Multiple Case Studies On The Financial Characteristics And Financial Performance Of Asset-Light Enterprises

China is the world’s largest apparel exporter,producer,and consumer,and the apparel industry is China’s pillar industry.China’s clothing industry has entered a mature retail stage characterized by consumer demand driven product innovation.In recent years,the global economic growth has slowed down,the division of labor has become more detailed,Internet e-commerce has risen and developed,consumer demand has become diversified,raw materials and labor costs have risen,and various factors have contributed to the increasingly fierce competition in the clothing industry.The operation mode is the key to improve the core competitiveness of enterprises.Exploring an operation mode suitable for the development of enterprises has become an urgent task for the clothing industry.The traditional clothing industry mainly promotes the development of enterprises by extensive extension expansion,and most of them adopt the heavy asset operation mode,which cannot effectively cope with the fierce competition pattern.The asset light mode outsources the production and manufacturing links,while the enterprise concentrates resources on R&D design and brand marketing.The emergence of this mode breaks through the traditional business philosophy,and this operation mode with high value-added links as the core is consistent with the development needs of China’s clothing enterprises.Firstly,this paper reviews the literature at home and abroad to understand the current research status of light assets.Secondly,on the basis of previous research,define the concept of light assets,and measure the criteria of light assets.Finally,taking 10 listed enterprises in China’s clothing industry as the research object,this paper conducts a comparative study on the financial characteristics of light assets,and analyzes the influencing factors of financial characteristics.At the same time,the paper analyzes the factors that influence the financial performance of enterprises by light assets,summarizes the successful experience and reasons for failure of enterprises implementing the light assets model,and puts forward specific suggestions,which can provide reference for other enterprises planning to transform the light assets operation model.This study finds that:(1)Most light asset enterprises have the same financial characteristics.The 10 apparel industry light asset enterprises listed in this paper generally have significant financial characteristics such as high cash reserves,high inventory turnover,high capital turnover,large advertising and R&D investment,and high proportion of accounts payable.(2)Asset light has different effects on financial performance.The comprehensive scores of most of the 10 garment industry light asset enterprises are higher than those of the heavy asset enterprises,mainly due to the clear brand positioning,accurate marketing positioning,outstanding R&D innovation and other reasons.However,some light asset enterprises performed poorly,mainly due to overstock,vague brand positioning,insufficient R&D investment and other factors.(3)The inventory backlog of asset-light apparel enterprises is serious.The inventory backlog of enterprises is usually caused by insufficient R&D investment,lack of supply chain management capabilities,and low efficiency of information system management.