appear not to relate accounts receivable to short-term liabilities and that they finance
their operational assets with stockholders’ equity in addition to accounts payable.
However, their study results contrast with previous studies’ findings that accounts
receivable is highly related to accounts payable and that current liabilities usually
finance operational assets. Jang and Ryu’s study was examined further by Jang and
Kim (2009) to assess the firm size effect on restaurant firms’ financing behavior. Jang
and Kim found that small and medium restaurant firms rely more on accounts payable
whereas large firms use more long-term debts, and that long-term assets relate to
stockholder equity among large firms but relate to supplier credit among small and
medium firms. Nevertheless, the reason behind the firm size effect on restaurant firms’
financing behavior remains unclear.
The lack of research on short-term financing options in other hospitality segments
suggests future research opportunities. The labor-intensive nature of hospitality
businesses and the system of trade credit both contribute significantly to their
payables accounts (i.e. wages and accounts payable); short-term liquidity is critical. For
example, casino firms rely heavily on cash transactions, but their operating cash flows
can be quite uncertain and can fluctuate significantly on a daily basis. Insufficient cash
flows generated from operating activities will likely trigger a need for short-term
financing such as taking advantage of revolving credit facilities.
2.1.3 Interest rate. Interest represents a tax shield benefit to a firm. However, it
could also cause financial distress if debt financing is not properly arranged and
monitored. Interest rates determine the amounts paid and therefore are an important
issue for firms making decisions about debt financing. Corgel and Gibson (2005)
showed that for hotel firms, the frequency of financial distress from floating-rate
financing is less than or equal to that from fixed-rate arrangements. They suggested
that hotel owners should focus on managing financial distress by aligning operating
cash flow and debt-servicing obligations, within which floating-rate debt is preferred.
Interest rate derivatives have been used by hotel firms to hedge against the risk
exposure of interest rates. Singh and Upneja (2007) indicated that both
variable-to-fixed interest rate swaps and interest rate caps are used to hedge against
rising interest rates. Singh (2009b) also highlighted that small, unrated firms are more
likely to issue short-term debt and swap it into fixed-rate debt to reduce exposure to
interest rate risk. On the other hand, larger and higher-rated firms tend to swap from
fixed into floating-cash flow debt. Singh argued that smaller, unrated lodging firms
that are more reliant on short-term debt in the form of floating-rate bank loans will find
long-term fixed debt too costly. By issuing floating-rate debt and swapping it into
fixed-rate debt, smaller, unrated firms could benefit from lower costs of both financing
and financial distress, and reduced exposure to interest rate risk. Additionally, the
proportion of floating-rate debt has been found to be positively and significantly
related to a firm’s decision to hedge (Singh and Upneja, 2008). In other words, firms
with more floating-rate debt seem to be more likely to use derivatives to alter their
exposure from floating- to fixed-rate interest (Singh and Upneja, 2007).
The topic of interest rate has been extensively studied in mainstream economic and
finance research, and its role associated with the hospitality industry could be further
examined. First, while interest rate has been viewed and employed as a workable lever
in signaling the monetary policy of an economy, no investigation has examined how
the hospitality industry has reacted to movements of interest rate in terms of