable is calculated as the number of days accounts receivable plus thenumber of days of inventory minus the number of days accounts payable. The longer the cash conversion cycle, the greater the net investment in current assets, and hence the greater the need for financing of current assets.Together with these variables, we introduced as control variables the size of the firm, the growth in its sales, and its leverage. We measured the size (SIZE) as the logarithm of assets, the sales growth (SGROW) as (Sales1 –Sales0)/Sales0, the leverage (DEBT) as the ratio of debt to liabilities. Dellof (2003) in his study of large Belgian firms also considered the ratio of fixed financial assets to total assets as a control variable. For some firms in his study such assets are a significant part of total assets. However our study focuses on SMEs whose fixed financial assets are less important. In fact, companies in our sample invest little in fixed financial assets (a mean of 3.92 percent, but a median of 0.05 percent). Nevertheless, the results remain unaltered when we include this variable.Furthermore, and since good economic conditions tend to be reflected in a firm’sprofitability, we controlled for the evolution of the economic cycle using the variable GDPGR, which measures the annual GDP growth.iii. Description of sampleTable II offers descriptive statistics about the variables used for the sample as a whole. These are generally small firms, with me an assets of more than €6 million; their return on assets is around 8 percent; their number of days accounts receivable is around 96 days; and their number of days accounts payable is very similar: around 97 days. Together with this, the sample firms have seen their sales grow by almost 13 percent annually on average, and 24.74 percent of their liabilities is taken up by debt. In the period analyzed (1996-2002) the GDP has grown at an average rate of 3.66 percent in Spain.Table IIDescriptive StatisticsROA measure return on assets, AR number of days accounts receivable, INV number of days of inventory, AP number of days accounts payable, CCC cash conversion cycle, ASSETS value of assets in thousand euros, SGROW sales growth, DEBT financial debt level, and GDPGR annual GDP growth. Variable Obs. Mean SD Median 10th Perc. 90th Perc.ROA 38464 0.0792 0.0834 0.0678 0.0041 0.1768 AR 38464 96.8299 55.7682 96.2962 22.0945 165.2533 INV 38452 77.2140 70.0499 59.3042 6.8692 166.6171 AP 38371 97.8090 57.3568 93.8075 24.5344 174.9668 CCC 38371 76.3117 90.6413 64.7704 -19.6907 190.2017 ASSETS 38464 6955.1090 4461.3940 13308 2718.5 5541 SGROW 32674 0.1299 0.3105 0.0862 -0.0928 0.3492 DEBT 35237 0.2474 0.1839 0.2306 0.0098 0.5021 GDPGR 38464 0.0366 0.0075 0.0420 0.0240 0.0430ConclusionsWorking capital management is particularly important in the case of small and medium-sized companies. Most of these companies’ asset s are in the form of current assets. Also, current liabilities are one of their main sources of external finance. In this context, the objective of the current research has been to provide empirical evidence about the effects of working capital management on the profitability of a sample of small and medium-sized Spanish firms. For this purpose, we collected apanel consisting of 8,872 SMEs covering the period 1996-2002.According to previous studies focus on large firms (Shin and Soenen, 1998; Deloof, 2003), the analyses carried out confirm the important role of working capital management in value generation in small and medium-sized firms. We find a significant negative relation between an SME’s profitability and the number of days accounts receivable and days of inventory. We cannot, however, confirm that the number of days accounts payable affects an SME’s return on assets, as this relation loses significance when we control for possible endogeneity problems.Finally, SMEs have to be concerned with working capital management because they can also create value by reducing their cash conversion cycle to a minimum, as far as that is reasonable.So urce: Pedro J. García, Pedro Martínez,2007. “Effects of Working Capital Management on SME Profitability ” . Inter national Journal of Managerial Finance. Vol. 3, No. 2.pp. 164-177.译文：营运资金管理对中小企业盈利能力的影响摘要这里提供的研究的目的是提供有关营运资金管理对示例的中小型西班牙公司盈利能力的影响的实证证据。

中英文资料对照外文翻译文献综述China’s Banking Reform and Profitability1Erh-Cheng Hwa Yang Lei1. IntroductionThe World Bank (1997) once claimed that China’s financial sector was the soft-belly in the economy. Financial sector reform has long been argued as necessary to raise efficiency in the use of the capital and in rebalancing the economy toward consumption-based growth, without which the country’s growth sustainability is in jeopardy (see Lardy, 1998; Prasad, 2007).Indeed, not too long ago, China’s state banks were deemed “technically insolvent”and their survival hinged solely on the nation’s abundant liquidity.However, after the launching of banking reform, strong profitability has returned to state commercial banks recently. But it may be too early to declare a complete victory on banking reform as yet, since Chinese state banks have embarked on the path of reform not too long ago. In addition,their strong financial performance has ridden on the back of strong but unsustainable growth. As growth has begun to soften under the weight of a global recession in 2008, banks are expected to navigate in a more difficult economic terrain than hitherto. The aim of this paper is not to evaluate the effect of banking reform on bank performance, which is better tackled after the completion of a full credit cycle. Rather, our aim is to take stock of the progress in reforming China’s state banks by reviewing the banking reformstrategy and analyzing their recent strong post-reform financial performancewhich, however, cannot be entirely separated from reforms efforts1Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and PoliciesVol. 13, No. 2 (2010) 215–236©World Scientific Publishing Co.and Center for Pacific Basin Business, Economics and Finance ResearchDOI: 10.1142/S0219091510001925undertaken thus far.This paper has three sections. In Section 2, we review the reform strategy of China’s large state banks, which is the main thrust of China’s banking reform, as well as its implementation. The Section 3 analyzes 2007 financial performance focusing on the four largest state commercial banks that have floated shares in the market: Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC),China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC), and Bank of Communications (BOCOM). The conspicuous exception is Agriculture Bank of China (ABC), which is still in the process of restructuring for market listing at an appropriate time later. Section 4 concludes with an assessment on bank performance.2. Bank Reform Strategy and Its Implementation2.1. Bank reform strategyBefore reform, state banks were solely owned by the State and served national economic policy goals.1 Since they were not wholly profit-making commercial entities, common commercial banking criteria for evaluating their financial performance do not apply strictly. Nevertheless, as soon as the country decided to embark upon the path of a socialist market economy in the October 1992 CCP Congress, commercialization of the state banks had become a foregone conclusion. The goal of banking reform is to turn state banks into commercial entities that are competitive in the marketplace and can provide efficient intermediation of the nation’s saving. Given their dominance in financial intermediation, the banks play a crucial role in the efficient allocation of capital.2.1.1. Creating the enabling environment for banking reformThe country’s market reform and opening program has greatly accelerated since 1992 when in October that year the 14th CCP Congress declared that the goal of reform and opening was to create a socialist market economy,which effectively ended the experimental nature of economic reform and opening program launched since the late 1970s. The firming up of market-oriented reforms has created an enabling environment for a host of reforms central to the socialist market economy construct including foremost the banking reform. In early 1994, in response to the inflation threat, the government launched macroeconomic reform encompassing central banking,exchange rate management, and fiscal policy and taxation. The macroeconomic reform permitted the central authorities to regain macroeconomiccontrol lost to local authorities in the decade of the 1980s under the decentralization policy of “fang quan rang li”.2 While decentralization ushered a period of rapid growth, it also generated significant macroeconomic instability.Indeed, the pursuit of macroeconomic reform significantly dampened macroeconomic cycles in the 1990s. Second, in the same year, the government created three policy banks —State Development Bank, Agriculture Development Bank, China ExportImport Bank —to relieve state commercial banks of their traditional policy mandates.Third, the government promulgated central banking and commercial banking laws in 1995 to provide the legal foundation for banking reform.Fourth, beginning from 1996 the government began to vigorously pursuit enterprise reform that paved the way for banking reform, even this resulted in large and painful layoffs of redundant state workers. Pursuingenterprise reform ahead of banking reform was necessary considering that state-owned enterprises were the main clients of state banks and hence their main source of non-performing loans NPLs, which was at the same time the contingent liability to the government. Hence, unless the reform of stateowned enterprises takes hold, any reform effort of the state banks would be in vain. On the other hand, as soon as the state-owned enterprise reform was pressed forward, the banking reform could no longer be postponed. This is because as state-owned enterprises were restructured, liquidated, merged, or bankrupted out of existence, the banks must start to recognize the hidden losses on their books. This, in turn, triggered the need to recapitalize the banks, as a large amount of non-performing loan was written-off.Fifth, the State Council in February 2002 decided to reform solely stateowned commercial banks into internationally competitive financial enterprises, transform them into state-controlled shareholding commercial banks,and encourage listing their shares in the market.Sixth, China Banking Supervisory Committee was created in 2003 to raise the regulatory capacity to supervise banks. Finally, adhering to the 2001 WTO accession agreement, the government uses the entry of foreign banks into the local banking market to inject competitive pressure to the local banking industry in order to gain efficiency. Beginning from the end of 2006, foreign banks can engage in local currency business.2.1.2. Reforming corporate governance and restructuringthe balance sheetThe country’s large state banks have followed several steps to undertake internal corporate reform. The first is to reform the corporate governance by inviting other investors to dilute the sole state ownership while still retaining its dominance. In particular, the banks have made an effort to seek foreign strategic partnership with the view to bringing in modern banking practices and technology. The broadening of ownership also entails selling a portion of bank shares to the equity market to make bank management accountable to the marketplace. To successfully woo outside investors, be it strategic partners or public investors, the banks must put forward a creditable inhouse reform plan and implement it credibly. No doubt, the better and more credible the internal reform plan is, the more likely it is for the banks to attract reputable outside partners and fetch a better deal with their counterparts or in the equity market.Hence, the first step the government undertook was to strengthen the balance sheet of state banks whose credit flows had been clogged up by inadequate capital and piles of bad debts accumulated under the previous economic planning regime. In 1998, the government issued RMB270 billion (US$32.6 billion) worth of 30-year fiscal bonds to recapitalize the balance sheets of the four largest state banks: ICBC, BOC, CCB, and ABC in order to comply with the international capital adequacy standards. Again, on December 30, 2003, the government provided US$22.5 billion each to CCB and BOC, with US$15 billion provided later in April 2005 to ICBC to support their respective listings in the Hong Kong stock exchange.Among the four largest state banks, CCB was the first to have its shares successfully listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange and thus the first to have its reform effort passed by the market test. In addition, as part of the scheme of recapitalization, the banks also issued subordinated debt to the local market:BOC, RMB60 billion; CCB, RMB40 billion; ICBC, RMB35 billion; and BOCOM, RMB12 billon.In 1999, the government created four asset management corporations AMCs, one for each of the “big four”: ICBC, CCB, BOC, and ABC, to manage RMB1.4 trillion of loans purchased from the books of the state banks at face value, of which 1.3 trillion were deemed non-performing (about 15% of GDP). The transaction was financed partly by central bank loan(RMB573 billion) and partly by treasury bonds (RMB820 billion). A second transferring of NPLs in the amount of RMB1.186 trillionto the AMCs took place during the period from June 2004 through June 2006.The banks also launched reform measures to improve internal management including strengthening the human resource base, introducing modern risk management practices, and moving up the standard of NPL classification to comply with the international standards.2.2. Implementation of reform2.2.1. Seeking diversification and attracting foreign strategic partners Following the blueprint of reform, the banks have successfully launched and implemented the reform strategy. ICBC, CCB, BOC, and BOCOM all have their full state stake in the company diluted to below 70% by incorporating non-state ownerships, which includes foreign ownership, domestic legal persons, and public ownership (publicly owned and traded shares). Among non-state owners, foreign strategic partnership usually has the highest stake in the company: ICBC, 7.2%, BOC, 13.9%, CCB, 10.3%, and BOCOM,18.7% (Table 1).The participation of foreign and domestic capital as well as public shares in state commercial banks has not only strengthened bank capital, but also exerted a positive influence on the corporate governance, in particular in the case of foreign participation, in so far as it stems the undue intrusion of government into the banking business. Second, all state commercial banks have installed modern corporate governance structure encompassing shareholders congress, corporate board plus outside directors and supervisors,supervisory board, and senior management structure. By the end of 2007, 33 foreign institutional investors have invested in twenty-five domestic banks, with a total capital injection of US$21.3 billion.These foreign strategic investors have entered in various strategic corporative agreements with domestic partners in widely diversified areas of banking,including retail banking, corporate governance and risk-management,trading, RMB derivatives and currency swaps, foreign exchange structured products, and trade and small-and-medium enterprises SME financing. In addition, domestic banks and their foreign partners share their networks and custom base for providing services and cross-selling financial products.Finally, human resource development program is a common feature in strategic corporative agreements, with training courses offered in SME management and financing, wealth management, fund trading, risk management, and implementation of the Basel Capital Agreements, etc.2.2.2. Successful public listingsAfter launching internal restructuring and successful attraction of reputable foreign strategic partners, state commercial banks were successful in listing their shares in the Hong Kong (H share) and Shanghai (A share) stock exchanges and hence for the first time subject to the market discipline:BOCOM, June 2005; CCB, October 2005; BOC, June 2006; ICBC, October 2006 (which was the first double listing in both the Hong Kong stock exchange and the Shanghai stock exchange). Public listing of bank shares together raised RMB445 billion (US$60 billion) in the open market, about 26% of combined net capital. In comparison, the funds raised through foreign strategic partners was US$15 billion. In 2007, two small shareholding banks were listed in the Shanghai stock exchange, bringing the total listed to seven among 12 shareholding banks. In addition, three city commercial banks based, respectively, in Beijing, Nanjing, and Ningbo were listed in the Shanghai A share market, paving the way for other city commercial banks to restructure and then seek listing in the stock exchange. Having benefited from rising share prices, ICBC, CCB, and BOC were, respectively, the first,second, and the fourth largest bank in the world by market capitalization at the end of 2007: US$338.9 billion, US$2202.5 billion, and US$197.8 billion.2.2.3. Strengthening capitalBy the end of 2007, nearly 80% of banks by asset have fulfilled capital adequacy standards. The capital adequacy ratio for the four listed state commercial banks was, respectively, 13% for ICBC; 13.3% for BOC; 12.6% for CCB; and 14.1 for BOCOM. The core capital adequacy ratio was, respectively, 11% for ICBC; 10.7% for BOC;10.4% for CCB; and 10.2% for BOCOM.2.2.4. Building risk management systemsSince 2006 CCB and other large state commercial banks have begun to introduce a vertical risk management system to consolidate risk management into the hands of the newly created chief risk officer. The reform has helped to stem undue interferences in the loan decision process at the local level. At the same time, by taking advantage of information technology, banks have begun to streamline and optimize the operational processes and procedures in order to reduce operational risks. Banks have also begun to use quantitative risk models to gauge and simulate various risk scenarios facing them such as stress test. The concept of economic/risk capital has been adopted to manage risk quotas, allocate bank resources, and pricing of products. Banks have alsostrengthened the analysis of market and liquidity risks while controlling operational risks through improved internal control procedures by employing quantitative tools and models. Last but not least, banks have taken steps to build a new risk or credit culture.2.2.5. Pursuing strategic transformation of the business modelChinese banks have traditionally focused on corporate businesses, the wholesale banking so to speak. However, as the local capital market gradually matures and the income and wealth of Chinese households continue to grow apace, the banks find growing business opportunities in consumer-oriented financial services such as mutual funds, mortgage financing, wealth management, and personal loans. These are also areas of financial services where the newly arrived foreign banks aim to capture with their competitive strength.Hence, both for seeking new sources of profit growth and achieving a more diversified and balanced revenue base, as well as for meeting the competition from foreign banks head on, the Chinese banks are compelled to seize the opportunity and meet the challenge to embark on the path of a strategic transformation of the traditional business model toward retailing banking.New thrusts of retail banking include credit card, personal loans, and wealth management, mutual fund, insurance products and other products generating fee-based income. Retail banking, in turn, has called for greater investment in information technology to develop efficient systems in processing personal loan, internet banking, and tele-banking, as well as improve the efficiency of retail networks to better serve the needs of retail rge state commercial banks like CCB have also initiated special programs to cater to the need of small and medium enterprises, SMEs. In addition, they have started to branch out into new areas of financial services, thus gradually and steadily moving toward universal banking encompassing investment banking, issuance, securities, private banking, and financial leasing.Banks have also started to grow overseas business either by establishing more new overseas branches or through merging and acquisitions of foreign financial entities.4. Conclusion: Assessment of Bank PerformanceThe strong financial performance of large state banks was carried into the first half of 2008 even as growth slowed by nearly 2 percentage points to 10.4% from the firsthalf of 2007 due to a combination of falling external demand and tighter credit policy. In the first half of 2008, net profit (profit after tax) grew, respectively, 71.3% for CCB, 56.8% for ICBC, and 36% for BOC over a year ago. Although the reduction of corporate income tax from 33% to 25% accounted for partly the increase in profit, but the key underlying factors driving profit growth remained the same as the last year. First,net interest income continued to benefit from rising interest margins as well as rapid asset growth and still is the main source of operating income, possibly for the foreseeable future. Second, fee and commission income again witnessed an explosive growth: CCB, 59.3%; BOCOM, 50%, ICBC, 48%;BOC, 45.1%, in spite of a sharply cooled stock market that has curtailed income derived from hot-selling market-based financial products of the previous year such as stock mutual funds. For large state commercial banks,the share of fee and commission income in total operating income reached a new record in the first half of 2008: CCB 14.9%; ICBC, 12.3%; BOC,31.4%. In the meantime, asset quality continued to improve as the NPL ratio continued to drop. By the end of June, the NPL ratio of ICBC and CCB were, respectively, 2.4% and 2.2%, representing a decline of 0.33 and 0.39 percentage points, respectively, from the end of 2007.Judged by record profit, much improved asset quality, and high ROE,the recent financial performance of the four large state commercial banks is nothing short of spectacular. Furthermore, as fee and commission income and more broadly retail banking revenue has taken off to become a strong source of profit growth, banks appear on track to realize their long-term strategic goal of diversifying into a more stable base of income generation that is less prone to business cycle risks. Thus, large state commercial banks appear to have come a long way in reforming themselves into a modern commercial bank. This outcome should be a surprise to some of earlier research findings that argue state commercial banks did not seem to have changed bank behavior fundamentally after launching banking reform. For instance,Podpiera (2006) shows that banks do not appear to make lending decision based on a commercial basis. Dobson and Kashyap (2006) assemble macroeconomic, microeconomic and anecdotal evidence suggesting that the pressure to make policy loans is continuing despite the reforms. However, the recent empirical work by Demetriades et al. (2008) seems to counter their findings by showing that bank loans is positively correlated with future value added and TFP growth during 1999–2005,even for state-owned enterprises. Moreover they find that firms with access to bank loans tend to grow faster in regions with greater banking sector development.Can this financial performance of banks be sustained? It appears that the good financial performance has been the result of two crucial factors,although it is not easy to delineate the two. First, a supportive macroeconomic environment —with a strong growth averaging 10.7% per annum over the period: 2003–2007 and a partially liberalized interest rate regime —helped to boost revenues. Second, banking reform has been instrumental in raising efficiency and holding down costs, both of which boost the return on capital.Compared to the impact of banking reform, the supportive macroeconomic environment exerts more a cyclical than fundamental impact on bank performance and is thus a less sustainable force. Indeed, the surging inflation as well as bubbles in the stock and real estate markets in 2007 already served as warning signals that the high growth in last several years is unsustainable. In 2008, the economic growth slowed sharply as a result of tightened money and credit policy and an unexpected large decline in external demand that sharply slowed down export growth. Although bank performance held up pretty well so far, a precipitous economic slowdown would sooner or later raise business risks and worsen asset quality for the banks. The immediate challenge of banks is how to skillfully navigate the more difficult economic water by properly controlling risks and staying on the course of restructuring and reform.If the successful public listing marked the end of the first phase of banking reform, it is clear that banks have entered a new phase of reform only a short while ago with much of the journey still lying ahead. Many of the recently launched corporate reforms: governance, internal control and operation procedures, risk management, and human resources are still work in progress and have not yet been brought to fruition. Banks are also in the early phase in adapting to the new business model mandating more attention being paid to retail customers and commission and fee-based incomes. Hence, they have to continue to be valiant on reform and learn to adapt to the vagaries of financial markets while catering to the evolving needs of customers as their demand for new financial services grow.While putting the bet on banking reform, there is no reason to be overly pessimistic on the short-term macroeconomic risks. China ran a budget surplus and had a lowgovernment debt of about 22% of GDP in 2007, as well as a relatively low urbanization ratio at around 44%. More importantly, Chinese banks have embarked on a reform path with healthy balance sheets and a strong capital base. Thus, China enjoys considerable flexibility to deploy a strong public sector investment program in order to strengthen domestic demand and mitigate the downside risks caused by the expected sharp decline in exports. The government unveiled such a public sector investment program with price tag of RMB4 trillion in mid-November 2008 (about 12% of GDP) that covered two years to last through 2010. The program complimented the expansionary money and credit policy that had been initiated a couple of months ago. If properly implemented and, in particular, in conjunction with structural rebalancing policies, the program should help to sustain strong growth in the short-run and even more important to regain macroeconomic balance over the medium-term.中国银行业的改革和盈利能力1概述世界银行（1997年）曾声称，中国的金融业是其经济的软肋。

盈利能力外文资料翻译译文资本结构与企业盈利能力的关系一直是众多学者探讨的焦点问题之一。

资本结构关乎企业的资金成本、财务风险、盈利能力，而资金成本和财务风险都最终影响到企业的持续盈利能力。

本文主要从财务困境成本理论和代理成本理论来分析资本结构对企业盈利能力的影响。

企业的资本结构与盈利能力之间的相关性不明显，但是提高企业的长期资本负债率可以改善企业的权益资本净利率。

长期债务的资金成本主要体现为利息费用和筹资费用。

由于利息费用和筹资费用可以抵税，所以企业的实际资本成本要低于债权人索取的报酬率。

债务资本的成本主要由公司的财务结构、偿债能力、经营活动现金净流量、经营能力、经营效益、市场利率以及当前的市场经济状况决定。

长期负债通常面临更大的通货膨胀影响，投资者要求的报酬中必然会包含着通货膨胀的因素影响；长期负债由于使用期限更长而受企业经营不稳定性的影响就更大，长期债务面临更大的信贷违约风险，因此长期债务资本成本一般比短期资本的成本高。

本文以有效的资本市场为前提假设——债权人都是理性的，所以随着企业长期债务资本率的提高，债权人必然会索取越来越高的报酬率。

权益资本的成本包括机会成本。

企业的权益资本通常是无偿使用的，其不需要偿付本金，不是必须向所有者支付资金成本，但站在企业所有者的角度来看，企业所有者投入的资本以及在经营过程中积累的资本也应于使用后取得相应的报酬，也就是所谓的资金成本，权益资本成本隐含着一种机会成本。

权益资本成本是企业所有者要求的最低投资收益率。

目前资本资产定价模型是用来求权益资本成本的主要模型之一，但是资本资产定价模型只考虑了权益资本的机会成本而没有考虑到新股的发行费用，但笔者认为权益资本成本主要由使用股东权益的机会成本和新股的发行费用构成。

经过相关统计，新股的发行费用一般占到新股发行市价的5%-10%，也就是说发行10个亿大概有7500万的发行费用，对一个企业来说这是一笔非常大的支出，所以计算权益资本成本时必须要考虑新股的发行费用。

盈余管理和盈利质量外文文献及翻译摘要从犯罪现场调查员的视角来看盈余管理的检测，启蒙了早期对盈余管理的研究和它的近亲：盈利质量。

Ball和Shivakumar的著作（2008在会计和经济学杂志上出版的《首次公开发行时的盈利质量》）和Teoh et al .的著作(1998在金融杂志53期上刊登的《盈利管理和首次公开发行后的市场表现》)被用来阐释将犯罪现场调查的七个部分应用于盈利管理的研究。

关键词:市场效率盈余管理盈利质量会计欺诈1、引言在诸多会计和金融的研究课题中,可能没有比盈余管理更具有刺激性的议题。

为什么?我认为这是因为这个主题明确涉及了潜在的不法行为、恶作剧、冲突、间谍活动以及一种神秘感。

正如Healy和Wahlen在1999年(Schipper在1989也下过类似的定义)定义道:“盈余管理的发生是在管理者针对财务报表和交易建立，运用判断力来改变财务报告之时。

盈余管理要么会在公司潜在的经营表现上误导一些利益相关者，要么影响合同结果，这取决于会计报告数字。

”简而言之，有人做伤害别人的事情。

审计人员、监管机构、投资者和研究者们试图找到这些违法者并解开这个谜团,而这个谜团可能会演变成涉及欺诈(或犯罪,在此使用解决犯罪谜团的隐喻)的事件。

如果我们将盈余管理看成是一个潜在的欺诈性(犯罪性)活动,那么我们可以在利用比解决神秘谋杀案的福尔摩斯,或犯罪现场调查(CSI)更现代的条件下，考虑对盈余管理的探查。

这样的调查涉及到以下七个要素：一场犯罪是否已经实施，嫌疑人的责任，使用的凶器,犯罪活动的受害者,犯罪的动机，开展行动的机会和替代性解释。

替代性解释是指除了欺诈或犯罪活动，整个事件的起因。

这个起因能够证实在目击证据的基础上得出欺诈或犯罪的结论将是错误的。

我在讨论破解盈余管理的谜团的各种要素时，所举的例子主要来自Ball和Shivakumar(2008)和Teoh et al.(1998)。

(这些要素显然是相互关联的,以下的讨论中也有一些不可避免的重复)。

XXX财务分析体系外文文献翻译最新译文XXX the use of DuPont financial analysis system in XXX DuPont system breaks down the return on equity (ROE) into three components: net profit margin。

asset turnover。

and financial leverage。

Using data from a sample of listed companies。

the study finds that the DuPont system is effective in XXX。

the XXX that it should be used in n with other financial analysis tools.In recent years。

there has been a growing interest in using financial analysis tools to XXX financial analysis system is one such tool that has XXX in the 1920s to analyze the performance of its own ns。

Since then。

it has been widely used in the financial XXX.The DuPont system breaks down the ROE into three components: net profit margin。

asset XXX。

and financial leverage。

The net profit margin measures the XXX efficiency of the company's use of its assets to generate sales。

中英文对照外文翻译文献(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)原文：Effects Of Working Capital Management On Sme ProfitabilityThe corporate finance literature has traditionally focused on the study of long-term 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, reducessupply 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).Decisions about how much to invest in the customer and inventory accounts, and how much credit to accept from suppliers, are reflected in the firm’s cash conve rsion cycle, which represents the average number of days between the date when the firm must start paying its suppliers and the date when it begins to collect payments from its customers. Some previous studies have used this measure to analyze whether shortening the cash conversion cycle has positive or negative effects on the firm’s profitability.Specifically, Shin and Soenen (1998) analyze the relation between the cash conversion cycle and profitability for a sample of firms listed on the US stock exchange during the period 1974-1994. Their results show that reducing the cash conversion cycle to a reasonable extent increases firms’ profitability. More recently,Deloof (2003) analyzes a sample of large Belgian firms during the period 1992-1996. His results confirm that Belgian firms can improve their profitability by reducing the number of days accounts receivable are outstanding and reducing inventories. Moreover, he finds that less profitable firms wait longer to pay their bills.These previous studies have focused their analysis on larger firms. However, the management of current assets and liabilities is particularly important in the case of small and medium-sized companies. Most of these companies’ assets are in the form of current assets. Also, current liabilities are one of their main sources of external finance in view of their difficulties in obtaining funding in the long-term capital markets(Petersen and Rajan, 1997) and the financing constraints that they face (Whited, 1992; Fazzari and Petersen, 1993). In this respect, Elliehausen and Woken (1993), Petersen and Rajan (1997) and Danielson and Scott (2000) show that small and medium-sized US firms use vendor financing when they have run out of debt. Thus, efficient working capital management is particularly important for smaller companies (Peel and Wilson,1996).In this context, the objective of the current work is to provide empirical evidence about the effects of working capital management on profitability for a panel made up of 8,872 SMEs during the period 1996-2002. This work contributes to the literature in two ways. First, no previous such evidence exists for the case of SMEs. We use a sample of Spanish SMEs that operate within the so-called continental model, which is characterized by its less developed capital markets (La Porta, López-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny, 1997), and by the fact that most resources are channeled through financial intermediaries (Pampillón, 2000). All this suggests that Spanish SMEs have fewer alternative sources of external finance available, which makes them more dependent on short-term finance in general, and on trade credit in particular. As Demirguc-Kunt and Maksimovic (2002) suggest, firms operating in countries with more developed banking systems grant more trade credit to their customers, and at the same time they receive more finance from their own suppliers. The second contribution is that, unlike the previous studies by Shin and Soenen (1998) and Deloof (2003), in the current work we have conducted tests robust to the possible presence ofendogeneity problems. The aim is to ensure that the relationships found in the analysis carried out are due to the effects of the cash conversion cycle on corporate profitability and not vice versa.Our findings suggest that managers can create value by reducing their firm’s number of days accounts receivable and inventories. Similarly, shortening the cash conversion cycle also improves the firm’s profitability.We obtained the data used in this study from the AMADEUS database. This database was developed by Bureau van Dijk, and contains financial and economic data on European companies.The sample comprises small and medium-sized firms from Spain. The selection of SMEs was carried out according to the requirements established by the European Commission’s recommendation 96/280/CE of 3 April, 1996, on the definition of small and medium-sized firms. Specifically, we selected those firms meeting the following criteria for at least three years: a) have fewer than 250 employees; b) turn over less than €40 million; and c) possess less than €27 million of total assets.In addition to the application of those selection criteria, we applied a series of filters. Thus, we eliminated the observations of firms with anomalies in their accounts, such as negative values in their assets, current assets, fixed assets, liabilities, current liabilities, capital, depreciation, or interest paid. We removed observations of entry items from the balance sheet and profit and loss account exhibiting signs that were contrary to reasonable expectations. Finally, we eliminated 1 percent of the extreme values presented by several variables. As a result of applying these filters, we ended up with a sample of 38,464 observations.In order to introduce the effect of the economic cycle on the levels invested in working capital, we obtained information about the annual GDP growth in Spain from Eurostat.In order to analyze the effects of working capital management on the firm’s profitability, we used the return on assets (ROA) as the dependent variable. We defined this variable as the ratio of earnings before interest and tax to assets.With regards to the independent variables, we measured working capitalmanagement by using the number of days accounts receivable, number of days of inventory and number of days accounts payable. In this respect, number of days accounts receivable (AR) is calculated as 365 ×[accounts receivable/sales]. This variable represents the average number of days that the firm takes to collect payments from its customers. The higher the value, the higher its investment in accounts receivable.We calculated the number of days of inventory (INV) as 365 ×[inventories/purchases]. This variable reflects the average number of days of stock held by the firm. Longer storage times represent a greater investment in inventory for a particular level of operations.The number of days accounts payable (AP) reflects the average time it takes firms to pay their suppliers. We calculated this as 365 × [accounts payable/purchases]. The higher the value, the longer firms take to settle their payment commitments to their suppliers.Considering these three periods jointly, we estimated the cash conversion cycle(CCC). This variable is calculated as the number of days accounts receivable plus thenumber of days of inventory minus the number of days accounts payable. The longerthe cash conversion cycle, the greater the net investment in current assets, and hence the greater the need for financing of current assets.Together with these variables, we introduced as control variables the size of the firm, the growth in its sales, and its leverage. We measured the size (SIZE) as the logarithm of assets, the sales growth (SGROW) as (Sales1 –Sales0)/Sales0, the leverage(DEBT) as the ratio of debt to liabilities. Dellof (2003) in his study of large Belgian firms also considered the ratio of fixed financial assets to total assets as a control variable. For some firms in his study such assets are a significant part of total assets.However our study focuses on SMEs whose fixed financial assets are less important. In fact, companies in our sample invest little in fixed financial assets (a mean of 3.92 percent, but a median of 0.05 percent). Nevertheless, the results remain unaltered whenwe include this variable.Furthermore, and since good economic conditions tend to be reflected in a firm’sprofitability, we controlled for the evolution of the economic cycle using the variable GDPGR, which measures the annual GDP growth.Current assets and liabilities have a series of distinct characteristics according to the sector of activity in which the firm operates. Thus, Table I reports the return on assets and number of days accounts receivable, days of inventory, and days accounts payable by sector of activity. The mining industry and services sector are the two sectors with the highest return on their assets, with a value of 10 percent. Firms that are dedicated to agriculture, trade (wholesale or retail), transport and public services, are some way behind at 7 percent.With regard to the average periods by sector, we find, as we would expect, that the firms dedicated to the retail trade, with an average period of 38 days, take least time to collect payments from their customers. Construction sector firms grant their customers the longest period in which to pay –more than 145 days. Next, we find mining sector firms, with a number of days accounts receivable of 116 days. We also find that inventory is stored longest in agriculture, while stocks are stored least in the transport and public services sector. In relation to the number of days accounts payable, retailers (56 days) followed by wholesalers (77 days) pay their suppliers earliest. Firms are much slower in the construction and mining sectors, taking more than 140 days on average to pay their suppliers. However, as we have mentioned, these firms also grant their own customers the most time to pay them. Considering all the average periods together, we note that the cash conversion cycle is negative in only one sector – that of transport and public services. This is explained by the short storage times habitual in this sector. In this respect, agricultural and manufacturing firms take the longest time to generate cash (95 and 96 days, respectively), and hence need the most resources to finance their operational funding requirements.Table II offers descriptive statistics about the variables used for the sample as a whole. These are generally small firms, with mean assets of more than €6 milli on; their return on assets is around 8 percent; their number of days accounts receivable is around 96 days; and their number of days accounts payable is very similar: around 97 days. Together with this, the sample firms have seen their sales grow by almost 13percent annually on average, and 24.74 percent of their liabilities is taken up by debt. In the period analyzed (1996-2002) the GDP has grown at an average rate of 3.66 percent in Spain.Source: Pedro Juan García-Teruel and Pedro Martínez-Solano ,2006.“Effects of Working Capital Management on SME Profitability” .International Journal of Managerial Finance ,vol. 3, issue 2, April,pages 164-167.译文：营运资金管理对中小企业的盈利能力的影响公司理财著作历来把注意力集中在了长期财务决策研究，研究者详细的提供了投资决策分析、资本结构、股利分配或公司估值等主题的研究，但是企业投资形成的短期资产和以一年内到期方式使用的资源，表现为公司资产负债表的有关下昂目的主要部分。

1、毛利率（Profit margin），又称销售毛利率，是一个衡量盈利能力的指标，通常用百分数表示。

在经济含义中，毛利率越高则说明企业的盈利能力越高，控制成本的能力越强。

Gross profit margin, also called sales gross profit margin is a measure of profitability is usually expressed in percentage.In the economic meaning, the higher the gross profit margin, explain the higher the profitability of the enterprise, the stronger the ability of controlling the cost.毛利率=（销售收入—成本）÷销售收入2012年Gross profit margin=（Total Revenue-Cost of Revenue, Total）÷Total Revenue=（24412－14644）÷24412=0.400132013年Gross profit margin=（Total Revenue-Cost of Revenue, Total）÷Total Revenue=（24669-14717）÷24669=0.4034所以毛利率在上升2、利润率又称销售净利率是反映公司盈利能力的一项重要指标，是扣除所有成本、费用和企业所得税后的利润率。

Profit margin is also called sales net interest rate is an important indicator of the corporate profitability, is after deducting all costs and expenses and the enterprise income tax profit margins.净利润率=净利润÷销售收入2012年Net profit margin= Net Income÷Total Revenue=1968÷24412=0.08062013年Net profit margin= Net Income÷Total Revenue=2004÷24669=0.0812所以净利润率在上升3、总资产报酬率(英文:Return On Total Assets,ROA)又称资产所得率。

文献出处：标题 : A ssessm ent of Financial R isk in Firm 's Profitability A naly sis作者 : S olomon, Daniela C ristina; M untean, M i rcea出版物名称 : Economy Transdisciplinarity C og nition卷 : 15期 : 2页 : 58 -67页数 : 10出版年份 : 2012A ssessm en t of F in a n c ia l R isk in F ir m ' s P r ofita b i l i t y A n a ly sisA bstract: In the contex t of g lobalization w e are w i tnessing an unprecedented diversification of risk situations and uncertainty in the business w orld, the w hole ex i stence of an org anization being related to risk . The notion of risk i s inextricably l inked to the return. R eturn includes ensuring remuneration of production factors and invested capital but a lso resources manag em ent in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. A full financial and econom ic diag nosis can not be done w i thout reg a rd to the return-risk ra tio.S tock profitability analy s i s should not be dissociated from risk analy s i s to w hich the com pany i s subdued. R isk analy sis i s useful in decision making concerning the use of economic-financial potential or investm ent decisions, in developing business plans, and a lso to inform partners about the enterprise's performa nce level.R i sk takes many form:, operational risk, financial risk and tota l risk , risk of bankruptcy ( other risk categ ories) each influencing the business activity on a g reater or lesser extent. Financial risk analy s i s, realized w i th the use of specific indicators such as: financial leverag e , financial breakeven and leverag e ra tio ( C LF) accompany ing call to debt, presents a major interest to optim ize the financial s tructure and viability of any com pany operating under a g enuine m arket econom y .Key w ords: risk analy sis fina ncial risk , financial leverag e , breakeven point.IntroductionR i sk and return a re tw o interdependent aspects in the activity of a com pany , so the question i s assuming a certain level of risk to achieve the profitability that it a l low s. R eturn can only be assessed but on the basis of supported risk . This risk a ffects econom ic asset returns first, and secondly of capital invested. Therefore it can be addressed both in terms of business, as the org anizer of the production process driven by intention to increase property ow ners and adequate remuneration of production factors and the position of outside financial investors, interested in carry ing the best investm ent, in financial market conditions w i th several areas of return and different risk levels.R isk assessm ent should consider manag ing chang e : people chang e , methods chang e , the risks chang e [ 1 , 36 ] .C onsequently , profitability i s subject to the g eneral condition of risk w here the org anization operates. R i sk takes m any forms, each a ffecting the ag ents' econom ic activity on a lesser or g reater ex tent. For econom ic and financial analy sis a t the micro level presents a particular interest those form s of risk that ca n be influenced, in the sense of reduction, throug h the actions and measures the economic ag ents can underg o.1.. Financial R i sk in Economic Theory and PracticeFinancial activity , in i ts m any seg m ents is influenced by unex pectedly restrictive e lem ents as evolution, often unexpected, not depending directly on economic ag ents. Impact of various factors ( m a rket, competition, tim e factor,inflation, ex chang e rates, interest, com missions, human factors and not least the company culture) often mak es financial decision become a decision under risk.Financial risk characterizes variability in net profit, under the company 's financial structure. There a re no financial templa te features, each business activity prints i ts ow n sig nificant varia tions from case to case. In the case of reta i l ers, "intang ible assets a re less important, but stocks a re significant, and the appeal to credit provider is frequently used, being very useful for treasury business" [ 2 , 40 ] .A n optim a l capital structure w i l l max imize enterprise value by balancing the deg ree of risk and ex pected return rate.M anag em ent of financial risk is an integ ra l part of planning and financial control, subm itted to strateg ic and tactical decisions for a continuous adaptation to inside and outside company conditions, constantly chang ing and it requires:-identification of a reas that are prone to risk;-l ikelihood estima tion of financial risk production;-determining the independence relations betw een financial risk and other significant risks ( operational risk , market risk - interest rate fluctuations);-delim i ta tion of risk and keeping i t under observation to stop or diminish ( minim ize) the effect;-identify causal factors for financial risk, in order to define potential adverse effects induced on the overall activity of the company ;-determining the risk as quantifiable s i ze, as w ell as the effects associated to risk occurrence;-determining the routes to follow and strateg ies to fit the company 's financial activity in an area of financial certainty .Financial risk i ssues can be found a t the heart of R om anian accountant's norma l izors. A ccording to the OM PF 3055 /2 009 , the B oard m ust prepare for each financial y ear a report, called a M anag ers ' report, w hich must include, besides an accurate presentation of development and performance of the entity 's activity and i ts financial position, a lso a description of main risks and uncertainties that i t fa ces.Thus, M anag ers report must provide information on: the objectives and policies of the entity concerning financial risk m anag ement, including i ts policy for risk covering for each major ty pe of forecasted transaction for w hich risk coverag e accounting i s used, and entity 's exposure to market risk, credit risk , l i quidity risk and cash flow .R equired disclosures provide information to help users of financial statem ents in evaluating the risk financial instrum ents, recog nized or not in balance sheet.The m a in categ ories of financial risks a ffecting the company 's performance a re [ 3 ] :1 . M arket risk that com prises three ty pes of risk :0 currency risk - the risk that the value of a financial instrument { Financial instrum ent i s defined according OM FP 3055 /2 009 , A rt. 126 , as: ''... any contract that s im ultaneously g enerates a financial active for an entity and a financial debt or equity instrument for another entity ") w i l l fluctuate because of chang es in currency exchang e rates; the low ering of ex chang e rate can lead to a loss of value of assets denominated in foreig n currency thus influencing business perform ance;0 fa i r value interest rate risk - the risk that the value of a financial instrument w i l l fluctuate due to chang es in market interest ra tes;0 price risk - the risk that the value of a financial instrum ent w i l l fluctuate as a result of chang ing market prices, eveni f these chang es are caused by factors specific to individual instruments or their i ssuer, or factors a ffecting a l l instrum ents traded in the ma rket. The term "market risk " incorporates not only the potential loss but as w e l l the g a in.2.. C redit risk - the risk that a party of financial instrument w i l l not to com ply w i th the undertaking , causing the other party a financial loss.3.. Liquidity risk - ( a lso called funding risk) is risk that an entity meets in difficulties in procuring the necessary funds to m eet com mitm ents related to financial instrum ents. L iquidity risk ma y result from the inability to quickly se l l a financial asset a t a value close to i ts fa i r va lue.4.. Interest ra te risk from cash flow - i s the risk that future cash flow s w i l l fluctuate because of chang es in ma rket interest rates. For ex am ple, i f a variable rate debt instruments, such fluctuations a re to chang e the effective interest rate financial instrument, w i thout a corresponding chang e in its fa i r va lue.Financial environment i s characterized by a hig h interest rate volatility , w hich translates in term s of risk and indiscriminate harm s the va lue and profitability of any enterprise [ 4 , 89 ] . Interest ra te risk on the balance sheet i s reflected by chang es in m arket value of an asset, as the present value of an asset i s determ ined by discounting cash flow s using interest rate or w eig hted averag e cost of capital [ 5 , 89 ] .2 . Financial R isk A ssessmentFinancial risk assessm ent is performed by using specific indicators such as: financial leverag e, financial breakeven and leverag e factor ( C L F) w hose values ex press fluctuations in net profit, under the company 's financial structure chang e .Financial leverag e effectFinancial ri sk or capital concerns the com pany 's financial structure and depends on the manner of funding the activity : i f it is w holly financed by equity , i t w i l l not involve financial risk . This risk appears only if loan financing sources involving charg e to pay interest and show s a direct influence on financial profitability ( of equity ) [ 6 , 170 ] .Debt, the size and cost drives the variability of results and autom a tica l l y chang es the financial risk. The size of influence of financial structure on firm performance has produced financial leverag e effect, w hich can be defined as the m echanism throug h w hich debt a ffects return on equity , return on the ratio of benefits ( net income) and equity .B etw een economic profitability and financial return there i s a tig ht correlation. Financial return is rooted in economic returns. The difference betw een the tw o rates is g enerated by com pany policy options for funding . U sually , on equal economic rate return, financial profitability ra tes vary depending on finance source - from ow n equity or borrow ed capital.In econom ic theory the link betw een financial profitability ra te ( R f) and econom ic ra te of return ( R e) is hig hlig hted by the follow ing equation:...w here: d = averag e interest rate; D= total debts; C pr = ow n equity ;...If for calculation of return ra tes profit tax i s taken into account, the relationship becomes [ 6 , 170 ] :w here: i=the tax rate....W e can see the influence that financial structure, respective "all financial resources or capital composition that financial manag er use to increase the needed funding " [ 7 , 36 ] , has on the overall profitability of the company . B y reporting total debt ( D) to ow n equity ( C PR ) i s determined financial leverag e ( L F) ( or leverag e ratio) reflecting the proportion of g rants to loans and g rants to i ts ow n resources. The report should not ex ceed the value 2 , otherw i se the debt capacity of the enterprise i s considered saturated, and borrow ing above this l im i t lead to the risk of insolvency , both to the borrow er and the lender.The financial leverag e effect ( E L F) results from the difference betw een financial and economic return and "ex pressesthe impact of debt on the entity 's equity , the ratio betw een ex ternal and domestic financing ( dom estic resources) " [ 2 , 40 ] thus reflecting the influence offinancial structure on the perform ance of an entity :...Depending or not on the consideration of income tax , net or g ross ra tes of return can be measured, i.e . net or raw financial leverag e effect, as follow s:Debt i s favorable w hile the interest rate i s inferior to the ra te of economic profitability , w hich has a positive influence on financial ra te of the company .Financial leverag e i s even g reater as the difference betw een economic profitability and interest rate i s hig her, in this respect can be seen several cases presented in Table 1 .Leverag e effect a l low s evolution stimulation for financial profitability according to the chang e in funding policy of the enterprise being an im portant param eter for stra teg ic business decisions [ 8 , 164 -165 ] .B ased on the balance sheet and profit and loss account of tw o studied companies' rates of return and financial leverag e a re determ ined, as presented in table no. 2 .From the analy sis of the data presented in Table 2 w e may see the follow ing conclusions:1.. Economic and financial rates of return, in the case of S .C . A L FA S .A . follow s an upw a rd trend recently analy zed aspect reflecting the increased efficiency in the use of equity capital invested, w hile for S .C . B ETA S .A . evolution is a descendant one.2.. R eturn on equity ( equity efficiency ) w as hig her than the ra te of economic profitability ( econom ic efficiency of assets, invested capital respectively ) throug hout the period under review follow ing a positive financial leverag e ( EL F> 0 ) and hig her econom ic efficiency cost of borrow ing ( R e> d).3.. R educing financial leverag e for S .C . A L FA S .A . reduced the favorable effect of the debt presence on financial efficiency ra te , w hich w as due to low er w e ig ht ra tio of tota l debt and equity g row th.4.. Total debt increased during N-l and N y ears for S .C . B ETA S .A . resulted in increased financial leverag e that potentiates financial return ahead as the economic ra te of return.The evolution of the relationship betw een g ross economic return ( R ebr) and g ross financial profitability ( R fbr) for S .C . A L FA S .A . is g raphically presented in Fig ure 1 , and for S .C . B ETA S .A . in Fig ure 2 .A naly zing the evolution offinancial leverag e ( Fig ure 3 ) one can see that risk capital i s not placed a t a level too hig h, w hich m ig ht jeopardize the financial autonom y of enterprises.S ome financiers, as M odig l i ani and Fisher a rg ue that i t i s more advantag eous for the company to finance from loans than from equity [ 6 , 170 ] as the cost of borrow ed capital ( debt interest) i s a lw a y s deductible company 's tax , w hile the cost of equity ( preserved benefits and dividends) i s not tax deductible for the com pany . S hareholders tend to fa ll into debt to g et more tax sa ving , in this w a y , "indebted enterprise va lue appears to be hig her than the company that i s not under debt"[ 7 , 36 ] .Financial breakeven returnEstablishing the company 's position in relation to financial return breakeven for financial risk analy s i s i s determined taking into account fix ed costs and fix ed financial costs, meaning interest ex penses. In this s ituation turnover is calculated corresponding to a financial breakeven return or "financial standstill".B reakeven thus determ ined depends on four fundam ental variables [ 10 ] :-three parameters that influence the stability results of operations:*stability of turnover;*costs structure;*firm position in relation to i ts dead point;-financial ex penses level, respective the debt policy practiced by the company .B ased on these values safety indicators or position indicators are estimated, presented in Table 3 .w here: C A ^tic= financial breakeven;C f = fix ed ex penses;C hfin = financial ex pensesC V = variable ex penses; CA = turnover;R mcv = variable ex penses rate marg in.Financial risk deepens econom ic risk ( in addition to repa y ment of loans, interest costs need to be paid), and finally g enerates a pay ment default of the company that can lead to bankruptcy risk [ 11 , 36 ] .Financial leverag e ratio ( C L F)Financial risk assessment and evaluation can be m ade based on financial leverag e factor ( C L F). It ex presses the sensitivity of net income ( R net) to operating results variations ( R exp) and m easures the percentag e increase of net incom e in response to increase w i th one percentag e of results from operations. C a lculation relationship is as follow s:...respective: ...The C L F calculation takes into account only the current result and financial ex penses, only that correlate w i th the operation, w hich reduces net income relationship: R net = ( R ex p - C hfin) * ( ! - /)In these c ircum stances, financial leverag e coefficient g a ins ex pression: d c . \ /. .v i R exp...C L F= R qx PIt notes that the financial leverag e ratio i s directly proportional to financial ex penses w hich increase hig her the value of C L F and therefore increase in financial risk .Financial risk as measured by financial leverag e ra tio meets vary ing deg rees depending on know ing the coefficient values from zero to infinity [ 6 , 170 ] :B ased on profit and loss account of the tw o studied companies w e determine financial risk indicators presented in Table no. 4 .It can be noticed that, based on the data in Table 4 , the com panies have a com fortable s i tuation in term s of financial risk , because financial expenses have insig nificant values, and in N-2 y ear their absence a l low ed to obtain a financial leverag e ra tio equal to 1 , companies' ex posure to financial risk being m inor.A ctual turnover for the tw o com panies w ere above breakeven financial ( o ver critical turnover) in the analy zed period, aspect w hich a l low ed the recording of safety m arg ins, safety spaces and positive efficiency g a ins.Graphical representation of comparative evolution of financial leverag e ratio i s sug g estively show n in Fig ure no. 4 .In the case of S . C . A L FA S .A . the entire period financial risk is minor due to low level of financial costs, the company preferring to use only i ts ow n resources to finance the activity . Poor values of financial leverag e ra tio ( very c lose to 1 ) support the previous sta tements.Greatest financial risk to w hich S .C . B ETA S .A . i s ex posed to i s manifested in financial y ear N, w hen the value ofcoefficient C L F is max imum , respectively 1 ,11047 w hich show s increasing dependence of net result on the operating result, and consequently , increased financial risk due to the g ap betw een the index and results of operations index of financial ex penses ( l R ex p <Ichfin)- How ever, financial risk i s minor, the society proves superior financial perform ance as turnover i s w e l l above the critical turnover ( financial breakeven), rang e safety hovering w ell above the 20 % in the analy zed period.C onclusionsDebt had a positive effect on financial profitability m anifested as a "financial leverag e" ( positive leverag e effect). Ex tremely low level of debt and low er value of financial l iabilities inferior to ow n equity makes companies not ri sk y in term s of financial solvency . In this situation, for both com panies, i s m ore advantag eous to use the medium and long term loans to finance business, thus ensuring them an additional profit. U s ing debt should be made w i th caution in order not to l imit the financial independence of firm s and reduce additional debt opportunities in times of crisis.A naly sis of financial risk and leverag e effect that accom pany the call to debt, presents a major interest to optim ize the financial structure and viability of any com pany operating under a real market econom y .The use of loans can be risky for the entity and i ts shareholders, but this m ethod of financing becom es advantag eous for entity shareholders s imply because they are able to hold an asset more im porta nt than equity value, increasing their economic pow er. The financing of company ex pansion activity can be achieved by a s ig nificant increase in borrow ed capital provided economic returns exceed the averag e interest rate.C ompany 's risk assessment on the basis of leverag e coefficients i s required for the predicted behavior analy s i s for estimating future results, w hich must be taken into account in decision m aking process.R efer en ces[ 1 ] M orariu, A ., C recanä,C ., D., ( 2009 ) , ''Internal audit. S tra teg y in manag em ent advising ", Theoretical and A pplied Economics - supplem ent, B ucharest, p. 36 .[ 2 ] M orariu, A ., C recanä, C ., D., ( 2009 ) , ''The im pact of economic performance on financial position", Financial A udit, no. 5 , The C hamber of Financial A uditors from R omania Publish house ( C A FR ) , B ucharest, p. 40 .[ 3 ] OM FP, 3055 /2 009 , A rt. 306 , a l .( 3) .[ 4 ] J offre, P., S im on, Z., ( 2007 ) , Ency c lopédie de g estion, Economie Publish house, Paris, 1989 , quoted by J ianu, L , p. 89 .[ 5 ] J ianu, I., ( 2007 ) , Evaluation, presentation and analy sis of enterprise's performance - A n approach from International Financial R eporting S tandards, C EC C A R Publish house, B ucharest, p. 89 .[ 6 ] Petrescu, S ., ( 2010 ) , A naly sis and financial - accounting diag nostic -Theoreticapplicative g uide, 3 rd edition, revised and enlarg ed, C EC C A R Publish house, B ucharest, p. 170 .[ 7 ] M i roniuc, M ., ( 2007 ) , A ccounting and financial manag ement of the company . C oncepts. Policies. Practices, S edcom L ibris Publish house, Iaçi, p. 36 .[ 8 ] Zait, D., ( 2008 ) , Evaluation and manag em ent of direct investments, S edcom Libris Publish house, Ia §i, p. 164 -165 .[ 9 ] National B ank of R om ania, R eference Interest - history , available on[ 10 ] Quiry , P., Le Fur, Y ., Pierre V emim men ( 2008 ) , Finance d'entreprise 2009 , 7 th edition , Dalloz Publisher, Paris.[ 11 ] B erheci, M ., ( 2009 ) , "The risks in l i fe business and accounting outcom e variability " - Part II, A ccounting , auditing and business expertise, p. 36 .。

外文文献翻译原文及译文（节选重点翻译）美国商业和储蓄银行的盈利能力，资本和风险外文文献翻译中英文文献出处：The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Volume 74, November 2019, Pages 148-162译文字数：4800 多字英文Profitability, capital, and risk in US commercial and savings banks: Re-examination of estimation methodsJacob Paroush，Ben SchreiberAbstractThis study compares the relationships between the three main bank variables i.e., profitability, capital, and risk of US commercial and savings banks for the period 1995Q1-2015Q4. As the literature analyzes the relationship between these variables in pairs, thus suffering from an 'omitted variable bias' and a 'simultaneous equations bias', we examine whether these biases are statistically significant. We compare the common methodology of a three two-equation system with both a three- equation system and three separate OLS regressions. While there are significant differences in the coefficients of the three main variables within the sample period, we could not find substantial differences in out- of-sample forecast estimates.Keywords：Profitability，Capital，Risk，Commercialbanks，Savings banks，Simultaneous equations bias，Omitted variable biasIntroductionThe three main variables that characterize banks are capital, profitability, and risk. However, they are usually examined in pairs i.e.,profitability and capital, profitability and risk, and capital and risk. Such analyses are, however, only partial and the empirical results may be ambiguous. For example, regulatory bodies tend to focus on risk and capital held against unexpected losses. Thus, if one bank is characterized by high profitability compared to another bank (all other things being equal), an identical assessment of the two banks may be misleading. On the other hand, investors usually consider profitability and risk more than capital.1 Disregarding capital may lead to a bias assessment, if the amount of capital of one bank is large while that of another bank is small (all other things being equal). Thus, the empirical estimates of regression coefficients in pairs may suffer from specification errors in the case of omitting variables or from the 'simultaneous equations bias' in the case of omitting the third equation.The relationship between capital, profitability and risk may be different for commercial, savings banks, or other bank types. For example, some studies argue that differences between bank types regarding the above three main variables reflect inefficiency, inaccessibility to capital markets or capital adjustment costs, persistency in profitability, different regulatory environments, or limited competition in the savings banks industry.The aim of this study is, therefore, to examine whether a complete statistical modelling of the three main variables yields differentcoefficients compared to the common practice where the three main variables are examined in pairs, thus suffering from both simultaneous equations and omitted variable biases. We examine these two different bank types since they are characterized by different levels of profitability, risk and to a lesser extent, capital and they react differently to shocks.2 Thus, the coefficient differences between the two bank types can be the result of either their different characteristics or the different estimation method used.The contribution of this study is a comparison of the regression coefficients of the three main variables by three separate OLS regressions, by three two-equation systems (profitability and capital, profitability and risk, and capital and risk), and by one three-equation system of the three main variables for US commercial and savings banks. The three estimation methods are examined both in-sample and out-of-sample.The study relates to the empirical literature that examines the relationship between capital, profitability, and risk in pairs. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that compares various statistical methods used in the literature to assess profitability, capital, and risk in US banks. The results uncover different coefficients of the three main variables with regard to the estimation method used but similar accuracy measures in out-of-sample forecasts.Literature surveyThis section surveys the literature regarding the relationship between each pair of the variables: profitability, capital, and risk. Table summarizes the evidence concerning these three main variables in commercial and savings banks.Generally, the evidence is ambiguous concerning the relationships between the three main variables across bank types, countries, and estimation techniques. This evidence corroborates our choice to examine the relations for more than one bank type.The relationship between profitability and capitalBarth, Groper, and Jahera (1998) argue that the Capital Asset Ratio (hereafter CAR) is negatively correlated with Return On Assets (hereafter ROA) and Return On equity Capital (hereafter ROC). The negative relationship is obtained, ceteris paribus, in a one-period model where deposit rates are not influenced by bank risk i.e., there is no 'market discipline'. However, if the cost of funding is influenced by the capital level, a positive relationship between capital and profitability is expected as capitalized banks reduce their costs of funding, which in turn increases their profits (see also Berger, 1995). According to the Signaling Hypothesis (see Acharya, 1988), managers have 'inside information' regarding future performance. If their compensation packages include stocks and/or stock options, it will be cheaper for a safe bank than for a risky bank to signal expected improved performance in the future byincreasing capital today. Therefore, CAR entails ROC. Stiroh (2000) provides another argument for this causation. When banks increase their capital levels in order to overcome high entry barriers, they gain access to profitable activities such as issuing guarantees and subordinated notes, as well as acting as intermediators in derivative markets. In contrast to the above causation, Rime (2001) finds that earnings of Swiss banks have positive impact on capital through retained earnings, thus ROC entails CAR. However, Berger, DeYoung, Flannery, Lee, and Öztekin (2008) find for large US banks that the relationship between ROC and CAR is insignificant. Examining various European bank types, Goddard, Molyneux, and Wilson (2004) and Stolz and Wedow (2011) find a positive relationship between capital and profitability in commercial banks whilst finding a negative relationship in savings banks. Finally, Altunbas et al. (2007) report on a positive relationship between capital and profitability for both European commercial and savings banks. Such evidence is also found by Bitar, Pukthuanthong, and Walker (2018) for banks in OECD countries.The ambiguous evidence regarding the relationship between capital and profitability points to the lack of either a relevant theory or a common expectation that makes it difficult to establish hypotheses regarding this relationship and its factors.The relationship between capital and riskA negative relationship between capital and risk is expected when all deposits are insured with a flat premium rate (Osterberg & Thomson, 1989). In this case, the marginal cost of increasing bank risk and/or reducing the level of capital is zero. This is because in the view of the regulators, the insurance premium does not change with risk or capital while for the insured depositors the interest demanded on their deposits is the same as that on a riskless asset. On the other hand, when the insurance premium is adjusted for risk e.g., including the level of financial leverage, there is less incentive to change the financial leverage. The 'optimum capital buffer theory' suggests that banks have an incentive to hold more capital than required as insurance against a violation of the regulatory minimum capital requirements (Heid, Porath, & Stolz, 2004; Stolz & Wedow, 2011). This is the result of banks' inability to adjust capital and risk instantaneously and the fear of costly supervisory action or a loss of reputation by banks' stakeholders. Hence, banks with relatively large capital buffers are supposed to maintain their capital buffers despite the risk increasing or may increase both capital and risk while banks with small capital buffers aim at rebuilding an appropriate capital buffer (increase capital and decrease risk). Alfon, Argimon, and Bascunana- Ambr (2004) find a negative relationship between capital and risk in U.K. banks. They suggest several explanations for the actual capital levels, which are substantially higher than the regulatory requirements (seealso Berger et al, 2008). Altunbas et al. (2007) find a positive relationship by commercial European banks while a negative relationship is found among savings European banks. Such a negative relationship is also found by Van Roy (2005) regarding US banks and by Lee and Hsieh (2013) concerning commercial and cooperative Asian banks, Lately, Bitar et al. (2018) found that risk-based capital ratios have no impact on bank risks. Flannery and Rangan (2008) explain the capital build-up of US banks during the 90 s by higher risk levels (among other reasons). Cebenoyan and Strahan (2004) find that banks which used the loan sales market for risk management purposes held less capital and were more profitable but riskier than other banks. In contrast, Shrieves and Dahl (1992) and Rime (2001) find a non-negative relationship between capital and risk. Moreover, Jokipii and Milne (2011) report on a positive relationship between capital buffers and risk and that the adjustment pace is dependent on the degree of bank capitalization (see also Berger et al., 2008). Notice that similar to the relationship between capital and profitability the results regarding capital and risk are ambiguous, as well.The relationship between risk and profitabilityIn a competitive business environment where symmetrical information between the bank and its borrowers prevails, one can expect (ex-ante) a positive relationship between profitability and risk. Thisshould be the result of the risk premium demanded by a bank from its borrowers and by the bank stakeholders (See also Saunders, Strock, & Travlos, 1990; Shrieves & Dahl, 1992). However, realized (ex-post) risk should harm profitability thus, a negative relationship between profitability and risk, is usually evidenced (see Athanasoglou, Brissimis, & Delis, 2008; Stolz & Wedow, 2011). This relationship is examined in particular across the business cycle. For example, Athanasoglou et al. (2008) find a significant negative relationship between ROA and credit risk for Greek banks during the period 1985–2001, regardless of the business cycle phase. In contrast, Bolt, de Haan, Hoeberichts, van Oordt, and Swank (2012) find for OECD banks during the period 1979–2007 that bank profitability behaved pro-cyclically. The co-movement was especially strong during severe recessions, and it was mainly due to credit risk. Finally, Tan (2016) finds neither positive nor negative relations for Chinese banks during the period 2003-2011.The evidence so far concerning the relationships between profitability, capital, and risk reflect indecisive relations thus, room for further empirical examination of different periods, bank types, and geographical areas.3. The data and estimation resultsThis section describes the data used in this study and the estimates of the various statistical methods.The database consists of US commercial and savings banks under the supervision of the FDIC (5338 and 844 institutions, respectively in 2015Q4) for the period 1995Q1–2015Q4 (84 quarters). All banks are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) either through the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF) or through the Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF). Commercial banks include national banks and depository trust companies while the savings banking category includes savings banks and savings and loan institutions supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). The quarterly data of banks are obtained from the FDIC's web site, based on Quarterly Call Reports of all commercial and savings banks. This means that our sample data reflect the entire US banking system rather than particular banks. The advantage of the database is its reliability, consistency, and the lack of sample biases as it contains all insured US banks.The figure clearly presents differing behavior between the two bank types and across the sample period. Generally, by the Bai and Perron procedure there are three sub periods: before, at, and after the great financial crisis. The first sub period (1995Q1-2007Q4, hereafter expansion period) is characterized by high ROA and relatively low PROV. The second sub period (2008Q1-2009Q2, hereafter contraction period) reflects the great financial crisis and its consequences i.e., high PROV and decreasing of both ROA and CAR. The third sub period(2009Q3-2015Q4) reflects a recovery from the crisis yet, to lower levels of ROA and PROV. During the expansion period, the ROA (PROV) is much larger (smaller) than that of the contraction period as expected, while CAR is modestly higher during the contraction period (from 9.0% to 9.8% in commercial banks and from 9.3% to 10.3% in savings banks). The differing development of CAR versus both ROA and PROV is mainly explained by the Basel (I and II) and the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) regulatory measures that positively affected banks' capital across the sample period (see Flannery & Rangan, 2008; Lee & Hsieh, 2013). Thus, one can notice substantial and different changes across the sample period concerning the three main variables between the two bank types. In what follows, we test the differentials between capital, profitability, and risk of US commercial and savings banks using Eq(4).ConclusionsThis study examines the relations between the three main variables of any financial institution i.e., capital, profitability, and risk. The common methodology in the literature analyzes the three main variables in pairs (two-equation system) namely, capital and profitability, capital and risk, and profitability and risk. Thus, it suffers from both the 'simultaneous equations bias' and the 'omitted variable bias'. As there is no relevant theory regarding the trilateral relationship among the three main variables and bank types, we examine whether these biases arestatistically significant by comparing the common methodology results with both: a complete simultaneous analysis of the above three variables in a three-equation system and with three different OLS regressions run on the main variables, separately. The comparison is done for both in- sample and out-of-sample periods. The data, which include all insured US commercial and savings banks for the period 1995Q1 – 2015Q4, reveal substantial differences between commercial and savings banks' coefficients. We find that changes in profitability (ΔROA) and in capital (ΔCAR) are positively related, changes in profitability (ΔROA) and in risk (ΔPROV) are negatively related, and changes in capital (ΔCA R) and in risk (ΔPROV) are mostly negatively correlated. While other studies often find differences in the coefficients' signs between commercial and savings banks, we find identical signs but significant differences in magnitude. These significant differences foster our argument that the 'simultaneous equations bias' and the 'omitted variables bias', are of importance in examining the in-sample relations between the three main variables. In contrast, the three-equation system does not outperform the other two methods in terms of goodness of fit or forecast capabilities.译文美国商业和储蓄银行的盈利能力，资本和风险：重新评估雅各布·帕鲁什，本·施莱伯摘要本研究比较了1995 年第一季度到2015 年第四季度期间三个主要银行变量之间的关系，即盈利能力，资本和美国商业和储蓄银行的风险。

文献出处：Gnanasooriyar M S. Profitability analysis of listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka: An empirical investigation[J]. European Journal of Business and Management, 2014, 6(34): 358-364第一部分为译文，第二部分为原文。

默认格式：中文五号宋体，英文五号Times New Roma，行间距1.5倍。

制造业上市公司在斯里兰卡的盈利能力分析：一个实证调查摘要：本文是对2008年至2012年期间的选择10家在斯里兰卡的制造业上市公司的盈利能力，以及对四种常用的财务业绩指标分析：总利润（GR），净利润（NP），资产收益率（ROA）和净资产收益率（ROE）。

结果表明，在此期间斯里兰卡制造企业是相当多的盈利在GP和ROA，但利润较低的条件在NP和净资产收益率方面。

结果表明，制造企业的盈利能力是不太令人满意的。

皇家陶瓷有限公司的毛利率和净利率排第一，ABANS电气公司资产收益率第一，皇家陶瓷公司净资产收益率第一。

这项研究的结果对学者，政策制定者，从业人员等有借鉴意义的。

关键词：盈利能力分析，上市制造企业，斯里兰卡引言利润是收入超过相关费用过量在一段时间的活动。

凯恩斯勋爵指出，“利润是驱动企业的发动机”。

每个企业都应该获得足够的利润来生存和发展在一段较长的时间。

这是该指数在经济发展，提高国民收入和生活水平的不断提高。

利润是判断不只是经济准绳，但管理效率和社会目标也。

盈利手段，使利润从组织，公司，公司或企业的所有业务活动的能力。

它显示了如何有效地管理，可以通过使用所有市面上的资源赚取利润。

据Harward和厄普顿，“盈利是“赚其使用返回给定投资的能力。

”然而，长期的盈利能力“不是同义术语‘效率’。

利润率是效率的索引; 和被认为是效率和管理指南，更高的效率的量度。

中英文对照外文翻译文献(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)The path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firmsAbstractExtant empirical evidence indicates that the proportion of firms going public prior to achieving profitability has been increasing over time. This phenomenon is largely driven by an increase in the proportion of technology firms going public. Since there is considerable uncertainty regarding the long-term economic viability of these firms at the time of going public, identifying factors that influence their ability to attain key post-IPO milestones such as achieving profitability represents an important area of research. We employ a theoretical framework built around agency and signaling considerations to identify factors that influence the probability and timing of post-IPO profitability of Internet IPO firms. We estimate Cox Proportional Hazards models to test whether factors identified by our theoretical framework significantly impact the probability of post-IPO profitability as a function of time. We find that the probability of post- IPO profitability increases with pre-IPO investor demand and change in ownership at the IPO of the top officers and directors. On the other hand, the probability ofpost-IPO profitability decreases with the venture capital participation, proportion of outsiders on the board, and pre-market valuation uncertainty.Keywords: Initial public offerings, Internet firms, Path-to-profitability, Hazard models, Survival1. Executive summaryThere has been an increasing tendency for firms to go public on the basis of a promise of profitability rather than actual profitability. Further, this phenomenon is largely driven by the increase in the proportion of technology firms going public. The risk of post-IPO failure is particularly high for unprofitable firms as shifts in investor sentiment leading to negative market perceptions regarding their prospects or unfavorable financing environments could lead to a shutdown of external financing sources thereby imperiling firm survival. Therefore, the actual accomplishment of post-IPO profitability represents an important milestone in the company's evolution since it signals the long-term economic viability of the firm. While the extant research in entrepreneurship has focused on factors influencing the ability of entrepreneurial firms to attain important milestones prior to or at the time of going public, relatively little is known regarding the timing or ability of firms to achieve critical post-IPO milestones. In this study, we construct a theoretical framework anchored on agency and signaling theories to understand the impact of pre-IPO factors such as governance and ownership structure, management quality, institutional investor demand, and third party certification on firms' post-IPO path-to-profitability. We attempt to validate the testable implications arising from our theoretical framework using the Internet industry as our setting. Achieving post-issue profitability in a timely manner is of particular interest for Internet IPO firms since they are predominantly unprofitable at the time of going public and are typically characterized by high cash burn rates thereby raising questions regarding their long-term economic viability. Since there is a repeated tendency for high technology firms in various emerging sectors of the economy to go public in waves amid investor optimism followed by disappointing performance, insights gained from a study of factors that influence the path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms will help increase our understanding of the development path and long-term economic viability of entrepreneurial firms in emerging, high technology industries.2. IntroductionThe past few decades have witnessed the formation and development of several vitallyimportant technologically oriented emerging industries such as disk drive, biotechnology, and most recently the Internet industry. Entrepreneurial firms in such knowledge intensive industries are increasingly going public earlier in their life cycle while there is still a great deal of uncertainty and information asymmetry regarding their future prospects (Janey and Folta, 2006). A natural consequence of the rapid transition from founding stage firms to public corporations is an increasing tendency for firms to go public on the basis of a promise of profitability rather than actual profitability.3 Although sustained profitability is no longer a requirement for firms in order to go public, actual accomplishment of post-IPO profitability represents an important milestone in the firm's evolution since it reduces uncertainty regarding the long-term economic viability of the firm. In this paper, we focus on identifying observable factors at the time of going public that have the ability to influence the likelihood and timing of attaining post-IPO profitability by Internet firms. We restrict our study to the Internet industry since it represents a natural setting to study the long-term economic viability of an emerging industry where firms tend to go public when they are predominantly unprofitable and where there is considerably uncertainty and information asymmetry regarding their future prospects.4The attainment of post-IPO profitability assumes significance since the IPO event does not provide the same level of legitimizing differentiation that it did in the past as sustained profitability is no longer a prerequisite to go public particularly in periods where the market is favorably inclined towards investments rather than demonstration of profitability (Stuartet al., 1999; Janey and Folta, 2006). During the Internet boom, investors readily accepted the mantra of “growth at all costs” and enthusiastically bid up the post-IPO offering prices to irrational levels (Lange et al., 2001). In fact, investor focus on the promise of growth rather than profitability resulted in Internet start-ups being viewed differently from typical new ventures in that they were able to marshal substantial resources virtually independent of performance benchmarks (Mudambi and Treichel, 2005).Since the Internet bubble burst in April 2000, venture capital funds dried up and many firms that had successful IPOs went bankrupt or faced severe liquidity problems (Chang, 2004). Consequently, investors' attention shifted from their previously singular focus on growth prospects to the question of profitability with their new mantrabeing “path-to- profitability.” As such, market participants focused on not just whe ther the IPO firm wouldbe able to achieve profitability but also “when” or “how soon.” IPO firms unable to credibly demonstrate a clear path-to-profitability were swiftly punished with steeply lower valuations and consequently faced significantly higher financing constraints. Since cash flow negative firms are not yet self sufficient and, therefore, dependent on external financing to continue to operate, the inability to raise additional capital results in a vicious cycle of events that can quickly lead to delisting and even bankruptcy.5 Therefore, the actual attainment of post-IPO profitability represents an important milestone in the evolution of an IPO firm providing it with legitimacy and signaling its ability to remain economically viable through the ups and downs associated with changing capital market conditions. The theoretical framework supporting our analysis draws from signaling and agency theories as they relate to IPO firms. In our study, signaling theory provides the theoretical basis to evaluate the signaling impact of factors such as management quality, third party certification, institutional investor demand, and pre-IPO valuation uncertainty on the path-to-profitability. Similarly, agency theory provides the theoretical foundations to allow us to examine the impact of governance structure and change in top management ownership at the time of going public on the probability of achieving the post-IPO profitability milestone. Our empirical analysis is based on the hazard analysis methodology to identify the determinants of the probability of becoming profitable as a function of time for a sample of 160 Internet IPOs issued during the period 1996–2000.Our study makes several contributions. First, we construct a theoretical framework based on agency and signaling theories to identify factors that may influence the path-to- profitability of IPO firms. Second, we provide empirical evidence on the economic viability of newly public firms (path-to-profitability and firm survival) in the Internet industry. Third, we add to the theoretical and empirical entrepreneurship literature that has focused on factors influencing the ability of entrepreneurial firms to achieve critical milestones during the transition from private to public ownership. While previous studies have focused on milestones during the private phase of firm development such as receipt of VC funding and successful completion of a public offering (Chang, 2004; Dimov and Shepherd, 2005; Beckman et al., 2007), our study extends this literature by focusing on post-IPOmilestones. Finally, extant empirical evidence indicates that the phenomenon of young, early stage firms belonging to relatively new industries being taken public amid a wave of investor optimism fueled by the promise of growth rather than profitability tends to repeat itself over time.6 However, profitability tends to remain elusive and takes much longer than anticipated which results in investor disillusionment and consequently high failure rate among firms in such sectors. 7 Therefore, our study is likely to provide useful lessons to investors when applying valuations to IPO firms when this phenomenon starts to repeat itself.This articles proceeds as follows. First, using agency and signaling theories, we develop our hypotheses. Second, we describe our sample selection procedures and present descriptive statistics. Third, we describe our research methods and present our results. Finally, we discuss our results and end the article with our concluding remarks.3. Theory and hypothesesSignaling models and agency theory have been extensively applied in the financial economics, management, and strategy literatures to analyze a wide range of economic phenomena that revolve around problems associated with information asymmetry, moral hazard, and adverse selection. Signaling theory in particular has been widely applied in the IPO market as a framework to analyze mechanisms that are potentially effective in resolving the adverse selection problem that arises as a result of information asymmetry between various market participants (Baron, 1982; Rock, 1986; Welch, 1989). In this study, signaling theory provides the framework to evaluate the impact of pre-IPO factors such as management quality, third party certification, and institutional investor demand on the path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms.The IPO market provides a particularly fertile setting to explore the consequences of separation of ownership and control and potential remedies for the resulting agency problems since the interests of pre-IPO and post-IPO shareholders can diverge. In the context of the IPO market, agency and signaling effects are also related to the extent that insider actions such as increasing the percentage of the firm sold at the IPO, percentage of management stock holdings liquidated at the IPO, or percentage of VC holdings liquidated at the IPO can accentuate agency problems with outside investors and, as a consequence, signal poorperformance (Mudambi and Treichel, 2005). We, therefore, apply agency theory to evaluate the impact of board structure and the change in pre-to-post IPO ownership of top management on the path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms.3.1. Governance structureIn the context of IPO firms, there are at least two different agency problems (Mudambi and Treichel, 2005). The first problem arises as a result of opportunistic behavior of agents to increase their share of the wealth at the expense of principals. The introduction of effective monitoring and control systems can help mitigate or eliminate this type of behavior and its negative impact on post-issue performance. The extant corporate governance literature has argued that the effectiveness of monitoring and control functions depends to a large extent on the composition of the board of directors. We, therefore, examine the relationship between board composition and the likelihood and timing of post-IPO profitability.The second type of agency problem that arises in the IPO market is due to uncertainty regarding whether insiders seek to use the IPO as an exit mechanism to cash out or whether they use the IPO to raise capital to invest in positive NPV projects. The extent of insider selling their shares at the time of the IPO can provide an effective signal regarding which of the above two motivations is the likely reason for the IPO. We, therefore, examine the impact of the change in ownership of officers and directors around the IPO on the likelihood and timing of attaining post-issue profitability.3.2. Management qualityAn extensive body of research has examined the impact of to management team (TMT) characteristics on firm outcomes for established firms as well as for new ventures by drawing from human capital and demography theories. For instance, researchers drawing from human capital theories study the impact of characteristics such as type and amount of experience of TMTs on performance (Cooper et al., 1994; Gimeno et al., 1997; Burton et al., 2002; Baum and Silverman, 2004). Additionally, Beckman et al. (2007) argue that demographic arguments are distinct from human capital arguments in that they examine team composition and diversity in addition to experience. The authors consequently examine the impact of characteristics such as background affiliation, composition, and turnover of TMT members on thelikelihood of firms completing an IPO. Overall, researchers have generally found evidence to support arguments that human capital and demographic characteristics of TMT members influence firm outcomes.Drawing from signaling theory, we argue that the quality of the TMT of IPO firms can serve as a signal of the ability of a firm to attain post-IPO profitability. Since management quality is costly to acquire, signaling theory implies that by hiring higher quality management, high value firms can signal their superior prospects and separate themselves from low value firms with less capable managers. The beneficial impact of management quality in the IPO market includes the ability to attract more prestigious investment bankers, generate stronger institutional investor demand, raise capital more effectively, lower underwriting expenses, attract stronger analyst following, make better investment and financing decisions, and consequently influence the short and long-run post-IPO operating and stock performance(Chemmanur and Paeglis, 2005). Thus, agency theory, in turn, would argue that higher quality management is more likely to earn their marginal productivity of labor and thus have a lower incentive to shirk, thereby also leading to more favorable post-IPO outcomes.8We focus our analyses on the signaling impact of CEO and CFO quality on post-IPO performance. We focus on these two members of the TMT of IPO firms since they are particularly influential in establishing beneficial networks, providing legitimacy to the organization, and are instrumental in designing, communicating, and implementing the various strategic choices and standard operating procedures that are likely to influence post- IPO performance.3.3. Third party certificationThe extant literature has widely recognized the potential for third party certification as a solution to the information asymmetry problem in the IPO market (Beatty, 1989; Carter and Manaster, 1990; Megginson and Weiss, 1991; Jain and Kini, 1995, 1999b; Zimmerman and Zeitz, 2002). The theoretical basis for third party certification is drawn from the signaling models which argue that intermediaries such as investment bankers, venture capitalists, and auditors have the ability to mitigate the problem of information asymmetry by virtue of their reputation capital (Booth and Smith, 1986; Megginson and Weiss, 1991; Jain and Kini,1995, Carter et al., 1998). In addition to certification at the IPO, intermediaries, through their continued involvement,monitoring, and advising role have the ability to enhance performance after the IPO. In the discussion below, we focus on the signaling impact of venture capitalists involvement and investment bank prestige on post-IPO outcomes3.4. Institutional investor demandPrior to marketing the issue to investors, the issuing firm and their investment bankers are required to file an estimated price range in the registration statement. The final pricing of the IPO firm is typically done on the day before the IPO based upon the perceived demand from potential investors. Further, the final offer price is determined after investment bankers ave conducted road shows and obtained indications of interest from institutional investors. Therefore, the initial price range relative to the final IPO offer price is a measure of institutional investor uncertainty regarding the value of the firm. Since institutional investors typically conduct sophisticated valuation analyses prior to providing their indications of demand, divergence of opinion on valuation amongst them is a reflection of the risk and uncertainty associated with the prospects of the IPO firm during the post-IPO phase. Consistent with this view, Houge et al. (2001) find empirical evidence to indicate that greater divergence of opinion and investor uncertainty about an IPO can generate short- run overvaluation and long-run underperformance. Therefore, higher divergence of opinion among institutional investors is likely to be negatively related to the probability of post-IPO profitability and positively related to time-to-profitability.A related issue is the extent of pre-market demand by institutional investors for allocation of shares in the IPO firm. Higher pre-issue demand represents a favorable consensus of sophisticated institutional investors regarding the prospects of the issuing firm. Institutional investor consensus as well as their higher holdings in the post-IPO firm is likely to be an informative signal regarding the post-IPO prospects of the firm.4. Sample description and variable measurementOur initial sample of 325 Internet IPOs over the period January 1996 to February 2000 was obtained from the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Internet Research Report dated February 17，2000. The unavailability of IPO offering prospectuses and exclusion of foreign firms reduces the sample size to 205 firms. Further, to be included in our sample, we require that financial and accountinginformation for sample firms is available on the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) and Compustat files and IPO offering related information is accessible from the Securities Data Corporation's (SDC) Global New Issues database. As a result of these additional data requirements, our final sample consists of 160 Internet IPO firms. Information on corporate governance variables (ownership, board composition, past experience of the CEO and CFO), and number of risk factors is collected from the offering prospectuses.Our final sample of Internet IPO firms has the following attributes. The mean offer price for our sample of IPO firms is $16.12. The average firm in our sample raised $99.48 million. The gross underwriting fee spread is around seven percent. About 79% of the firms in our sample had venture capital backing. Both the mean and median returns on assets for firms in our sample at the time of going public are significantly negative. For example, the average operating return on assets for our sample of firms is − 56.3%. The average number of employees for the firms in our sample is 287. The average board size is 6.57 for our sample. In about 7.5% of our sample, the CEO and CFO came from the same firm. In addition, we find that 59 firms representing 37% of the sample attained profitability during the post-IPO period with the median time-to-profitability being three quarters from the IPO date.5. Discussion of results and concluding remarksThe development path of various emerging industries tend to be similar in that they are characterized by high firm founding rates, rapid growth rates, substantial investments in R&D and capital expenditures, potential for product/process breakthroughs, investor exuberance, huge demand for capital, large number of firms going public while relatively young, and a struggle for survival during the post-IPO phase as profitability and growth targets remain elusive and shifts in investor sentiment substantially raise financing constraints. Recently, the Internet has rapidly emerged as a vitally important industry that has fundamentally impacted the global economy with start-up firms in the industry attracting $108 billion of investment capital during the period 1995–2000。