Library

Home > Library > The happy story of small business finance

The happy story of small business finance

Author Andy Yeh Alpha

This research article empirically tests the financial contentment hypothesis for small business owners in both America and Britain.

Description:

We empirically examine the American and British survey datasets for about 16,000 privately held small businesses. The financial behavior of private firms demonstrates substantial financial contentment. We find fewer than 10% of the British firms seek rapid firm expansion while only 1.32% of American private firms view a lack of capital other than working capital as a major financial problem. Financial performance indicators such as sales growth, return-on-assets, and net profit margin are insignificant determinants of small business finance. This evidence contradicts the conventional financial lifecycle paradigm of Berger and Udell (1995, 1998, 2002). Younger and less educated private-firm owners more actively use external finance even though more education reduces the fear of bank loan denial, whereas, older and wiser small business owners with better education are less likely to tap into external finance.

 

Our financial contentment hypothesis for privately held firms also extends to small businesses that seek rapid firm expansion. These high-growth firms participate more in the bank loan markets than low-growth firms. In stark contrast to the financing-gap hypothesis of Berger and Udell (1995, 1997, 2002), our financial contentment hypothesis observes the importance of both social networks and connections for small business finance and in turn confirms the empirical nexus between private owner involvement and sustainable growth. In this light, small private firms serve as a robust investment vehicle for long-term sustainable development.

 

Overall, our empirical evidence sheds skeptical light on the theoretical plausibility of the agency lifecycle prediction that the vast majority of private firms suffer from severe financial constraints or financing gaps (Jensen and Meckling, 1976; Jensen, 1986; Stulz, 1990; Lang, Stulz, and Walking, 1991; Berger and Udell, 1995, 1998, 2002; Ang, Cole, and Lin, 2000; Bitler, Moskowitz, and Vissing-Jorgensen, 2005). The preponderance of our empirical results proposes a case for an alternative theory of corporate finance for privately held firms that differ from publicly traded corporations in many fundamental ways. This proposal calls for a paradigm shift in rethinking about the conventional wisdom that private firms cannot grow as fast as their public counterparts due to a lack of reasonable access to external capital.

 

Blog+More

State, society, and the narrow corridor to liberty

Joseph Corr

2023-09-28 08:26:00 Thursday ET

State, society, and the narrow corridor to liberty

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson show a constant economic tussle between society and the state in the hot pursuit of liberty. Daron Acemoglu and James R

+See More

Ray Fair applies his macroeconometric model to study the central features of the U.S. macroeconomy such as price stability and full employment in the dual mandate.

Charlene Vos

2023-07-14 10:32:00 Friday ET

Ray Fair applies his macroeconometric model to study the central features of the U.S. macroeconomy such as price stability and full employment in the dual mandate.

Ray Fair applies his macroeconometric model to study the central features of the U.S. macroeconomy such as price stability and full employment in the dual m

+See More

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff analyze long-run crisis data to find the root causes of financial crises for better bank capital regulation and asset market stabilization.

Laura Hermes

2023-06-28 09:29:00 Wednesday ET

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff analyze long-run crisis data to find the root causes of financial crises for better bank capital regulation and asset market stabilization.

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff delve into several centuries of cross-country crisis data to find the key root causes of financial crises for asset marke

+See More

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Jacob Miramar

2018-01-12 07:37:00 Friday ET

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. These key tech titans often receive plaudits for mak

+See More

Corporate diversification theory and evidence

James Campbell

2022-04-05 17:39:00 Tuesday ET

Corporate diversification theory and evidence

Corporate diversification theory and evidence A recent strand of corporate diversification literature spans at least three generations. The first generat

+See More

Just Capital issues a new report in support of the stakeholder value proposition in recent times.

Amy Hamilton

2018-06-05 07:36:00 Tuesday ET

Just Capital issues a new report in support of the stakeholder value proposition in recent times.

Just Capital issues a new report in support of the stakeholder value proposition in recent times. U.S. corporations that perform best on key priorities such

+See More