服務業在全球經濟中所扮演的角色日益重要，而連鎖企業亦隨著服務業興起。有鑑於此，許多學者紛紛對連鎖企業進行研究。然而，過去文獻大多專注於探討連鎖企業的組織，甚少有學者以財務的觀點進行研究。因此，本文欲依連鎖企業之財務特徵，將公司進行分組，並探討產業別及其經營策略如何影響連鎖企業之組別。
本文之基礎乃建立於BCG成長/佔有率矩陣之上。我們以台灣及香港連鎖上市櫃公司的財務比率進行主成分分析，利用主成分分數之中位數將樣本分為明星、現金牛、狗、與問號等四組。分組後，本研究比較並分析各組財務比率的平均數，其結果顯示各組的財務特質及自由現金流量均符合其組別命名。除此之外，我們亦發現銷售成長率及成本控制能力是造成各組不同自由現金流量的主因。
從產業的角度來看，本文發現服裝連鎖企業有較高的成長率；相對地，電子零售商與加油站的成長率明顯較低。此外，眼鏡、手錶和珠寶公司多為「問號」，「明星」最能形容房仲服務公司，而旅遊及休閒設施公司則是「現金牛」。在公司的經營層面上，研究結果顯示公司的組別演化會受到產業成長率的影響。然而，即使連鎖公司為追求成長及獲利而選擇進入高成長產業，他們是否能轉化為較好的組別，則取決於公司是否能有效地把握市場的增長。本文亦發現，過度強調擴張及銷售成長最終可能導致嚴重的不良後果。因此，在追求成長的同時，公司亦應考慮整體策略的一致性，以確保財務及健全的發展。

As the service and retail sectors become increasingly important in the global economy, many studies are conducted in the context of chain businesses. However, most of the literatures have focused on the issues of organization. There are few studies explore the field from financial perspective. In light of this, we aim to classify chain corporations with their financial characteristics. Then with the group classification, we investigate how different industries and business strategies affect chain corporations’ classifications
Building on BCG growth/share matrix, this study performs principal component analysis on four financial variables and divides the sample into four groups: stars, cash cows, dogs, and question marks. Group analyses confirm that the financial variables and the free cash flow/net sales ratio vary across groups and that each group is worthy of its name.
At a macro level, we discover that textiles and apparel retailers have high growth rate; on the contrary, consumer goods, electronics, and gas station companies are relatively mature. Furthermore, glasses, watches, and jewelry companies can be best described as question marks. Lastly, the property agency services could be classified as stars, and the tourism and leisure facilities can be characterized as cash cows.
At a micro level, our finding suggests that the market growth rate is one of the driving forces of group evolution. Companies may choose to operate in a fast growing industry, yet whether they can transform into better classifications depends on how effectively they capitalize the market growth. In addition, overemphasis on expansion may eventually lead to serious consequences, and thus strategic fitness is required for companies that seek growth and financial health.

1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. LITERATURE REVIEWS 5
2.1. MEASUREMENTS OF FIRM PERFORMANCE: PROFITABILITY AND LIQUIDITY 5
2.2. BCG’S GROWTH/SHARE MATRIX 6
2.2.1. Relative Market Share 6
2.2.2. Market Growth Rate 7
2.2.3. Classification of BCG Growth/Share Matrix 8
2.3. BCG MATRIX AND CUMULATIVE CASH FLOW 10
3. DATA AND METHODOLOGY 11
3.1. DATA COLLECTION 11
3.2. VARIABLES AND METHODOLOGY 12
4. EMPIRICAL RESULTS 15
4.1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 16
4.2. THE RESULT OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS 17
4.3. GROUP DEFINITION 20
4.4. GROUP ANALYSES 22
4.4.1. Means of Four Variables and Free Cash Flow/Net sales Ratio 24
4.4.2. The Drivers of Operating Margin, ΔNWC, Net Investment, and Growth 26
5. RESEARCH DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 31
5.1. IMPLICATIONS IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRIES 31
5.2. IMPLICATIONS IN THE RETAIL COMPANIES 35
5.2.1. Textiles and Apparel Industry: The Era of Fast Fashion 37
5.2.2. The Raising Question Mark: Daphne International Holdings Ltd. 39
5.2.3. The Falling Star: Esprit Holdings Ltd. 46
5.2.4. The Effect of Different Business Strategies 58
6. CONCLUSIONS 60
REFERENCES 65
APPENDIX A: THE FACTOR SCORE SCATTER PLOT OF STARS 70
APPENDIX B: THE FACTOR SCORE SCATTER PLOT OF CASH COWS 71
APPENDIX C: THE FACTOR SCORE SCATTER PLOT OF DOGS 72
APPENDIX D: THE SCATTER PLOT OF QUESTION MARKS 73

Abell, D. F., & Hammond, J. S. (1979). Strategic marketing planning: Problems and analytical approaches. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Barthélemy, J. (2008). Opportunism, knowledge, and the performance of franchise chains. Strategic Management Journal, 29(13), 1451-1463.
Daphne International Holdings Ltd. (2009). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www. hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2009/0422/LTN20090422033_C.pdf
Daphne International Holdings Ltd. (2010). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www. hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2010/0421/LTN20100421157_C.pdf
Daphne International Holdings Ltd. (2011). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www. hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2011/0411/LTN20110411227_C.pdf
Daphne International Holdings Ltd. (2012). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www. hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2012/0330/LTN201203301579_C.pdf
Daphne International Holdings Ltd. (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2013, from http://www. daphneholdings.cco.hk
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2003). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2003/1022/LTN20031022069_C.htm
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2004). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2004/0930/LTN20040930151_C.htm
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2005). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2005/1019/LTN20051019049_C.htm
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2006). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2006/1013/LTN20061013071_C.htm
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2007). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2007/0919/LTN20070919299_C.pdf
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2008). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2008/0925/LTN20080925173_C.pdf
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2009). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2009/1007/LTN20091007757_C.pdf
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2010). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2010/1008/LTN20101008295_C.pdf
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (2011). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2011/1013/LTN20111013438_C.pdf
Esprit Holdings Ltd.. (2012). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/ listedco/listconews/SEHK/2012/1016/LTN20121016396_C.pdf
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (n.d.). Profile. Retrieved June 29, 2013, from http://www.esprit.com/index. php?command=Display&page_id=45&navi_id=50
Finet HK News Center (2012, August 10). When Esprit transforms into ZARA. Retrieved June 29, 2013, from http://www.finet.hk/mainsite/newscenter/51282 1.html
Friend, G., & Zehle, S. (2004). Chapter 8: Product and portfolio analysis. In Guide to Business Planning (pp. 65-84). EIU: Economist Intelligence Unit.
Ghemawat, P., & Nueno, J. L. (2003). ZARA: Fast fashion. Harvard Business School Case No. 9-703-497. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Guo, Z. L. (2010, December). The executive director of Daphne International Holdings Ltd, Mr. Chen Ying-Chieh: Female footwear travels all over the 30 provinces of China, and the scale grows twenty folds in ten years. MANGER Today, 37. Retrieved from http://www.managertoday.com.tw/?p=5808
HK SMB (Producer). (2012, February 26). Opportunities in franchising & chain store business – Mainland, Taiwan, & Hong Kong [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.hk-smb.com/index.php/hot-topics/1606-2012-02-24-05-03-03.html
Hsu, Y. (2012, July 23). Esprit, wake up. CBNweekly. Retrieved June 29, 2013, from http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/mroll/20120723/145812644091.shtml
Huang, J. Y. (2000). Multivariate analysis (7th ed.). Taipei: Institute of Chinese Economic and Enterprise.
Ingram, P., & Baum, J. (1997). Chain affiliation and the failure of Manhattan hotels, 1898–1980. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(1), 68–102.
Jan, Y. C. (2011). Strategic investment in Taiwan chain and franchise stores: A real options and game-theoretic approach. Global Journal of Business Research, 5(4), 25-37.
Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 141-151.
Karlöf, B., & Lövingsson, F. (2005). The A-Z of management concepts and models. London: Thorogood, 43-46.
Kelly, J., & O’Connor, J. (1997). Is profit more important than cashflow? Management Accounting (London), 75, 28-29.
Kerin, R., Hartley, S., & Rudelius, W. (2010). Marketing (10th ed.). Boston: McGraw- Hill/Irwin.
Kosová, R., & Lafontaine, F. (2010). Survival and growth in retail and service industries: Evidence from franchised Chains. Journal of Industrial Economics, 58(3), 542-578.
Lee, T. A. (1984). Cash flow accounting. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Lee, T. A. (1992). Making cash flow statements useful. Accountancy, 109, 35.
Lee, Y. (2012, October 8). Searching for Esprit’s lost soul. Sina Financial News. Retrieved June 29, 2013, from http://finance.sina.com.hk/news/-4492-5269898/ 1.html
Lenartowicz, T., & Balasubramanian, S. (2009). Practices and performance of small retail stores in developing economies. Journal of International Marketing, 17(1), 58-90.
Lin, J. Y. (2007). Multivariate analysis: SPSS operation and application. Taipei: BestWise Publishing Co., Ltd.
Lux. (2012, March 20). China: Shoemakers put best foot forward. Financial Times. Retrieved June 30, 2013, from http://big5.ftchinese.com/story/001043744/en
Mollá-Descals, A., Frasquet-Deltoro, M., & Ruiz-Molina, M. (2011). Internationalization patterns in fashion retail distribution: implications for firm results. Service Industries Journal, 31(12), 1979-1993.
Palmer, M. (2006). International retail joint venture learning. Service Industries Journal, 26(2), 165-187.
Pen, L. Y. (2010, October). Daphne: Fast and fashion, attracting 300 million Chinese women into stores. Global Views Monthly, 292. Retrieved June 30, 2013, from http://www.gvm.com.tw/Boardcontent_16751.html
Perryman, A., & Combs, J. (2012). Who should own it? An agency-based explanation for multi-outlet ownership and co-location in plural form franchising. Strategic Management Journal, 33, 368-386.
Prime Success International Group Ltd. (2003). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2003/0514/LTN20030514053_C.htm
Prime Success International Group Ltd. (2004). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2004/0505/LTN20040505120_C.htm
Prime Success International Group Ltd. (2005). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2005/0503/LTN20050503107_C.htm
Prime Success International Group Ltd. (2006). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2006/0502/LTN20060502158_C.htm
Prime Success International Group Ltd. (2007). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2007/0430/LTN20070430595_C.htm
Prime Success International Group Ltd. (2008). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2008/0417/LTN20080417253_C.pdf
Proctor, T. (2000). Strategic marketing: An introduction. London: Routledge, 21-40.
Ren, H. L. (2011, October 10). The falling Esprit. Xinmin Weekly. Retrieved June 30, 2013, from http://magazine.sina.com/bg/xinminweekly/201138/20111008/ 0052114161.htm
Robb, A. J., & Lewis, K. T. (2002). OCFAID – A new tool for business historians. Australian Economic History Review, 42(1), 77-90.
Wakui, Y., & Wakui, S. (2009). Multivariate analysis (Y. M. Chen & K. L. Chen, Trans.). Taipei: Tingmao Publish Co. (Original work published 2001).
Word Bank Group (2013). Country profiles. Retrieved June 30, 2013, from http://data. worldbank.org/data-catalog/country-profiles