Ex ante bargaining and ex post enforcement in trade credit supply: theory and evidence from China

If payment of goods is easily default, economic transaction may deeply suffer from the risk. This risky environment formed a mechanism that governs how economic transaction is realized, subsequently how trade credit is given. This paper distinguished ex ante bargaining and ex post enforcement, then modeled that bargaining power reduces trade credit ex ante, and ex post enforcement power and cash in hand of buyer can enhances both trade amount and trade credit in a presence of default risk. We modeled this relationship in order to organize findings from previous literature and from our original micro data on detailed transaction in China to consistently understand the mechanism governing trade credit. Then empirically tested a structure from the theoretical prediction with data. Results show that ex post enforcement power of seller mainly determines size of trade credit and trade amount, cash in hand of buyer can substitute with enforcement power; Bargaining power of seller is exercised to reduces trade credit and trade amount for avoiding default risk, but it simultaneously improves enforcement power as well. We found that ex post enforcement power consists of (ex ante) bargaining power on between two parties and intervention from the third party. However, its magnitude is far smaller than the direct impact to reduce trade credit and trade amount.

Seasonal migration and micro-credit in the lean period : evidence from northwest Bangladesh

This paper investigates the relationship between access to micro-credit and temporary seasonal migration, an issue which is largely ignored in the standard rural-urban migration literature. Seasonal migration due to agricultural downturns is a common phenomenon in developing countries. Using primary data from a cross-sectional household survey from the northwest part of Bangladesh, this study quantifies the factors that influence such migration decisions. Among other results, we find that network effects play a significant role in influencing the migration decision, with the presence of kinsmen at the place of destination having considerable impact. Seasonal migration is a natural choice for individual suffering periodic hardship; however the strict weekly loan repayment rules of Micro-credit Institutes can have an adverse effect on this process, reducing the ability of borrowers to react to a shock. Our result suggests that poor individuals prefer the option of not accessing the micro-credit and opt for temporal seasonal migration during the lean period. The results have numerous potential policy implications, including the design of typical micro-credit schemes.

Competition of the mechanisms : how Chinese home appliance firms coped with default risk of trade credit?

During the transition period from a planned economy to a market economy in 1990s of China, there was a considerable accrual of deferred payment, and default due to inferior enforcement institutions. This is a very common phenomenon in the transition economies at that time. Interviews with home electronics appliance firms revealed that firms coped with this problem by adjusting their sales mechanisms (found four types), and the benefit of institutions was limited. A theoretical analysis claim that spot and integration are inferior to contracts, a contract with a rebate on volume and prepayment against an exclusive agent can realize the lowest cost and price. The empirical part showed that mechanisms converged into a mechanism with the rebate on volume an against exclusive agent and its price level is the lowest. The competition is the driving force of the convergence of mechanisms and improvement risk management capacity.

The trade credit in the Spanish agrofood industry

Selling on credit is rather frequent in Mediterranean countries. Its generalized use can lead to excessive enlargements of the payment periods and consequently can deteriorate the profitability of firms. In spite of the relevance of this problem there are few empirical researches. This work intends to fill this gap and to shed light on the factors related to the extension of trade credit. In the theoretical and empirical literature, different motives have been proposed to explain this issue: a mechanism to reduce transaction costs, a financial alternative to the bank system and an additional tool to improve commercial activities. To contrast these ideas a panel of 388 firms of the Spanish agrofood industry has been taken, and static and dynamic regression models have been estimated by using robust methods to heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation and endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The results confirm that trade credit receivable is associated with more active firms and with cheaper bank financing. Other factors with positive relationships are short-term bank debts and accounts payable. These findings are consistent with commercial motives, rather than a pure financial view, in the sense that financial distressed producers extend trade credit as a way of promoting their products and in turn increasing their sales.

Magic cards: a new augmented reality approach

Augmented reality (AR) commonly uses markers for detection and tracking. Such multimedia applications associate each marker with a virtual 3D model stored in the memory of the camera-equipped device running the application. Application users are limited in their interactions, which require knowing how to design and program 3D objects. This generally prevents them from developing their own entertainment AR applications. The Magic Cards application solves this problem by offering an easy way to create and manage an unlimited number of virtual objects that are encoded on special markers.

Use of Java Cards in a telematic voting system.

This paper presents a general view of the telematic voting system developed by its authors, with a special emphasis on the important role that smart cards play in this scenario. The use of smart cards as basic pieces for providing secure cryptographic operations in this type of voting scheme is justified. The differences and advantages of Java Cards in comparison with the ?classical? smart cards (those that completely conform to the ISO/IEC 7816 standard) are also discussed. As an example, the paper describes one of the applets implemented in the voting Java Card as part of the general telematic voting application.

3D simulation of complex shading affecting PV systems taking benefit from the power of graphics cards developed for the video game industry

Shading reduces the power output of a photovoltaic (PV) system. The design engineering of PV systems requires modeling and evaluating shading losses. Some PV systems are affected by complex shading scenes whose resulting PV energy losses are very difficult to evaluate with current modeling tools. Several specialized PV design and simulation software include the possibility to evaluate shading losses. They generally possess a Graphical User Interface (GUI) through which the user can draw a 3D shading scene, and then evaluate its corresponding PV energy losses. The complexity of the objects that these tools can handle is relatively limited. We have created a software solution, 3DPV, which allows evaluating the energy losses induced by complex 3D scenes on PV generators. The 3D objects can be imported from specialized 3D modeling software or from a 3D object library. The shadows cast by this 3D scene on the PV generator are then directly evaluated from the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Thanks to the recent development of GPUs for the video game industry, the shadows can be evaluated with a very high spatial resolution that reaches well beyond the PV cell level, in very short calculation times. A PV simulation model then translates the geometrical shading into PV energy output losses. 3DPV has been implemented using WebGL, which allows it to run directly from a Web browser, without requiring any local installation from the user. This also allows taken full benefits from the information already available from Internet, such as the 3D object libraries. This contribution describes, step by step, the method that allows 3DPV to evaluate the PV energy losses caused by complex shading. We then illustrate the results of this methodology to several application cases that are encountered in the world of PV systems design. Keywords: 3D, modeling, simulation, GPU, shading, losses, shadow mapping, solar, photovoltaic, PV, WebGL

A INFLUÊNCIA DOS PROCESSOS EMPRESARIAIS PARA A FORMAÇAO DE EQUIPES DE ALTO DESEMPENHO

Este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar a influência dos processos empresariais, mais propriamente, dos processos empresariais de negócios, também chamados de comerciais, na formação de equipes de alto desempenho. Igualmente, têm-se como provedoras de dados as equipes de vendas ligadas a uma empresa administradora de cartões de crédito e de desconto. Visto que os processos empresariais são parte integrante da cultura organizacional da empresa, o tema cultura organizacional é abordado e revisto. Revisa-se também o conceito de equipe, notadamente seus elementos constituintes, que as caracterizam e as distinguem entre os tipos clássicos. Do mesmo modo, trabalha-se o conceito de processos empresariais e seus constituintes de maior importância para a presente dissertação. Da intersecção entre os conceitos de cultura organizacional, ou mais propriamente dos processos empresariais do comércio, do conceito de alto desempenho em equipes e de estratégias organizacionais, procurou-se prover um melhor entendimento sobre a influência que tais processos empresariais poderiam exercer na formação e na existência de equipes de alto desempenho. A importância deste estudo é expressa por intermédio da premente necessidade da utilização, cada vez mais racional, dos recursos humanos nas empresas, principalmente no que tange a organização dos trabalhadores em equipes. A metodologia utilizada foi a da observação e análise, onde o pesquisador através do estudo de cada processo de trabalho e do comportamento das equipes em relação a esses processos, dos resultados almejados para cada um deles, dos efetivamente conseguidos e do efeito dos processos nas equipes, colheu as informações ora apresentadas.(AU)

A INFLUÊNCIA DOS PROCESSOS EMPRESARIAIS PARA A FORMAÇAO DE EQUIPES DE ALTO DESEMPENHO

Este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar a influência dos processos empresariais, mais propriamente, dos processos empresariais de negócios, também chamados de comerciais, na formação de equipes de alto desempenho. Igualmente, têm-se como provedoras de dados as equipes de vendas ligadas a uma empresa administradora de cartões de crédito e de desconto. Visto que os processos empresariais são parte integrante da cultura organizacional da empresa, o tema cultura organizacional é abordado e revisto. Revisa-se também o conceito de equipe, notadamente seus elementos constituintes, que as caracterizam e as distinguem entre os tipos clássicos. Do mesmo modo, trabalha-se o conceito de processos empresariais e seus constituintes de maior importância para a presente dissertação. Da intersecção entre os conceitos de cultura organizacional, ou mais propriamente dos processos empresariais do comércio, do conceito de alto desempenho em equipes e de estratégias organizacionais, procurou-se prover um melhor entendimento sobre a influência que tais processos empresariais poderiam exercer na formação e na existência de equipes de alto desempenho. A importância deste estudo é expressa por intermédio da premente necessidade da utilização, cada vez mais racional, dos recursos humanos nas empresas, principalmente no que tange a organização dos trabalhadores em equipes. A metodologia utilizada foi a da observação e análise, onde o pesquisador através do estudo de cada processo de trabalho e do comportamento das equipes em relação a esses processos, dos resultados almejados para cada um deles, dos efetivamente conseguidos e do efeito dos processos nas equipes, colheu as informações ora apresentadas.(AU)

Financial fragility, trade credit and contagion effects during the crisis: a spatial econometric approach to firm-level data

The number of distressed manufacturing firms increased sharply during recessionary phase 2009-13. Financial indebtness traditionally plays a key role in assessing firm solvency but contagion effects that originate from the supply chain are usually neglected in literature. Firm interconnections, captured via the trade credit channel, represent a primary vehicle of individual shocks’ propagation, especially during an economic downturn, when liquidity tensions arise. A representative sample of 11,920 Italian manufacturing firms is considered to model a two-step econometric design, where chain reactions in terms of trade credit accumulation (i.e. default of payments to suppliers) are primarily analyzed by resorting to a spatial autoregressive approach (SAR). Spatial interactions are modeled based on a unique dataset of firm-to-firm transactions registered before the outbreak of the crisis. The second step in instead a binary outcome model where trade credit chains are considered together with data on the bank-firm relationship to assess determinants of distress likelihoods in 2009-13. Results show that outstanding trade debt is affected by the liquidity position of a firm and by positive spatial effects. Trade credit chain reactions are found to exert, in turn, a positive impact on distress likelihoods during the crisis. The latter effect is comparable in magnitude to the one exerted by individual financial rigidity, and stresses the importance to include complex interactions between firms in the analysis of the solvency behavior.