Net Working Capital als Finanzierungsquelle der Supply Chain

Net Working Capital als Finanzierungsquelle der Supply Chain - Kooperative Kapitalallokation in globalen Abnehmer-Lieferanten-Dyaden

Researcher:

M. Wandfluh

Due to the global distribution of supplier networks, purchasers increasingly need to consider uncertainties related to financial risks. The high volatility of currencies and raw material prices during recent years has resulted in high cost fluctuations and adjustments of asset values as well as decreasing margins. Furthermore, the financial crises and the credit crunch lead to higher capital costs and liquidity shortages especially for small and medium enterprises in emerging markets. This influenced the supply chain stability and consequently had effects on companies purchasing goods from affected suppliers. As recent events have shown, purchasers often have difficulties in considering these financial aspects adequately.

However, especially global supply chains offer the possibility to exploit differences between supply chain partners when allocating capital and hence to improve supply chain performance sustainably. Even without changing the material flows, optimizing the dates for payment and ownership transfer may help to achieve such benefits. New methods and mindsets for financing inventories, accounts receivable, and accounts payable in cooperation with strategic supply chain partners are therefore necessary.

To address this gap and to support industrial decision makers when selecting and implementing different instruments of cooperative working capital financing, this dissertation aims at:

(1) the identification and structuration of different instruments of supply-chain-internal cooperative working capital financing as well as

(2)   the development of a process model to identify suitable supply chains for cooperative working capital financing and, if suitable, to select effective and efficient financing solutions.

Based on literature research, case studies, interview series, as well as a survey of 145 Swiss purchasers, this dissertation identifies different characteristics of cooperative working capital financing instruments and structures the general framework and influencing factors that need to be considered in this context. This serves as a basis for the development of an evaluation model for the quantification of the benefits of cooperative working capital financing and the embedding of this evaluation model in a practical process model. The combination of literature research and an empirical database supports the development of generic results as well as the applicability of the solutions. With a system-oriented approach and the consideration of various interdependencies of purchasing and financing decisions, this dissertation forms the basis for cooperative reduction of financing costs in buyer-supplier dyads and hence for increased stability in global supply chains