The signaling value of legal form in entrepreneurial debt financing

Felix Bracht, Jeroen Mahieu and Steven Vanhaverbeke

Journal of Business Venturing, 2024, vol. 39, issue 3

Abstract: This study examines the impact of mandatory legal form choices on startups' debt financing opportunities. We posit that an entrepreneur's initial legal form decision serves as a reliable signal to outside lenders, reducing adverse selection concerns. Using data from German startups, we find that limited liability companies with low capital requirements disproportionately secure less debt than their high-capital counterparts. This financing disparity is particularly pronounced for younger firms in areas dominated by small relationship banks, but it diminishes with firm age. Our findings highlight the unintended consequences of recent global deregulation efforts.

Keywords: Legal form; Minimum capital requirements; Signaling; Access to debt; Financial constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D80 G30 M48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902624000028
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:39:y:2024:i:3:s0883902624000028

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Venturing is currently edited by S. Venkataraman

More articles in Journal of Business Venturing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().