Financial crises in East Asia, Russia, and Latin America have caused some to wonder if there is something inherently unstable about financial markets that thwarts their ability to allocate capital appropriate^- and ultimately causes these crises. I build a multi-period, industry-level credit model in which debt-financed entrepreneurs develop homogeneous projects with long gestation periods, sequential investment requirements, and no intermediate cash flows. Entrepreneurs accumulate private signals about terminal demand, and if the signals are bad enough, may decide to halt project development before completion. The prevalence of project suspensions aggregates information and permits the industry size to adjust to the true state of terminal demand. Debt contracts depend upon the pricing power of the creditor; these contracts impact the size of the industry and the timing of the information aggregation. When demand realisations are poor, some investors will be disappointed ex post; aggregate disappointment will depend upon how long the investment behaviour has carried on before suspensions occur, and how large the industry is. I interpret situations of substantial aggregate disappointment as a 'crisis'. Principal results relate to the impact of debt finance on the timing and likelihood of project suspensions. With all equity (self) financing, suspensions will typically be observed, but they may occur relatively late in the game. In contrast, debt finance may lead to very rapid suspensions, depending upon the tools allocated to the creditor. When creditors exercise monopoly control over credit allocation and pricing, profit-maximising creditors can and will force suspensions. This may involve reducing the entrepreneurs' equity contribution and / or subsidizing credit in order to ensure entrepreneurial participation. When credit markets are competitive, creditors lack the pricing power that can be used to structure credit policies that force early suspensions. As debt accumulates and the entrepreneurs' share of liquidation proceeds dwindles, entrepreneurs may not voluntarily suspend operations as this will lead to loss of private benefits. Therefore, there may be no suspensions observed in equilibrium. This problem will be particularly acute when the entrepreneurs' initial equit)' stake is small.

Prekyba yra pati seniausia ir svarbiausia ekonominių santykių tarp valstybių forma. Šiame darbe nagrinėjama tarptautinė prekyba bei jos finansavimo būdai, formos, sąlygos, metodai. Taip pat aprašomi, tarptautinio sandėrio ypatumai: skirtumai tarp vietinio ir tarptautinio sandorio, prekybos sąlygų interpretavimą vienodinančios tarptautinės taisyklės. Aptariant galimus tarptautinės prekybos finansavimo šaltinius, analizuojamas bankų vaidmuo atliekant tarptautinius atsiskaitymus, rizikos ir problemos, susijusios su tarptautiniais atsiskaitymais. Galiausiai siekiama išnagrinėti tarptautinės prekybos trumpalaikius ir vidutinio bei ilgo laikotarpio finansavimo metodus. Siekta išsiaiškinti, kokios galimybės įmonėms Lietuvoje pasinaudoti tarptautinės prekybos finansavimo sąlygomis bei rizikos mažinimo metodais. Deja, Lietuvoje šiuo metu praktiškai naudojamų tarptautinės prekybos kreditavimo būdų tėra tik keletas. Tai trukdo tobulėti Lietuvos kreditavimo sistemai, priartėti prie europinių standartų. Kartais eksportuotojai ir importuotojai apie kai kurių kreditavimo būdų teikiamą naudą ir galimybes žino labai nedaug. Žinių stoka neleidžia jiems teisingai pasirinkti tarptautinės prekybos kreditavimo būdą ir taip sukurti savo įmonėse pelningą veiklą. Priešingai, kai kada tai gali būti net bankrotų priežastimi. / Trade is the oldest and most important form of inter-state economic relations. The present work deals with the international trade and the ways, forms, conditions and methods of its financing. Characteristics of international deals are also being dealt with together with the differences between a local and an international deal, as well as international rules that make interpretation of trade conditions similar. Possible financing resources of international trade are being discussed and the role of banks analyzed in executing international settlements, including the risks and problems related to international payments. Finally, it is aimed at analyzing the short-, medium- and long-term international trade financing methods. The aim has also been to make clear what possibilities are at hand for the companies in Lithuania to use the conditions of international trade financing and methods of risk reduction. However, there are but a few ways of international trade financing currently in use in Lithuania. It hampers the improvement of the Lithuanian crediting system and slows down the pace of reaching European standards. Occasionally, exporters and importers know very little about benefits and possibilities offered by certain ways of crediting. Lack of knowledge prevents them from choosing the right method for international trade financing and, as a result, does not provide for profitable business of such companies. Furthermore, it sometimes may result in bankruptcies.

Denna kandidatuppsats undersöker finansieringsprocessen för besöksattraktioner i turismindustrin. Studiens syfte är att beskriva hur större besöksattraktioner sökt olika vägar för att finansiera uppstarten av sin verksamhet. Dessutom syftar uppsatsen till att se hur företagen i den inledande processen arbetat med affärsutveckling samt om och hur det påverkat möjligheten att realisera projektet. Uppsatsen ger kunskap i hur olika finansieringsalternativ kan se ut, samt vilken roll affärsutvecklingen har för att attrahera finansiering till besöksattraktionen. För att besvara de framtagna frågeställningarna för studien har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med fem svenska etablerade besöksattraktioner.  En intervju har även genomförts med en entreprenör som är under finansieringsprocessen för att kunna tas fram på marknaden. Intervjuerna har genomförts för att ge svar på vilka finansieringsval som gjorts, vilka hinder som påträffats, vilken roll affärsutveckling haft i processen samt hur den vidare finansieringen av attraktioner ser ut. Resultatet av studien visar att bidrag, riskkapital, banklån och “bootstrapping” har används för att finansiera besöksattraktionerna. Att kunna finansiera en projektgrupp ansågs vara en viktig del av initieringsprocessen. Affärsplanen har även fungerat som ett verktyg för att erhålla finansieringen i utvecklingsprocessen hos två av besöksattraktionerna. Tillgången till rätt kontakter vid sökandet efter finansiärer i utvecklingen ansågs även som en viktig del hos två av besöksattraktionerna. Samarbeten, partnerskap och sidoverksamheter anses även vara vitala för den fortsatta finansieringen av attraktionen. / This bachelor thesis examines the funding process for visitor attractions in the tourism industry. The purpose of this study is to describe how the larger experience attractions have sought various ways to finance the start up of their business. In addition, the study aims to see how companies in the initial process worked with business development and if and how it has affected the ability to realize the project. To answer the questions developed for the study, qualitative interviews were conducted with five Swedish established visitor attractions. An interview was also carried out with an entrepreneur in the funding process. The interviews were conducted to provide information on the funding choices made, obstacles encountered, how business development is used in the process and how the further financing of the attractions might look like. The results of the study show that venture capital, bank loans and “bootstrapping” has been used to finance the visit attractions. The funding of the project group was considered an important part of the start up process. The business plan has functioned as a tool to obtain funding in the development process at two of the visitor attractions. Access to the right people in the search for funding in the development was considered as an important part by two of the visitor attractions. Collaborations, a partnership and ancillary activity is also considered important for the continued funding of the attraction.

This master thesis is an analysis of how the amount of health centers per inhabitant has changed since the Swedish government implemented a new health care reform in 2010. The reform implies a free choice of health centers in the Swedish regions and opens up the market for private firms. The purpose of the thesis is to study the effects of the different financing systems toward the health centers in the regions. The models are based on theories of the need of health care. Two of the independent variables which are studied are income and age. The empirical results go hand in hand with the health theories about where there should be a bigger need of health care. The implementation of the new health care reform changed the effect of the independent variables marginally. The conclusion of the thesis is that there should be more studies which take the different financing systems in account and are focusing on if the health care reform is following the guide lines of the health care system of Sweden.

A Government is an entity of a society exercising authority over its subjects, preferably with their compliance. It is however not always agreed by the citizens that the government is acting in their interest, this making the relation in-between them lacking in legitimacy. This presents problems not only for the stability of a country, but for the expansion of financial markets, limiting the sources of finding finance to invest in development and infrastructure as it limits financing from within.  In this paper I look at Ethiopia where the government is perceived to have a generally low legitimacy, in 2010 they lunched the GERD* bond to finance a hydropower station on the Blue Nile. Ethiopia has a small economy thus the government asked its citizens to purchase savings bonds into the project, as international financing was not an option due to geopolitics. As the GERD is a €3.3 billion project many Ethiopians have inverted one full month salary. The question addressed in this paper it that of the willingness in entering in to this scheme, this due to legitimacy concerns within the country. More precisely the research question is formulated: is there a justifiable concern of legitimacy when rapidly intensifying a bond market in a developing country in which freedom is limited?  To address this field interviews was conducted in Addis Ababa and analysed via Weber’s three types of pure authority this to indicate the correlation of legitimacy dominations in-between the government and the investors. It is found that the GERD has common legitimacy dominations by both actors and as such the expansion of the bond market through the GERD has the preconditions to increase the trust level in the Ethiopian government. This is needed to increase legitimacy in the government, stabilize the country and expand the financial markets further.

With the rise of technology and finance, crowdfunding has been uprising as a popular method of financing projects. Kickstarter provides an online platform in which anyone with Internet access can upload their own project “pitch” to gain funding for their idea on an all-or-nothing model. My thesis explores financial trends and factors that potentially contribute to a successful Kickstarter campaign within the classical music projects subcategory. I use a logistic regression and the Ordinary Least Squares model to examine a dataset of already successfully funded projects and a second dataset that contains both successfully and unsuccessfully funded projects that were tracked over a period of time. Additionally, I collected text files of the word content on all projects to identify most frequently utilized words for the successful and unsuccessful files. Controlling for other characteristics, the key findings are that projects with higher target funding levels are both less likely to fund and fund at a lower percentage of the target, projects receiving more comments are more likely to fund, and projects proposed by those that fund other projects are more likely to fund. In addition, certain words are correlated with success or failure. However, since the method of identifying important words used data mining rather than just testing, we cannot predict that these words would increase the likelihood of success in future projects. Due to limited sample size and high correlations among the variables in specifications including both the project characteristics and words, the main results for each set of explanatory variables used separately tend to become statistically insignificant. Additionally, the funding pattern over time appears not to exhibit the herding behavior found in some asset pricing markets. This is an interesting finding given the highly social nature of funding via Kickstarter.

The purpose of this research was to determine the success rate of business plan proposals submitted at selected financial institutions. In the context of this study, selected financial institutions refer to the four main retail banks of South Africa, namely ABSA, First National Bank, Standard Bank and Nedbank. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven small business owners from each bank, bringing the total of small business owners interviewed to 44. The interviews were guided by a set of closed-ended and open-ended questions eliciting information from small business owners as to how they draft or develop their business plans. Open-ended questions allowed the respondents to express their opinions and assisted the researcher to seek clarification on the reasons or motivations behind the responses. The research found that the business plans submitted to financial institutions were ineffective as they fell short of elements that should be included in a business plan. This finding was based solely on the small businesses sampled. The results indicate that small business owners need to put in more effort to prepare sound business plans. Small business owners need to take greater care and effort to provide financial institutions with what is essentially required when applying for finance. Good record of accomplishment, good credit record, business expertise or skills, and the availability of collateral and risk capital, are all considered by small business owners to be essential in order to obtain finance. Conversely, lack of risk capital, lack of collateral and poor cash flow, are considered to be barriers to obtaining finance. Small business owners need financial institutions to assist them with their skills development. These include mentorship and training services, a tool to create business plans, an enterprise toolkit, and a model for cash flow. Government incentive schemes are unpopular with small businesses, and as a result, small business owners miss other sources of finance. Financial institutions could do more to improve the situation and to increase the accessibility of finance to the SMME sector. Financial institutions continue to place greater reliance on sound or viable business plans. This is understandable owing to the need to assess repayment ability. Small business owners need to be aware of what information financial institutions require when they assess finance applications. Overall, they should be more prepared when applying for finance. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This research examines the recent global financial crisis’ (GFC) impact on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and analyses governments’ responses. According to most literature, SMEs already faced obstacles prior to the GFC, such as paying high taxes, overcoming low profitability, being affected by rising business costs, finding qualified labour, dealing with increasing competition, etc. The GFC has had serious repercussions for SMEs with respect to financing, markets, and liquidity. In order to explore in depth the governments’ responses, qualitative methods are employed to test the following three research questions: 1) To what extent did governments aim to assist SMEs to survive the GFC? What types of programs have been implemented to address new and existing obstacles? 2) Did governments apply appropriate strategic initiatives to realize their goals? If the initiatives could not achieve the governments’ original goals, what obstacles did they address? 3) Did governments tend to help SMEs more after the GFC? Did governments give up on disadvantaged firms or did they try to help them survive the crisis? Analysis revealed that, as a result of the GFC, governments developed programs aimed at new obstacles and at some of the existing ones. The aims did not differ materially for developed and less-developed economies. Financing and taxation programs tended to be designed to achieve their goals directly, where other programs tended to achieve them in a more indirect manner. Overall, government initiatives covered most of the serious obstacles faced by SMEs and government assistance programs aimed at SMEs tended to have been augmented in light of the GFC.

This paper tries to define the concept of Export Finance and establish if the Export Financing is cost-effective way to raise capital and how is it organized in the Russian Federation. In order to do so, several methods have been used: the related literature has been studied, numerical analysis of economic-efficience of export financing has been prepared based on the real example and three interviews with experts in Export Finance have been conducted. The findings suggests that Export Financing is an attractive way of financing in a current economic environment and there is no credible alternative to it on the Russian market. Moreover, the analysis show that despite of the number of advantages, that Export Financing have, there are still some gaps in Export Financing, but in general, Export Finance area is developing and becoming more and more popular among russian importers and exporters

The purpose of this research was to determine the success rate of business plan proposals submitted at selected financial institutions. In the context of this study, selected financial institutions refer to the four main retail banks of South Africa, namely ABSA, First National Bank, Standard Bank and Nedbank. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven small business owners from each bank, bringing the total of small business owners interviewed to 44. The interviews were guided by a set of closed-ended and open-ended questions eliciting information from small business owners as to how they draft or develop their business plans. Open-ended questions allowed the respondents to express their opinions and assisted the researcher to seek clarification on the reasons or motivations behind the responses. The research found that the business plans submitted to financial institutions were ineffective as they fell short of elements that should be included in a business plan. This finding was based solely on the small businesses sampled. The results indicate that small business owners need to put in more effort to prepare sound business plans. Small business owners need to take greater care and effort to provide financial institutions with what is essentially required when applying for finance. Good record of accomplishment, good credit record, business expertise or skills, and the availability of collateral and risk capital, are all considered by small business owners to be essential in order to obtain finance. Conversely, lack of risk capital, lack of collateral and poor cash flow, are considered to be barriers to obtaining finance. Small business owners need financial institutions to assist them with their skills development. These include mentorship and training services, a tool to create business plans, an enterprise toolkit, and a model for cash flow. Government incentive schemes are unpopular with small businesses, and as a result, small business owners miss other sources of finance. Financial institutions could do more to improve the situation and to increase the accessibility of finance to the SMME sector. Financial institutions continue to place greater reliance on sound or viable business plans. This is understandable owing to the need to assess repayment ability. Small business owners need to be aware of what information financial institutions require when they assess finance applications. Overall, they should be more prepared when applying for finance. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.