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Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) growth and financing sources: Before and after the financial crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2018

Zélia Serrasqueiro ,
João Leitão  and
David Smallbone
Zélia Serrasqueiro*
Affiliation:
Department of Management and Economics, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics of the UBI (CEFAGE-UBI), Covilhã, Portugal
João Leitão
Affiliation:
Department of Management and Economics, University of Beira Interior (UBI), Covilhã, Portugal CEG-IST, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal C-MAST, UBI, Covilhã, Portugal Instituto Multidisciplinar de Empresa, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
David Smallbone
Affiliation:
Small Business Research Centre, KHBS412 Kingston Business School, Kingston University, London, UK
*
Corresponding author: zelia@ubi.pt
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Abstract

In this study, the empirical evidence regarding small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) growth determinants allows us to conclude that: (1) stimulating factors are cash flow and gross domestic product; (2) restrictive factors are: debt, firm size, age of the firm and the interest rate; and (3) in the period after 2008, the financial crisis and implementation of austerity measures, in the Portuguese context, produced a negative effect on SME growth. In the period 2008–2012, that is, after the beginning of the financial crisis, cash flow had less importance, while debt was found to have a stronger negative effect on SME growth, compared with the pre-crisis period.

Keywords

growthfinancing sourcesfinancial crisisSME
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 6 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018

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