Trade Finance Contracts for Small-Business Suppliers

网络平台正在改变小企业（供应商）销售产品和获得贸易融资的方式。具体来说，小企业，美国创造就业机会的引擎，通常在亚马逊、E-bay和Spun等网络平台（零售商）上销售产品，并可能直接从零售商（通过贷款或购买承诺）或KickStarter、IndeGoGo和Crowdfunder等众筹选项获得融资。本研究将开发新的数学模型，从小企业、零售商和供应链的角度，对（1）直接融资、（2）购买承诺、（3）众筹等新兴贸易融资方式进行评估。具体而言，本研究项目旨在回答以下问题：1。在每种融资方案下，供应商和零售商的最佳运营和财务决策是什么？2.对于小型企业供应商来说，哪种选择更具有上级优势？3.哪种选择有可能实现最大的供应链效率？4.第三方信用的提供是否提高了供应链的效率？(This是由第三方贷方（例如，如果供应商从零售商或群众来源获得一些融资，银行通常更愿意提供贷款。 贸易融资之所以重要，是因为小企业通常很难获得商业贷款来支持其运营;小企业占美国所有就业岗位的60%至80%;美国人口普查局报告说，电子商务的势头稳步上升，较二○年第一季约占零售业总销货额百分之零点八（七千四百亿元中约有五十八亿元）到2013年第三季度的5.9%[约1.14万亿美元中的670亿美元];众筹平台在2012年通过全球100多万次个人活动筹集了27亿美元;《就业法案》预计将通过允许公司参与基于股权的在线众筹来加快众筹的步伐。这项研究的结果将告知供应商和零售商，哪些融资方案对他们和整个供应链最好。这项研究将有助于培养高素质的人才，为博士生和本科生在工程方面提供研究机会。 本研究课题的目的是：（1）为具有经济意义的小型企业供应商制定最佳贸易融资和运营战略的新模式;（2）对不同融资方案下的最佳生产政策结构的新认识;（3）众筹模式的经济模式。 这些方法将包括随机比较、动态程序、单期和多期博弈的均衡分析以及众筹数据的统计分析（例如，混合效应模型）。多周期随机优化问题是一个具有挑战性的问题，因为最优生产策略的结构是未知的。此外，没有以前的工作已经研究了零售商的问题，选择无论是在多个时期的利率或承诺利率。同样，对于试图通过众筹筹集资金的供应商所面临的决策问题建模的研究也很有限，例如，提供给贡献者多少价格折扣。通过模拟新兴的贸易融资模式，这项研究将为其他研究人员开辟新的研究领域。首席研究员的努力还将帮助小企业供应商做出更好的贸易融资和运营决策。

Web platforms are transforming the way small businesses (suppliers) sell their products and obtain trade finance. Specifically, small businesses, the engines of job creation in the U.S., often sell their products on web platforms (retailers) such as Amazon, E-bay, and Spun and may obtain financing either directly from the retailer (via either a loan or a purchase commitment) or crowd-funding options such as KickStarter, IndeGoGo, and Crowdfunder. This research will develop new mathematical models to evaluate emerging trade-finance options including (1) direct financing, (2) purchase commitment, and (3) crowd-funding, from the viewpoint of small businesses, retailers, and supply chains. Specifically, this research project seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What are the optimal operational and financial decisions for suppliers and retailers under each finance option? 2. Which option is superior for small-business suppliers? 3. Which option has the potential to achieve maximum supply chain efficiency? 4. Does the availability of third-party credit improve supply chain's efficiency? (This is motivated by the fact that third-party lenders (e.g., banks) are often more willing to offer loans if suppliers receive some financing from either retailers or crowd sources.) Trade finance is important because small businesses often find it difficult to obtain commercial loans to support their operations; small businesses account for 60 to 80 percent of all US jobs; U.S. Census Bureau reports that e-commerce has steadily gained momentum, increasing from about 0.8 percent of total retail sales in the first quarter of 2000 [approximately $5.8 billion of $740 billion] to 5.9 percent in the third quarter of 2013 [approximately $67 billion of $1.14 trillion]; crowd-funding platforms raised $2.7 billion in 2012 across more than 1 million individual campaigns globally; and the JOBS Act is expected to accelerate the pace of crowd-funding by permitting companies to participate in equity-based, online crowd-funding. The results of this research will inform suppliers and retailers which financing options are best for them and for the supply chain as a whole. The research will help train highly qualified personnel by offering research opportunities for doctoral and undergraduate students in engineering. This research project will lead to (1) new models for establishing optimal trade-finance and operations' strategies for economically significant small-business suppliers, (2) new insights about the optimal production-policy structure under different finance options, and (3) economic models for the crowd-funding paradigm. These methods will comprise stochastic comparisons, dynamic programs, equilibrium analysis of single and multi-period games, and statistical analysis of crowd-funding data (e.g., mixed-effects models). The underlying multi-period stochastic optimization problems are challenging because the structure of an optimal production-policy is not known. Moreover, no previous work has investigated the retailer's problem of choosing either the interest rate or the commitment rate in a multi-period setting. Similarly, there is limited research on modeling the decision problems faced by suppliers who attempt to raise capital via crowd-funding - e.g., how much price discount to offer to contributors. By modeling emerging trade-finance paradigms, this research will open new areas of inquiry for other researchers. The principal investigator's efforts will also help small-business suppliers make better trade-finance and operational decisions.