Purpose

Bootstrapping is a practitioner-based term adopted in entrepreneurship to describe the techniques employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to minimise the need for external funding by securing resources at little or no cost and applying strategies to effectively use resources. Working capital management (WCM) is a term used in financial management to define a set of practices used to manage business resources, including cash management. This paper explores the overlap and divergence between these two disciplinary distinct concepts.

Design/methodology/approach

A dual methodology is employed. First, the usage of the two terms in prior literature is analysed and synthesised. Second, the study uses factor analysis to explore how bootstrapping practices described by owners of 167 established MSMEs relate to the components of WCM in financial management.

Findings

The factor analysis identifies two main bootstrapping practices employed by MSMEs: (1) delaying payments and owner-related bootstrapping and (2) customer-related bootstrapping. Delaying payments is an integral practice in trade payables management and customer-related bootstrapping includes practices that are integral to trade receivables management. Therefore, links between bootstrapping practices and WCM practices are firmly established.

Research limitations/implications

The study is not without limitations. Based on cross-sectional evidence for established firms in Ireland only, future studies could explore cross-country longitudinal panel data to fully examine life cycle and sectoral effects, as well as other external shocks (for example, COVID-19) on bootstrapping and WCM practices. This study does not explain why some factors (for example, joint utilisation and inventory management) are present in some bootstrapping studies and not in others; further case study research might help explain this. Finally, changes in the business environment facing start-ups and established enterprise, including increased digitalisation, online trading, self-employment, remote hub working and sustainability, offer new avenues for bootstrapping research.

Originality/value

This is the first study to comprehensively explore the conceptual and empirical links between bootstrapping and WCM. This study will enable researchers and practitioners in these two distinct disciplines to learn from each other. Accounting researchers and practitioners can broaden their understanding of how WCM “works” in MSME settings. Similarly, entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners can deepen their understanding of how bootstrapping can be adopted by businesses to manage resources effectively.

中文翻译：

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喜结良缘——将老牌企业的自力更生与营运资本管理联系起来

目的

自举是企业家精神中采用的一个基于从业者的术语，描述微型、小型和中型企业（MSME）采用的技术，通过以很少或没有成本获得资源并应用有效利用资源的策略来最大程度地减少对外部资金的需求。营运资本管理 (WCM) 是财务管理中使用的一个术语，用于定义一组用于管理业务资源（包括现金管理）的实践。本文探讨了这两个学科不同概念之间的重叠和分歧。

设计/方法论/途径

采用双重方法。首先，对现有文献中这两个术语的用法进行分析和综合。其次，该研究利用因子分析来探讨 167 家已成立的中小微企业所有者所描述的引导实践如何与财务管理中 WCM 的组成部分相关联。

发现

因子分析确定了中小微企业采用的两种主要引导做法：(1) 延迟付款和与所有者相关的引导；(2) 与客户相关的引导。延迟付款是贸易应付账款管理中不可或缺的做法，而与客户相关的引导包括贸易应收账款管理中不可或缺的做法。因此，引导实践和 WCM 实践之间的联系已牢固建立。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究并非没有局限性。仅基于爱尔兰老牌企业的横截面证据，未来的研究可以探索跨国纵向面板数据，以全面检验生命周期和部门影响，以及其他外部冲击（例如，COVID-19）对引导和 WCM 的影响做法。这项研究没有解释为什么某些因素（例如联合利用和库存管理）出现在一些自举研究中，而在其他研究中则没有；进一步的案例研究可能有助于解释这一点。最后，初创企业和成熟企业面临的商业环境的变化，包括数字化、在线交易、个体经营、远程中心工作和可持续性的增加，为引导研究提供了新的途径。

原创性/价值

这是第一项全面探讨 bootstrapping 和 WCM 之间概念和实证联系的研究。这项研究将使这两个不同学科的研究人员和实践者能够相互学习。会计研究人员和从业人员可以加深对 WCM 如何在中小微企业环境中“运作”的理解。同样，创业研究人员和实践者可以加深对企业如何采用引导来有效管理资源的理解。