Small firms are reliant upon high street banks for the vast majority of their external borrowing. However, despite the dramatic increase in numbers of small firms over the 1980s, and the subsequent rise in bank lending to this sector, the relationship has been far from ideal. This paper...

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, there has been increased focus on access to finance for small firms. Research from before the crisis suggested that it was harder for innovative firms to access finance. Yet no research has considered the differential effect of the crisis on innovative...

Support for small businesses is often delivered separately for urban and rural areas, based on the idea that the barriers to business growth differ geographically. Yet firms in rural and urban areas will also differ in their characteristics, and these may be more important influences on firm...

This paper examines the role of interest rates and securities within the context of the small firm - bank lending relationship and questions whether banks alter their lending conditions on the basis of specific firm characteristics and the nature of the borrowing undertaken. The results suggest...

<title/> This study revealed that the level of venture capitalist involvement in the pre-flotation as well as the post-flotation period influenced the short-run performance of JASDAQ companies in Japan. We detected that JASDAQ companies differed in several ways from NASDAQ and EASDAQ companies. JASDAQ...

This paper traces the changing contribution of small firms to manufacturing in Japan and the UK between 1972 and 1992. It shows that there are significant and important differences between the two countries, although in both cases small firms provided an increasing share of the total stock of...

The ability of the self-employed to create additional job opportunities is a fundamental concern given the huge increases in public resources targeted at new venture creation in the U.K. and other countries since 1979. This study initially concentrates on identifying differences in the personal...

This paper uses time-series analysis to model explicitly the take-up rate of the UK Government's Loan Guarantee Scheme over the 1980s. In doing so we consider the rationale for the scheme in the context of empirical and theoretical research into the financing of small businesses and in...

Loan guarantee schemes are an integral part of SME policy in both developed and developing countries. Yet little has been done to evaluate such programmes, particularly in terms of their ability to correct for capital market imperfections. This paper uses individual loan data from some 42,000 UK...