Ethnic diverse and financing choices affecting of business survival: a case study of New Zealand small- and medium-sized enterprises

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how ethnic diversity and finance options impact the survival of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach This study incorporates survey data and secondary data from the public domain. The surveys were conducted across six sectors of the economy categorised into four main ethnic groups involving six nationalities. This study adopts regression analysis using Probit, Logit and linear probability. Findings The financing choices of the entrepreneurs were consistent with pecking-order theory. The evidence suggests that information asymmetries are prevalent in New Zealand, as SMEs’ owners perceive significant risk from expanding businesses internationally. There is no relationship between ethnicity bias and the survival of firms. Originality/value This study provides a contribution to the literature on factors relating to business survival and guides the policymakers to use the benefits of potential factors to increase the survival rate of SMEs.

The threat of bankruptcy and financing strategy in learning-intensive industries

PurposeThe authors investigate whether firms in learning-intensive industries are more prone to bankruptcy and how this shapes a firm's financing choices.Design/methodology/approachIndustry learning estimates based on US manufacturing firms are obtained from the study of Balasubramanian and Lieberman (2010; 2011), who collected these estimates from the US Census Bureau. Merging the learning estimates with data from Compustat gives us a final sample of 6,138 publicly-traded US manufacturing firms (56,930 firm-years) between 1973 and 2000. The authors use both OLS and IV estimation approaches to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings confirm that firms operating in learning-intensive industries have a higher threat of bankruptcy. The authors also find that a debt-intensive capital structure exacerbates the threat of bankruptcy; therefore, firms in such industries have a significantly lower reliance on debt financing.Practical implicationsIn the current turbulent business environment, managers operating in learning-intensive industries need to be more careful while making financing choices between debt and equity, and they can explore sources of financing that go beyond the capital markets.Originality/valueNo study so far has examined how industry learning intensity, a key industry characteristic, makes firms more prone to bankruptcy, and how this threat of bankruptcy results in more conservative financing choices. By integrating the theoretical perspectives from the structure–conduct–performance (SCP), transaction cost economics (TCE) and threat rigidity paradigms, this paper contributes to the literature by adding the industry learning environment as a novel determinant of firm financing choices and the threat of bankruptcy.

Same same, but different: capital structures in single family offices compared with private equity firms

Despite the increasing interest in single family offices (SFOs) as an investment owned by an entrepreneurial family, research on SFOs is still in its infancy. In particular, little is known about the capital structures of SFOs or the roots of SFO heterogeneity regarding financial decisions. By drawing on a hand-collected sample of 104 SFOs and private equity (PE) firms, we compare the financing choices of these two investor types in the context of direct entrepreneurial investments (DEIs). Our data thereby provide empirical evidence that SFOs are less likely to raise debt than PE firms, suggesting that SFOs follow pecking-order theory. Regarding the heterogeneity of the financial decisions of SFOs, our data indicate that the relationship between SFOs and debt financing is reinforced by the idiosyncrasies of entrepreneurial families, such as higher levels of owner management and a higher firm age. Surprisingly, our data do not support a moderating effect for the emphasis placed on socioemotional wealth (SEW).

The Entrepreneur Motivation and Financing Sources

The paper is to examine the influence of business innovation, business expansion, product and service development, working capital, and machinery and equipment requirement on financing choices in the western part of Nigeria. To determine the effect on financing choices, a logistic regression analysis was used. The results, in an impressive manner, indicate that entrepreneurs, essentially with working capital (WC), machinery and equipment (ME) requirements, and business innovation (BI), use internal funding sources, while business expansion (BE) and product and service (PS) development lean toward external funding sources, and more established and larger firms utilize debt financing. The approach and experiential findings offer an unprecedented degree of investigation of previous studies of Nigerian entrepreneurs. Similarly, the experimental results will strengthen entrepreneurs’ knowledge, awareness, and perception. Through their own capabilities, entrepreneurs can prepare and adapt in accordance with the business conditions in which they conduct business, and this work may help them in their choice procedure regarding the capital structure of their organization in the midst of a period when the question of entrepreneur funding is gradually emerging in the Nigerian climate.