This volume focuses on the latest findings concerning financial environment research and the effects on business. Major topics addressed range from finance-driven globalization, contagion risk transmission, financial sustainability, and bank efficiency, to oil price shocks and spot prices...

PART I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS: A GENERAL OVERVIEW -- Chapter 1. Introduction: SMEs and the changing business environment -- Chapter 2. The Role of SMEs within a turbulent economy and constantly changing business environment: Trends, Challenges, Patterns and Growth and Innovation Policies in...

Explores the idea that Europe's growth problems may be caused by weaknesses in capital markets and in the access to risk capital. It addresses the evaluation of the financial needs and constraints of start-up firms and how these might be bridged. The role of public sector intervention is...

This paper investigates the links between alternative growth phases of firms and barriers to financing and investment using firm-level information for a representative sample of EU companies. We propose a novel classification of corporates: high growth (HGEs), stable and declining enterprises....

In this paper the financing conditions of euro area firms are investigated relying on a comprehensive sample of more than one million firm-years in the period from 1993 to 2004. The relationship between financing conditions and firms' growth across firm sizes is analysed on the basis of newly...

This paper outlines elements of a conceptual framework that clarifies the role that clusters play relative to government policies and actions of individual companies in supporting the emergence of "High Road"-strategies that lead to better New Growth Path-related outcomes. It then focuses on...