 The influence of age and size on the relationships between debt and determinants: an empirical study on Portuguese SMEsInternational Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011, vol. 12, issue 2, 139-157 Abstract: SMEs influence the relationships between debt and determinants. To achieve the study objective, we consider two research sub-samples corresponding to low-age, low-size Portuguese SMEs and high-age, high-size Portuguese SMEs. The results show that greater size is more important to increase long-term debt for high-age, high-size SMEs than for low-age, low-size SMEs. Greater age of SMEs means a more accentuated decrease of short-term debt for high-age, high-size SMEs, compared to what happens with low-age, low-size SMEs. Recognition by creditors of growth opportunities and growth for low-age, low-size SMEs seems to be fundamental for these firms to obtain debt to sustain the firm growth, allowing them to invest in innovative activities, with the possibility to diversify activities and products. Keywords: company age; panel data models; company size; Portugal; determinants; low-age; low-size; high-age; high-size; long-term debt; short-term debt; creditors; growth opportunities; firm growth; investments; innovative activities; innovation; product diversification; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs; entrepreneurship. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:12:y:2011:i:2:p:139-157 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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