This paper investigates the relationship between leverage and the financial performance of listed firm in Kenya. We use annual data for the period 2002 – 2011. Using various panel procedures, our study finds reasonably strong evidence that leverage significantly, and negatively, affects the...

In contrast to the existing empirical research on the pecking order hypothesis which has been largely confined to the United States and a few other advanced countries, this paper attempts to test the hypothesis for an emerging economy through a case study of the Indian Corporate sector. A well...

This paper uses a new and comprehensive dataset to investigate the capital structure of non-financial firms in a major emerging market economy, Turkey. We study both statistical and economic significance of four types of leverage factors: Firm-specific, tax-related, industry-specific, and...

This study aims to determine the influence of various firm level characteristics such as, profitability, size, growth opportunities, asset tangibility, non-debt tax shield, volatility and liquidity on capital structure. Employing the cross-sectional data methodology, the researcher examines the...

In this study, we use data from the Federal Reserve’s 1993, 1998 and 2003 Surveys of Small Business Finances to classify small businesses into four groups based upon their credit needs and to model the credit allocation process into a sequence of three steps. First, do firms need credit? We...

In this study, we use data from the SSBFs to provide new information about the use of credit by small businesses in the U.S. More specifically, we first analyze firms that do and do not use credit; and then analyze why some firms use trade credit while others use bank credit. We find that one in...

The aim of our research is to study the association between observed leverage and a set of explanatory variables, using panel data analysis to establish the determinants of a time varying optimal capital structure from new high-tech firms over the period 1998-2002, and to explore whether the...

The capital structure refers to the long-term financing types used by the enterprises (for example, reinvested profit, long-term shares and debts) and the way they are financed by a combination of the own capital and debts. An optimal structure of the capital involves making some important...

This paper presents an empirical examination of firm characteristic determinants of the capital structure of a sample of 299 Irish small and medium sized firms (SMEs). Hypotheses formulated from pecking order and agency theories incorporating a financial growth life cycle approach are tested on...

The key contribution of this paper is an empirical examination of the financial growth life cycle model by combining a number of statistical tests. This approach is significantly different to that traditionally adopted in empirical investigations of SME financing, which is to examine the...