The model to evaluate risk factors of exporter-provided trade credit

Abstract

When country‘s home market is quite small, companies develop exports in order to achieve greater sales volume and profit. Export is one of the ways to survive and develop business for companies of small open-economy countries. Such a tendency especially became evident during economic decline, when consumption in home market shrank. Recent Lithuania’s economic growth is based on increasing exports, as well. On the other hand, estimation of trade credit risk factors is getting more and more important for exporting companies as the most popular settlement mode in the world is trade on an open account. Exporters, aiming to be the first in rivalry struggle and make a contract with a customer, have to propose the most beneficial conditions to the customer they can, i.e. to provide the customer with a trade credit. Exporter, when providing a trade credit for a foreign customer, takes a risk to lose financial resources. Risk of provided trade credit is evaluated on purpose to avoid the risk, i.e. the factors determining credit non-repayment and factors envisaging the risk are identified. One of the main factors determining trade credit risk is customer’s insolvency, therefore designing a model to evaluate trade credits risk factors it is essential to analyse what predicts customer’s ability to repay the trade credit given. [...]