Financing patterns in transition economies: Privatized former SOEs versus ab initio private firms

We employ 37,987 firms in 30 transition economies to investigate the relation between the origins of private firms and their financing patterns. We find that relative to ab initio (from the beginning) private firms, privatized former state-owned enterprises (SOEs) finance a higher proportion of their fixed assets from bank finance (especially from state-owned banks) and supplier credit. We argue that privatized former SOEs continue to benefit from the political and financial connections established during their SOE era. We document that country governance, financial development and legal origins play an important role in the financing patterns of privatized versus private firms.     

Does direct foreign investment affect domestic credit constraints?

Firms in developing countries cite credit constraints as one of their primary obstacles to investment. Direct foreign investment may ease credit constraints by bringing in scarce capital. Alternatively, if foreign firms borrow heavily from domestic banks, they may crowd local firms out of domestic capital markets. Using firm data from the Ivory Coast, we test whether: (1) domestic firms are more credit constrained than foreign firms, and (2) whether borrowing by foreign firms exacerbates domestic firm credit constraints. Results provide support for both hypotheses. We also find that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less financially constrained than other domestic enterprises.     

Do Firms Get the Financing They Want? Measuring Credit Rationing Experienced by Small Businesses in the U.S.

This paper measures the extent to which small businesses in the United States in the late 1980s were able to access the external credit finance they desired. We argue that a comprehensive definition of credit rationing must account for both (a) creditworthy firms that apply for and are denied financing, and (b) creditworthy firms that decide not to apply for desired external financing, given expectations about how long it may take to obtain financing and the evolution of investment opportunities.Data from a national survey of small businesses shows that only 2.14 percent of firms did not obtain the funding for which they applied in 1987–88. Another 2.17 percent may have faced some short-run constraints on investment: they were initially denied by lenders but received the credit for which they applied by the end of the sample period. Finally, an additional 4.22 percent of firms are estimated to have been discouraged from applying because of expected denial.Constrained firms are smaller, younger, and more likely to be owned by their founders than those firms that successfully applied for external finance. The total number of credit constrained firms seems quite small, particularly because we cannot distinguish empirically between creditworthy and noncreditworthy firms. Thus the extent of true credit rationing appears quite limited.     

Supply Chains,Global Financial Shocks and Firm Behaviour towards Liquidity Needs

Driven by the increasingly important role of supply chains in global production, this paper studies empirical association between global credit‐market shocks and firm behaviour towards liquidity needs across countries and industries. Focusing on the adjustment of working‐capital financing, we find two pieces of supporting evidence from international firm‐level panel data covering the period 2002:I–2012:IV. First, for industries where specific investment in the input supplier–customer relationship is large, firms are more exposed to credit‐market shocks. We find that measures of global credit‐market shocks are negatively associated with trade receivables, trade payables and inventories, conditional on the level of contract intensity in the industries where firms operate. Second, firms in emerging markets are more vulnerable to credit‐market shocks than are firms in developed countries. We are also able to verify the economic significance of sales growth, operating cash flows, cash stock and firm size in the overall adjustment. Our findings highlight the importance of balance‐sheet contagion along supply chains during the 2007–09 global financial crisis.     

Entrepreneurial Reinvestment: Local Governance,Ownership, and Financing Matter—Evidence from Vietnam

This study investigates the relative importance of local governance and external financing on small firms' reinvestments. Using a set of more than 300,000 Vietnamese firm‐level observations from 2006 to 2015, this study finds that local governance quality is positively associated with small firms' reinvestments. However, regarding external funds, only informal finance is positively associated with reinvestments while government loans and bank loans serve as substitutes to reinvestments. Also, this study suggests that there is significant heterogeneity among ownership sectors and between micro‐enterprises and small firms in the way they value the relative importance of local governance arrangements and financing sources.     

试论中小企业信贷中的银行信贷基准问题

中小企业信贷融资难问题 ,其解决方法通常是以增设中小金融机构或为中小企业提供担保来增加中小企业的资金可获程度 ,即采用“资金可获型战略”。本文希望通过对银行建立以信用为核心的信贷基准的探讨 ,回归中小企业信贷融资基础 ,即逐步提高中小企业以信用为基础的融资可获程度 ,从而使中小企业融资战略转换为“信用可获型”。     

An empirical investigation on loan applications and fear of rejection of external financing in the foodservice industry

This article examines the loan application decision patterns of small-cap foodservice firms and the causes of these firms’ discouragement (fear of rejection) in relation to their external finance-seeking efforts. We utilize information and data collected by the Survey of Small Business Finances on a variety of aspects related to small-cap foodservice firm owners and firms, including market-lender characteristics, use of financial services, and income and balance sheet information in the United States. Our primary findings reveal that sufficient liquidity and owner net worth reduce external finance seeking. In addition, firm credit quality and owner minority status increase discouragement toward external finance seeking, while education reduces fear of rejection.     

资产规模、融资路径与商业信用供给

现有文献就企业规模对企业商业信用供给有不同的研究结论,说明这一方面的研究还有待完善。本文结合数理模型和实证研究,分析不同企业规模下,融资路径不同对企业商业信用供给的影响。研究发现,我国中小企业在发展未达到一定规模之前,受市场竞争劣势影响,需要提供大量商业信用来维持市场生存和发展,而此时由于我国金融系统对中小企业的信贷歧视,获得银行信贷支持比较少,因此需要大量的商业信用融资来支持商业信用提供。随着商业信用融资的增加,融资成本提高,最终导致商业信用提供力度逐步下降。当企业发展超出一定规模后,银行信贷支持逐步增强,企业可以用银行信用替代成本更高的商业信用融资,导致商业信用融资逐步下降,同时也使得企业提供商业信用的能力上升。文章研究结论表明,商业信用提供与企业规模之间的关系不是简单的线性关系,而是一个二次函数关系。     

Trade credit and SME profitability

Financial literature discusses the motives for trade credit provision by suppliers in depth. However, there is no empirical evidence of the effect of granting trade credit on the profitability of small and medium-sized firms. We examine the profitability implications of providing financing to customers for a sample of 11,337 Spanish manufacturing SMEs during the 2000–2007 period. This article also examines the differences in the profitability of trade credit according to financial, operational, and commercial motives. The findings suggest that managers can improve firm profitability by increasing their investment in receivables and that the effect is greater for financially unconstrained firms (larger and more liquid firms), for firms with volatile demand, and for firms with bigger market shares.     

Bank lending during the transition period in Eastern Europe

This paper develops a model for bank lending in economies in transition. Many loans in the bank's portfolio are non-performing as former state-owned companies are still to be restructured and therefore at least in the short-run short of cash-flow to service their loans. The bank now faces the following dilemma: should it terminate the loan irrespective of the future profitability thereby pushing the company into bankruptcy or should it extend its credit facilities thereby risking throwing good money after bad? This paper will argue that the bank should support a firm willing to undergo sufficient restructuring by extending existing credit facilities. On the other hand, the bank should initiate bankruptcy procedures against firms unwilling to undergo restructuring. The analysis is confined to small and medium-sized enterprises as large firms frequently get implicit or explicit government support.     

Comparing the Impact of Credit Constraints on the Growth of SMEs in a Transition Country with an Established Market Economy

In this paper we compare the role of internal finance on the growth of firms between a leading transition country, Slovenia and an established market economy, Belgium. We find that firms in Slovenia are more sensitive to internal financing constraints than their Belgian counterparts. Furthermore, we find that de novo firms and firms with long term debt are most constrained and that micro and SMES can face great difficulties in accessing external sources of finance. Foreign firms, however, are able to raise external finance and consequently their growth is less reliant on the availability of internal finance. Our findings appear to indicate that although Slovenian firms are no longer recipients of soft budget constraints, the financial environment is not yet fully functional.      

Do Suppliers Applaud Corporate Social Performance?

The influence of corporate social performance (CSP) on stakeholders is one of the focal issues in corporate social responsibility (CSR) research. Using data of listed companies in China, this paper examines whether CSR behavior in the form of charitable donations garners a positive reaction from suppliers. Results derived from both level and change model regressions show that superior CSP makes it easier for a firm to obtain trade credit from suppliers, although the effect is significant only in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). The results are robust to various measures of CSP and endogeneity tests. The results support the strategic philanthropy view and apply stakeholder theory in supply chain, that strategic CSR can help firms to attract suppliers and consolidate cooperative relationships with them, which in turn benefits the firms in terms of more trade credit financing from suppliers. This paper also shows that state-owned enterprises and non-SOEs have different CSR intentions and use CSR to achieve strategic goals in different ways. The conclusions drawn from this study provide practical guidance on CSR strategy, suggesting that CSR activities can help a firm in transition economies to enhance its corporate image, establish and consolidate the good relationship with suppliers, and obtain economic benefits or achieve long-term business objectives.     

SMEs,foreign direct investment and financial constraints: The case of Belgium

This paper explores the problems experienced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions in gaining access to debt and equity finance for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects. We develop several arguments for why such small businesses are expected to face severe financing constraints for foreign investments and provide an explorative empirical study with both the demand and supply side of FDI finance. We have interviewed thirty-two Belgian SMEs that carry out FDI, five banks and five venture capitalists. Based on the SME discussions, we have composed a questionnaire that was sent to the interviewed SMEs. The information problems and lack of collateral that often characterize international investment, the home bias of financiers and the capital gearing method used by banks to evaluate small firms’ foreign projects give rise to financial constraints for SMEs’ FDI projects. The reported finance gap hinders small firms’ (international) development and leads to suboptimal home and FDI host country development.     

基于供应链的中小企业贸易融资研究

供应链融资对解决中小企业贸易融资困境,发挥供应链整体竞争优势具有重要意义。供应链融资理念的树立,能为银行带来新的发展机遇。在考察了中小企业供应链贸易融资实践中存在的信用风险复杂化、供应链牢固性不强、抵质押资产甄选难度大、物流企业介入风险等突出问题的基础上,得出要优化中小企业贸易融资,必须谨慎防范信用风险、强化供应链管理、慎重选择抵质押物权,推动供应链融资产品创新、营造有利于供应链融资发展的社会环境。     

Credit rationing and firm exports: Microeconomic evidence from small and medium‐sized enterprises in China

This paper examines the effect of credit rationing on export performance by small and medium‐sized firms in China. We use a detailed firm‐level data provided by the Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises Dynamic Survey (SMEDS) during 2015–16 to conduct this analysis. The SMEDS provides firm‐specific measures of credit rationing based directly on firm‐level responses to the survey rather than indirect ones, based on firm‐level financial statements. We find that, at the extensive margin, weak and strong credit rationing reduces export probability of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) by 15.1% and 39.6%, respectively. At the intensive margin, they decrease SMEs' export values by more than 20.0% and over 28.8%, respectively. Different than existing literature, we construct valid firm‐level instruments, firm‐level housing stock, for credit rationing rather than using province‐level instruments. We also employ county‐industry‐level instruments and obtain consistent estimates. In addition, credit rationing exhibits heterogeneous impacts on firms with different liquidity ratios, product portfolios, external collateral and capital utilisation rates.     

Access to Financing as a Barrier to Trade: Evidence From Mauritius

Access to credit is essential for the development and growth of firms. For a small open economy like Mauritius, the ability of firms to enter export markets is essential for their growth and development, given that the size of the local market is quite limited. To increase sales and profitability, firms have to export. However, there are several costs that are involved when firms enter an export market. In many cases, finance becomes an essential factor that influences firms’ ability to export. These authors investigate whether the main constraint that firms in Mauritius face is access to finance and try to understand how firms overcome financial barriers. Given the limitations of existing methods to estimate financing constraints directly from firm-level accounting data, the results based on survey data are an important contribution in improving understanding of firms’ financing obstacles to exporting and how they overcome these barriers.     

The Effects of Ownership Structure on Corporate Financing Decisions: Evidence from Stock Market Liberalization

We analyze the impact of firm‐specific stock market liberalization events on the capital structure and debt maturity decisions of firms from emerging market economies. We differentiate between firms based on their ownership structures at the time of liberalization and analyze their post‐liberalization behavior regarding corporate financing decisions. Our empirical results show that single–class‐share firms (typically with stronger corporate governance and better information environments) respond differently to their dual–class‐share counterparts. Liberalization results in lower debt reliance for the former group while the latter lengthen the maturity of their debt portfolios. Jel Classification: F30; G15; G32.     

Liquidity Constraint on the Production of Firms in Southern Italy

The paper shows how small and medium enterprises located in the less developed regions of Southern Italy face higher liquidity constraints compared to the firms in the Central-Northern Italian regions. The reasons for these constraints are the undersized nature of firms and higher risk of business activity. Consequently, credit rationing is more extensive. In order to analyse the effects on the potential growth of firms’ production, a simple model is presented, followed by estimates for growth. The results confirm the existence of a bottleneck of financial resources devoted to current finance production that limits the accumulation of working capital even when faced with favourable market opportunities.     

建立中小企业政策性银行 促进中小企业发展

由于信息不对称导致的高交易成本和高风险,金融结构,特别是大银行,一般都不愿意向中小企业贷款。因此,借鉴国外德国、日本等国的经验,建立面向中小企业的政策性银行,是解决我国中小企业融资难,促进中小企业发展的重要途径。     

The effect of credit on growth and convergence of firm size in Kenyan manufacturing

Few studies test for the effect of credit and convergence on firm growth in the context of a developing economy. The use of bank credit can affect firm growth in two opposite ways. The effect may be positive if credit allows a firm to address its liquidity constraint and increase investment and profitability. However, if macroeconomic shocks such as unexpected increases in interest rates make firm debts unsustainable, as experienced in Kenya in the 1990s, indebted firms may shrink or even collapse. Using microeconomic data on the Kenyan manufacturing sector, this study finds that conditional on survival, the firms that use credit grow faster than those not using it. There is also evidence that small firms grow faster than large ones, confirming the convergence hypothesis. These results are robust to alternative estimation procedures controlling for both endogeneity and selection bias.