Inventory management under financial distress: an empirical analysis
研究了美国制造业企业在财务困境期间通过减少库存来获取短期融资的行为，发现约70%的困境企业会削减库存，平均减少18.7个库存天数或9.4%，且调整幅度受前期库存表现、企业规模和扭亏策略影响。
This study analyses inventory reductions as a means of short-term financing of firms under financial distress. We use quarterly panel data of U.S. manufacturing firms for the period from 1995 to 2007. We identify a sample of 198 distressed firms for which we analyse changes in relative inventory. Approximately 70% of distressed firms reduce their inventories until the end of their individual distress periods. This decrease corresponds to a mean reduction of 18.7 inventory days or 9.4%. Additional regression analyses show that differences in inventory adjustments depend on pre-distress inventory performance, firm size, and turnaround strategy. We also compile a sample of 142 firms that defaulted to analyse inventory actions of unsuccessful turnarounds. Our findings indicate that defaulting firms also reduce their inventories but that the reductions are lower than those of firms that resolve their financial distress. We conclude that distressed firms use short-term inventory adjustments to free up cash and to achieve long-term efficiency gains from inventory optimisation. Our findings suggest that inventory optimisation is an essential part of a complete and successful turnaround strategy and financially distressed firms should always consider this action as a means to prevent bankruptcy.