Previous researchers, especially on large enterprises, have revealed that debt financing structure influences enterprise performance. Though the issue has been extensively researched, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have traditionally been operating differently as compared to large enterprises in terms of their financial decisions, ownership and management style, and behaviour. Therefore, this study will explore the gaps encountered by all MSMEs to grow their businesses. These include forms and type of industry, firm size, asset tangibility, and a firm’s current assets in relation to its current liabilities and profitability level. The study examines the influence of financing structures on performance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in South Africa. The ordinary least squares (OLS) technique of measurement is applied to examine the effects of financing structure on performance across various industrial sectors in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. The findings in this study indicate an increase in the use of leverage to drive the influence of total debt on performance in all industrial sectors of MSMEs in South Africa. From the cross-sectional regression analysis, the results show that financing structure has a negative effect on the profitability of MSMEs, although not absolutely. The findings show that the size of the enterprise, asset tangibility, and the ratio of current assets to current liabilities are the most influential of borrowing decisions in total debt, short-term debt, and long-term debt. A significantly negative effect is observed for long-term debt, while short-term debt (STDR) exhibits a significantly positive effect. Thus the influence on MSMEs’ leverage on performance is driven by the usage of short-term debt. The variables of size of the firm, and ratio of current assets to current liabilities, do not have the same effect in all debt levels; the significance is substantially higher for long-term debt than for total debt and short-term debt. On the other hand, our empirical results suggested that transactional costs, and an asymmetric information problem in smaller firms, may lead to a mainly negative influence on size and total debt. The asset structure on profitability observed across the years showed mixed experiences. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities was found to be positive and significant on long-term debt and short-term debt leverage.

Submitted by Vinicius Augusto Brunassi Silva (vinicius.vitio@gmail.com) on 2011-12-06T18:47:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Vinicius_Dissertação.pdf: 237652 bytes, checksum: 20111eda1d23b9c396a750183cbdc94c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-12-06T18:48:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Vinicius_Dissertação.pdf: 237652 bytes, checksum: 20111eda1d23b9c396a750183cbdc94c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-12-07T12:55:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vinicius_Dissertação.pdf: 237652 bytes, checksum: 20111eda1d23b9c396a750183cbdc94c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-25 / This paper examines the relationship between covenants, short-term and long-term debt with companies which face growth opportunities. Using a sample of 159 Brazilian corporate bonds, we found evidence that: 1) Covenants and short-term debt are substitute tools to minimize agency conflict, since they presented a negative and significant relation and; 2) The negative relation between short-term debt and growth opportunities might be attenuated in the presence of covenants. / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar a relação entre covenants e alavancagem financeira no curto e longo prazo com oportunidades de crescimento. A partir de uma amostra de 159 debêntures, encontramos evidência de que: 1) Covenants e dívida de curto-prazo podem ser considerados substitutos na atenuação do conflito de agência, uma vez que apresentaram relação negativa e significante e; 2) A relação negativa existente entre dívida de curto prazo e oportunidades de crescimento pode ser reduzida através da utilização de covenants.

Capital structure is one of the most frequent topics in the finance literature. This literature has its origins in studies of the manufacturing industry. Much of the results of this work have been applied indiscriminately to other industries without thorough validation. Only limited studies have considered financial structure in hospitality industry. The service industry is different than manufacturing industry, and even the hospitality industry is not homogeneous. The restaurant industry and lodging industry are quite different from each other. Of interest to this present study is to seek to understand how the patterns of capital structure are shaped within the context of the multi-unit casual themed restaurant industry. Restaurant industry is well known for a high bankruptcy rate. Many multi-unit restaurants exist in the casual themed restaurants strategic group in the Unites States, and many small independent restaurants are also present. The firm's strategic choice and its relationship with financial structure became a topic for my research. Publicly traded casual themed restaurants have been selected in this study. Hypothetically a common capital structure exists among firms within this strategic group. In this study, an investigation can consider the relationship among financial ratios as well as the uniqueness of the financial structure of the casual themed restaurants. / Master of Science

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:39:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Josely Lopes Fialho.pdf: 1405213 bytes, checksum: 86717b919e3115ab06695db70a882239 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-18 / The main objective of this dissertation is to verify if there is any relationship between profitability and the composition of short-term debt used by non-financial Brazilian companies traded in its structure. We used the relationship between net income and total assets to measure the return for the company. More specifically, this study examines the hypothesis that the return for the company, on average, not be equal, when considering its size and level of short-term debt. This reason tests were performed in two stages with the same sample: i) a sample divided into three groups by size - the average total active attribute of the analyzed period and ii) another sample of two groups separated by CCL positive and negative. Both analyses were performed considering the companies traded on the BOVESPA and belonging to the segment New Market of Corporate Governance - NMGC, for the period between 2003 and 2008. The choice of NMCG companies was based on their commitment of improving the quality of information to be provided to their stakeholders. We used the Spearman correlation test of hypothesis and nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis were used for the average population, by the observation of the significance of calculating averages for samples and groups. The results show that the comparison between groups of samples, both at the first stage as in the second, the profitability of companies presents little variation, confirming the null hypothesis. However, tests show that there is no indication that the quality of debt is correlated with the profitability of enterprises, even modest. Further studies are proposed in order to better highlight the problem presented in this dissertation / O objetivo principal desta dissertação é verificar se há relação entre a rentabilidade e a composição do endividamento de curto prazo, utilizado pelas empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto em sua estrutura. Foi utilizada a relação entre o lucro líquido do período e o ativo total para medir o retorno para a empresa. Mais especificamente, este trabalho analisa a hipótese de que o retorno para a empresa, em média, não seja igual, quando considerados o seu porte e o nível de endividamento de curto prazo. Para tanto os testes foram realizados em dois estágios com a mesma amostra: i) uma amostra dividida em três grupos pelo porte atributo ativo total médio do período analisado e ii) uma outra amostra com dois grupos separados pelo CCL positivo e negativo. As análises foram feitas considerando as empresas com ações negociadas na BOVESPA e que pertencem ao segmento Novo Mercado de Governança Corporativa NMGC, para o período compreendido entre 2003 e 2008. A escolha das empresas do NMGC foi baseada no compromisso, que elas têm de melhorar a qualidade das informações prestadas aos stakeholders. Utilizou-se o teste de correlação de Spearman e de hipótese não paramétrico de Mann- Whitney e Kruskal-Wallis da média da população, observando o cálculo de significância de médias para as amostras e os grupos. Os resultados apresentam que na comparação entre os grupos de amostras, tanto no primeiro como no segundo estágio, a rentabilidade das empresas apresenta pequena variação, confirmando a hipótese nula. Contudo, os testes revelam que há indicação de que a qualidade do endividamento tem correlação com a rentabilidade das empresas, mesmo que moderada. Novos estudos são propostos no intuito de melhor evidenciar o problema apresentado neste trabalho

Studien avser att förklara hur kapitalstrukturen, bestående av eget kapital, kortfristiga skulder och långfristiga skulder påverkar valet av kapitalbudgeteringsteknik inom stora svenska bolag vid strategiska investeringar. Genom Trade Off teorin och Principal Agent teorin formulerades studiens hypoteser. Empirin samlades in via enkäter som skickades ut till 325 bolag listade på Nasdaq OMX Small, Mid och Large Cap, där svarsfrekvensen blev ca 19 %. För att kartlägga kapitalstrukturen inhämtades årsredovisningar för att sedan beräkna nyckeltal som mäter de olika delarna i kapitalstrukturen. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av statistiska analyser, vilket visar att kapitalstrukturen påverkar valet av kapitalbudgeteringsteknik inom stora bolag. En hög andel kortfristiga skulder har en positiv association med osofistikerade tekniker medan en hög andel långfristiga skulder inte har någon association med varken osofistikerade eller sofistikerade tekniker. Vidare påvisas det inte att högt eget kapital har en positiv association med sofistikerade tekniker, däremot finns en negativ association med osofistikerade tekniker. Tidigare studier har inte delat upp skuldstrukturen och menar att en hög andel skulder ökar användandet av osofistikerade tekniker. Studier som är baserade på stora företag har inte tidigare påvisat ett samband mellan hög skuldsättning och osofistikerade tekniker, vilket gör skäl för uppdelningen. Denna studien har bidragit med att dela upp skuldstrukturen i kortfristiga skulder respektive långfristiga skulder. / The study intends to explain how the capital structure, consisting of equity, short-term liabilities and long- term liabilities, affects the choice of capital budgeting techniques in large Swedish companies in strategic investments. Through the Trade Off theory and Principal Agent theory, the study's hypotheses were formulated. Empirical was collected true surveys sent to 325 companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Small, Mid and Large Cap, where the response rate was about 19 %. To chart the capital structure, annual reports were obtained to calculate key ratios that measure the various components of the capital structure. The result has been analyzed using statistical analyzes, which shows that the capital structure affects the choice of capital budgeting techniques in larger companies. A high proportion of short-term liabilities has a positive association with unsophisticated techniques, while a high proportion of long-term liabilities has no association with neither unsophisticated or sophisticated techniques. Furthermore, it is not shown that high equity has a positive association with sophisticated techniques, but there is a negative association with unsophisticated techniques. Previous studies have not broken up the debt structure and mean that a high proportion of debt increases the use of unsophisticated techniques. Studies based on larger companies have not previously demonstrated a link between high leverage and unsophisticated techniques, which makes the division possible. This study has helped to break down the debt structure in short-term liabilities and long-term liabilities.