Firm’s Export Diversification Under Credit Constraints

Since the reform and opening up,Chinese enterprises have made rapid progress in export trade and have achieved remarkable achievements.However,in the course of development,the financing constraints that Chinese companies have always faced have,to a certain extent,affected the export level of Chinese enterprises.Based on the new and new trade theory,this article uses data from exporting enterprises that match the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database and the Customs Import and Export Database from 2000 to 2006,combines the key financial indicators of the enterprise,selects the appropriate variables,and constructs a negative binomial regression model empirical test.How internal and external financing constraints affect the diversification level of Chinese enterprises’ exports(export product categories and export destinations).The empirical research results show that the internal and external financing constraints are important factors affecting the diversification level of the company’s exports,and mainly affect the diversification level of the export products by affecting the number of export products.In particular,the internal variables of the agent variables used to represent the internal financing constraints of the company have significantly promoted the number of export products,but the impact on the number of export destinations is not significant;the accounts receivable of enterprises are the types of export products of the enterprise.Both the number and the number of export destinations have a significant inhibitory effect.Therefore,enterprises should strengthen the scientific management level of internal cash flow,reduce the proportion of accounts receivable,and promote the better development of enterprises.Further,contrary to the conclusion that many existing papers show that interest expenditure is positively correlated with export possibility and total export volume,this paper empirically finds that interest expense is significantly negatively correlated with the number of export products of enterprises.This indicates that the higher the external financing constraints,the more the product line will develop towards diversification,if the company has already made export decisions.That is,companies will use the diversification of export products to offset the negative impact of external financing constraints on export possibilities and total export volume.The results of the regression on the ownership of enterprises shows that only domestic enterprises are affected by internal and external financing constraints at the same time;private enterprises are only affected by the balance of accounts receivable;collective enterprises are not affected by internal and external financing constraints.Among foreign-funded enterprises,only Sino-foreign joint ventures are subject to both internal financing constraints and external financing constraints.In addition,the results of the negative binomial regression analysis of the size of the large,medium,and small three types of companies show that accounts receivable has a significant negative effect on the number of export products and the number of destinations of the three types of companies,while internal cash flows And interest expense only has a significant effect on the number of export products of medium-sized companies.Therefore,compared to large or small micro-enterprises,medium-sized enterprises are more likely to develop in the direction of product diversification in the face of internal and external financing constraints.Since large-scale enterprises are less affected by internal and external financing constraints,large-scale enterprises can increase product development efforts,take the path of product specialization,and enhance the competitiveness and benefits of export products.From a regional point of view,the internal financing constraint variables—internal cash flow and accounts receivable—have significantly accelerated and significantly reduced the number of export products of enterprises in the eastern,central and western regions,and northeastern regions,respectively,while interest expenditures on the eastern and the middle The number of export products of enterprises in the western region has a significant inhibitory effect.In addition,interest expenses also have a significant inhibitory effect on the number of export destinations of enterprises in the eastern and central and western regions,but they have no significant effect on the number of export destinations of enterprises in the Northeast region.