Debt Maturity and Complete Export Withdrawal in Start-ups

Ine Paeleman (), Virginie Mataigne () and Tom Vanacker ()
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Ine Paeleman: University of Antwerp
Virginie Mataigne: Ghent University
Tom Vanacker: Ghent University and University of Exeter Business School

No 472, Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium

Abstract: Past research shows that firms with constrained access to debt are more likely to withdraw from exporting. We argue that a firm’s debt maturity structure (i.e., the short-term/long-term debt mix) also matters because short-term debt entails liquidity risk and long-term debt entails higher costs. Using a database on Belgian start-ups, we find that start-ups relying mainly on either short-term debt or long-term debt exhibit a higher likelihood to withdraw from exporting compared to start-ups with a more balanced debt maturity structure. This U-shaped relationship is weaker for start-ups with more financial slack and stronger for start-ups with higher growth opportunities.

Keywords: Complete export withdrawal; start-ups; debt maturity; financial slack; growth opportunities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 L26 M13 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2025-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-ent and nep-sbm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202502-472

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