This dissertation investigates two major themes: (1) the strategies that global firms use to overcome weak institutions in their outsourcing and (2) how local institutions affected how firms reconfigured their global supply chains in response to the financial crisis. All three papers use a unique dataset of international contract manufacturing orders that provides hitherto unavailable insight into the global supply chains of many of the world's largest brands in footwear, sportswear, and apparel. In the first essay I create a formal model that examines the use of relational contracting by firms to overcome weak contracting institutions in their supply chains. The model predicts that, when the risk of future demand shocks is high, buyers make long-term commitments to source from suppliers in weak institution countries. I test this model and find that buyers preserved their relationships with suppliers in weak contract enforcement countries during the financial crisis for reasons that cannot be explained by cost. In conjunction with the model, these results suggest that relying on relational contracting to overcome weak contracting institutions can reduce a buyer’s flexibility in configuring his supplier networks. In the second essay, I examine whether firms choose to source from multinational (MNC) suppliers instead of local suppliers as a means of overcoming weak contract enforcement institutions or as a means of accessing supply chain management capabilities. I find strong evidence that buyers are more likely to source from MNC suppliers in countries where contract enforcement is weak and when they have less experience sourcing from a given country. Buyers are also more likely to source from MNC suppliers when they source a wider variety of products, have smaller supplier networks, and have smaller order volumes. My third essay investigates how trade credit terms are affected by local credit markets, financial institutions, and market power. I find that trade credit terms are longer when local credit markets are more developed and when buyers have market power. I also test how trade credit terms responded to the financial crisis and find that terms lengthened subject to the depth of local credit markets and buyer market power.

Durant les dernières décennies, le financement relationnel a fortement évolué. Il n’est plus considéré maintenant comme un simple mécanisme de réduction de l’asymétrie d’information. Cependant, de nombreuses questions restent non résolues. Quels sont ses déterminants ? Son utilisation impacte-t-elle de la même façon tous les agents ? Quels sont les substituts possibles ? La thèse s’organise autour de ces axes. Le premier chapitre traite de l’impact de la compétition bancaire sur la mise en place du financement relationnel. Le second chapitre s’intéresse à l’utilisation de ce financement par les minorités. Enfin, le troisième chapitre analyse la substitution potentielle entre crédit fournisseur et financement relationnel. En utilisant deux bases de données, l’une sur des PME américaines, l’autre des italiennes, nous montrons empiriquement que : 1. La concurrence interbancaire influence de manière non-linéaire le financement relationnel. Les banques favorisent un financement relationnel quand la compétition est faible, transactionnel quand elle s’intensifie avec un retour au relationnel en cas de forte compétition. Ce résultat est cohérent avec la vision du relationnel bancaire comme mécanisme de protection contre la compétition, tant qu’elle n’est pas trop intense. 2. Si l’utilisation du financement relationnel augmente dans un premier temps la discrimination subie par les minorités ethniques, celle-ci diminue avec le temps. Cela démontre la validité de la théorie psychologique du contact en finance. 3. Les entreprises opaques n’ayant pas accès au financement relationnel utilisent plus de crédit fournisseur. Celui-ci peut être vu comme un financement relationnel / Over the past decades, the definition of relationship banking has greatly evolved. It is no longer considered as a simple mechanism used to reduce information asymmetry. However, many questions remain. What are its determinants? Does its use impact all agents in the same way? What are its potential substitutes? This thesis is organized around these themes. The first chapter examines the impact of banking competition on relationship lending technology. The second chapter studies the use of relationship lending technology by minorities. Finally, the third chapter analyzes the potential substitution between relationship lending technology and trade credit. Using two different databases - the first one composed of US SMEs, the second of Italian SMEs - we empirically show that: 1. Banking competition impacts non-linearly the use of relationship lending technology. Banks favor relationship lending when competition is weak, transactional lending when it increases then return to relationship lending in case of strong competition. 2. If the use of relationship lending technology tends to first increase discrimination against minorities, this discrimination decreases with time. This result could be analyzed as an empirical validation of the psychological theory of contacts in finance. 3. Opaque firms without an access to relationship lending technology use more trade credit. Trade credit can be seen as a relationship lending technology

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第21522号 / 経博第590号 / 新制||経||288(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 矢野 剛, 教授 塩地 洋, 教授 田中 彰, 教授 三重野 文晴 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

No / Trade credit terms offer firms contractual solutions to informational asymmetries between buyers and sellers. The credit period permits buyers to reduce uncertainty concerning product quality prior to payment, while the seller can reduce uncertainty concerning buyer payment intentions by prescribing payment before/on delivery or through two¿part payment terms and other mechanisms. Variation in trade credit terms also offers firms price discriminating opportunities. This study, drawing on the responses of 700 large firms in the US, UK and Australia, explores trade credit terms through the twin objectives of reducing information asymmetries and discriminatory pricing. Support is found for both theories.

The thesis is aimed at explanation of the factors that led to the creation of the current financial crisis in their mutual context. Emphasis is placed on the way of providing mortgages in the USA, policy of FED and credit derivatives. The impacts of the crisis on banking, stock and commodity markets, building industry and automotive industry are discussed as important determinants of international trade. It is shortly mentioned how countries like Germany, China or Czech Republic dealt with the crisis. The final part of the thesis is devoted to the impacts of the crisis on international trade, these impacts result from the issues that are described in the first two parts. Discussed are the commodity and territorial structures of the international trade during the years of crisis. Also the impacts on the foreign trade of the Czech Republic are stressed.

[pt] Há evidência - Petersen e Rajan (1997) - que fornecedores têm uma vantagem informacional sobre o risco de seus clientes. Entretanto, Elliehausen e Wolken (1993) reportam que taxas de crédito comercial são freqüentemente padronizadas. Por que os fornecedores não usam sua vantagem informacional para adequar taxas de juros a risco? Este trabalho demonstra que se a demanda por insumos for suficientemente inelástica, a competição com os bancos faz com que a taxa de crédito comercial seja invariante e cole na taxa bancária. Se, ao contrário, a demanda for suficientemente elástica, a taxa invariante de crédito comercial é zero, como usualmente acontece nos E.U.A. em créditos de fornecedor até 10 dias. / [en] There is evidence - Petersen and Rajan (1997) - that suppliers have superior information on their clients capacity of repayment. However, Elliehausen and Wolken (1993) report that trade credit rates are frequently standardized. Why do not suppliers use their informational advantage to make the interest rate reflect the risk? This work shows that, if the demand for imputs is sufficiently inelastic, competition among banks leads the trade credit rate to be invariant and very close to banking rate. On the contrary, if the demand is sufficiently elastic, the trade credit rate is invariant and equal to zero, as usually occurs with suppliers credit with maturity until 10 days in USA.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-05-25T11:56:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ElianedeMello.pdf: 968346 bytes, checksum: 901b6d698e62be9089fe8a8c748bd27e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-25T11:56:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ElianedeMello.pdf: 968346 bytes, checksum: 901b6d698e62be9089fe8a8c748bd27e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-24 / Nenhuma / O financiamento por meio dos fornecedores é um assunto que tem sido pouco estudado em nível nacional. No entanto, na literatura internacional, várias hipóteses têm sido propostas para explicar as diferentes razões que levam a esse fenômeno, chamado crédito comercial, que não parece ser baseado em uma teoria geral. As organizações justificam o fornecimento de crédito comercial pressupondo que, na ausência de tais financiamentos, os clientes que não têm acesso ao crédito das instituições financeiras não possam adquirir seus produtos. A importância do crédito é elevada, e as empresas que atuam como intermediários financeiros desempenham um papel fundamental como substitutos do banco, concedendo crédito comercial para as companhias com restrições ao crédito bancário. Diante desses fatos, o objetivo do presente estudo é examinar se o crédito comercial facilita o acesso ao crédito bancário ou é seu substituto. Utilizando dados em painel de 322 empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, no período de 2000-2009, os resultados confirmam a hipótese da substituição. Ainda, quando testada apenas nas companhias com o patrimônio líquido positivo, a hipótese da substituição é aceita somente nas empresas mais jovens e com maior proporção de ativos. Os resultados empíricos admitem também que, apesar de as companhias mais velhas terem supostamente maior capacidade de endividamento, elas estão preferindo financiar-se via recursos gerados internamente. Observou-se, ainda, que a idade é altamente significante nas empresas menores. / Financing by suppliers is a subject that has been scarcely studied at the national level. However, in the international literature, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the different reasons that have led to this phenomenon, called trade credit, which does not seem to be based on a general theory. Organizations have justified the offer of trade credit assuming that, in case of absence of such financing, customers that do not have access to credit from financial institutions could not buy their products. Credit is something very important, and companies that function as financial intermediates play a fundamental role as bank surrogates by offering trade credit to companies that have restrictions in terms of bank credit. Considering all this, the present study aims at examining whether the trade credit facilities the access to bank credit and or it is its surrogate. Considering data from a panel of 322 Brazilian public companies in the period from 2000 to 2009, the results have confirmed the hypothesis of surrogacy. In addition, when tested only in companies with positive net equity, the hypothesis of surrogacy is accepted for younger companies with more assets. The empirical results have also made it possible to admit that, despite older companies having greater debt capacity, they prefer finance themselves through internally generated resources. Besides that, age is highly significant in smaller companies.

Problem: High wage countries depend on SME's to lower unemployment, to trigger economic growth and to utilize the 'knowledge waste' created by large investments in human capital. However, due to their limited access to capital markets SME's are seen as unfavourably dependent on their own generation of internal funds to grow. Among SME's, IT firms are seen as most representative for this struggle, since they have i) a bad reputation within the public and institutional sector due to the dot-com era, and ii) assets with low collateral value (e.g. immaterial assets, human capital, knowledge, prototypes and ideas that all have unknown, unsecure and hard to predict second-hand or future values). Despite these unfavorable characteristics, some IT firms are growing considerably fast. What can we learn from them?  Purpose: Describe the financial situation of IT SME's. Investigate how those IT firms that are fast growing have grown and financed their growth, and how they have managed the effects of growth. Method: Due to the nature of the purpose a mixed method research approach was adopted. The quantitative investigation aimed at describing their fi-nancial situation and took the form of a statistical analysis of the entire IT firm population, using data from the Swedish database 'Affärsdata'. The qualitative approach took the form of telephone interviews with a sample of fast growing IT firms, to get closer to the reasoning behind their growth and it’s financing. This research approach enabled cross referencing, strengthening some of the empirical evidence found. Conclusion: Evidence was found on IT firms growing with assets of less collateral value resulting in low amounts of long term debt. Indications were found on the traditional life cycle perspective regarding SME finance has to be changed to fit IT firms; after surviving the first years of internal funding and years of overdependence on short term debt, they reach a stage (e.g. in a financial crisis, facing international expansion, or substantial R&D costs) when financial assistance is needed. Indications were also found on IT firms operating in a highly unpredictable environment demanding advanced cash management routines that today are not prioritized in favor of growth. To handle this, and to reach financial assistance when needed (most likely by involving a risk capitalist in exchange for firm ownership), those firms showing stability (i.e. through low personnel turnover, high profitability or a large cash buffer) seem to have been more successful.

<p><strong>Problem: </strong>High wage countries depend on SME's to lower unemployment, to trigger economic growth and to utilize the 'knowledge waste' created by large investments in human capital. However, due to their limited access to capital markets SME's are seen as unfavourably dependent on their own generation of internal funds to grow. Among SME's, IT firms are seen as most representative for this struggle, since they have i) a bad reputation within the public and institutional sector due to the dot-com era, and ii) assets with low collateral value (e.g. immaterial assets, human capital, knowledge, prototypes and ideas that all have unknown, unsecure and hard to predict second-hand or future values). Despite these unfavorable characteristics, some IT firms are growing considerably fast. What can we learn from them?  <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong><strong> </strong>Describe the financial situation of IT SME's. Investigate how those IT firms that are fast growing have grown and financed their growth, and how they have managed the effects of growth.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Due to the nature of the purpose a mixed method research approach was adopted. The quantitative investigation aimed at describing their fi-nancial situation and took the form of a statistical analysis of the entire IT firm population, using data from the Swedish database 'Affärsdata'. The qualitative approach took the form of telephone interviews with a sample of fast growing IT firms, to get closer to the reasoning behind their growth and it’s financing. This research approach enabled cross referencing, strengthening some of the empirical evidence found.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Evidence was found on IT firms growing with assets of less collateral value resulting in low amounts of long term debt. Indications were found on the traditional life cycle perspective regarding SME finance has to be changed to fit IT firms; after surviving the first years of internal funding and years of overdependence on short term debt, they reach a stage (e.g. in a financial crisis, facing international expansion, or substantial R&D costs) when financial assistance is needed. Indications were also found on IT firms operating in a highly unpredictable environment demanding advanced cash management routines that today are not prioritized in favor of growth. To handle this, and to reach financial assistance when needed (most likely by involving a risk capitalist in exchange for firm ownership), those firms showing stability (i.e. through low personnel turnover, high profitability or a large cash buffer) seem to have been more successful.</p>

Det är vanligt förekommande att företag låter sig leverantörsfinansieras med handelskrediter. Den internationella forskningen är omfattande rörande vilka egenskaper och förhållanden sommotiverar leverantörsfinansiering. Syftet med denna studie är att visa vilka faktorer som är bestämmande för användandet av handelskrediter i svenska små och medelstora företag. Undersökningen inriktas på att studera vilket samband lönsamhet och skuldsättning har till handelskrediter. Företags ålder och storlek studeras också i förhållande till handelskrediter.Studien genomförs med en multipel regressionsanalys där den beroende variabelnhandelskrediter representeras av leverantörsskulder. Vad gäller de obereonde variablernarepresenteras lönsamhet av avkastning på totalt kapital, skuldsättning av kortfristiga respektive långfristiga skulder, ålder är en logaritm av företagets ålder och storleken är enlogaritm av företagets omsättning. Resultatet visar att det finns ett samband mellan handelskrediter och lönsamhet samt skuldsättning. I båda fallen är detta samband negativt. Det innebär att om ett företag är lönsamt har företaget en mindre andel handelskrediter och om ett företag har stor andel skuldsättning minskar andelen handelskrediter. Förklaringen tilldet negativa sambandet vad gäller lönsamhet är pecking order - teorin. Skuldsättningens negativa samband förklaras av utbytesteorin. / It is common for corporations to be financed by their suppliers through trade credits. There are also a lot of international studies regarding the determinants of finance through tradecredit. The aim of this study is to investigate the determinant factors for the use of trade creditin swedish small and medium enterprises (SME). The study aims to investigate the relationship that profit and debt has to trade credits. I also intend to investigate how factors such as age and sizes of the company affect the use of trade credit. The study is made with amultiple linear regression analysis and the dependent variable trade credit is represented byaccounts payable. Regarding the independent variables, profit is represented by return onassets, debt is represented by short term and long term debt, age is a logaritm of thecompanies age and size is a logaritm of the companies turnover. The result shows that there isa relationship between trade credit, profit and debt. In both cases the relationship is significantand negative. This means that if a company is profitable it will receive less trade credit and ifa company has a big share of debt the share of received trade credits will be less. The explanation to the negative relationship regarding profit is the theory of pecking order. Regarding debt the negative relationship can be explanied with the substitution theory.