مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد تامین مالی برای شرکت های کوچک و متوسط – الزویر 2019

While high growth firms (HGFs) are crucial drivers of economic growth, to date there has been a dearth of research examining their funding requirements. Drawing on a survey of over 8000 UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), this paper investigates the capital structure and access to credit in high growth SMEs in the period following the global financial crisis. The findings challenge conventional wisdom about high growth SMEs in certain respects. They find it no harder than non-high growth SMEs to access external finance. The vast majority of high growth SMEs rely strongly on debt-based finance for their funding, not equity finance. High growth SMEs are much less likely to seek finance for working capital purposes but are no more likely to seek finance to invest in R&D than less rapidly growing SMEs. The findings suggest little justification for government intervention aimed at increasing credit availability for HGFs as currently espoused by the UK government.

Introduction

This paper investigates the capital structure and access to credit in UK high growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the period following the global financial crisis. Firms achieving rapid growth in employment or turnover are vital for innovation and economic growth (Mason & Brown, 2013; Shane, 2010). Research interest in so-called high growth firms (HGFs) stems from the pioneering work by David Birch (1981). From a policy perspective the key attraction of these firms is unquestionably their prodigious ability to generate ‘jobs’ (Henrekson & Johansson, 2010; Nightingale & Coad, 2013). Consequently, organisations like the US Small Business Administration, the EU, World Bank and OECD have all been instrumental in propagating the importance of these dynamic small firms within enterprise policy frameworks (Brown, Mawson, & Mason, 2017; McKenzie, 2017; Welter, Baker, Audretsch, & Gartner, 2017). While the literature examining the traits and characteristics of HGFs has expanded considerably in recent years (Demir, Wennberg, & McKelvie, 2017; Henrekson & Johansson, 2010), research has largely overlooked their growth obstacles (Lee, 2014). Finance is an important enabler of rapid firm growth in SMEs (Dobbs & Hamilton, 2007), allowing firms to invest in physical and human capital, develop new products/processes and reach new markets.