Determinants of the Capital Structures of European SMEs

The aim of this paper is to examine the degree to which the determinants of SMEs' capital structures differ between European countries. The study is based on data for four thousand SMEs, five hundred from each of eight European countries. Regressions were run using short‐term and long‐term debt as dependent variables and profitability, growth, asset structure, size and age as independent variables. A key feature of this paper is the use of restricted and unrestricted regressions to isolate the country‐effect from the firm‐specific‐effect. The results show that variations are likely to be due to country differences as well as firm‐specific ones.     

Parasoziale Meinungsführerschaft

In a democratic society, the media operate as a public space in which political and social topics are discussed. As media communicators influence and restrict both the topics of discussion and the amount of information available from in the media, they exert a substantial influence on the recipients’ formation of political opinion. The present study examines this impact by integrating the theoretical concepts of opinion leadership and parasocial relationship, resulting in a phenomenon referred to as parasocial opinion leadership. Based on the results of a qualitative survey of recipients, the concept was then substantiated. Parasocial opinion leadership is based on viewer’s perceptions and comes into existence, if (1) a recipient ascribes certain attributes to a media communicator based on a parasocial relationship; which (2) allows for a gradual influence of the media personality on the recipient’s opinions and attitudes by fulfilling at least one of the three functions information and reduction of complexity, orientation or arousal of interest.