Small businesses significantly rely on debt financing. However, it is challenging for them to convince the lenders on their creditworthiness because of the agency problems rooted in information asymmetry. Professionalization, as one of the signal devices, may carry positive information about a small firm since it helps enhance the firm value by aligning owner and managers interests. If firm value goes up, the financial leverage drops without any new external debt financing. Thus, it is safer for the lenders to provide the capital. Unfortunately, whether professionalization helps mitigate the lender-borrower conflict of interest has not been investigated in the previous literature. This study intends to help fill in this gap by investigating the influence of professionalization on small business debt financing. Our empirical results show that professionalization tends to increase the use and the amount of new venture debt financing. Findings also indicate that the solution to owner-manager agency problem can also help alleviate the creditor-shareholder conflict of interests in new venture debt financing.

After the fifteen years over banking, the financial tsunami reveals that Taiwan banking industry has been in a predicament. In the recent ten years, due to being impacted by the risks of the enterprise finance, the retailer finance, the overseas investment, and even the whole economic system, the banks in Taiwan not only have lost seriously, but also been managed more hardly. How to find out a profit model based on the security, the benefit, and the public welfare principles is the critical issue. The traditional loan to small and medium-sized enterprises that brings the reasonable interest gains and the overall financial intercourse spin-off benefits has become the focal point once again. In order to create the real profit, it is important to control credit risks and the cost of operation. At this time, the government implements the new Basel¢º supervisory standard with the purpose of encouraging the banks to adopt the IRB to estimate the loan credit risks. It has to meet various the lowest operational requirements and statistical analysis patterns as well as should be practiced in the banking loan business definitely. Consequently, to build an internal loan credit scoring system with the scientific method is a key point. The research aims to produce the credit scoring model using a series of logical processes, which derived from the 2,517 small business loan samples from May, 2005 to May, 2006 of one Taiwan commercial bank. It adopted WOE model to evaluate a variety of variables, and sift out the 11 representative and the statistical items. Then, following IRB standard, Logistics Regression and related statistic analysis techniques established the credit estimating method and the linked addition scoring card. Finally, the investigation employed the violation rate distribution, Lorenz¡¦s Curve, K-S Test and Log Odds to make sure the rationality and reliability. Based on this model, there are eight essential variables that affects the verification of the loan to small businesses, including customer present loan situation, the urgent of increasing the loan, repayments custom, and so on, which conform to the banking practical know-how. Therefore, the model could assist the banking employees to calculate the loan credit grades efficiently and further make the accurate judgment.

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1999. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2717. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as, preliminary leaves [2-3]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-33).

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development / Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) play a critical role in the economic development. Indeed, SMMEs have been recognised as major sources of poverty reduction, employment creation and incomes. It is therefore not surprising that policy makers and researchers, particularly in developing countries have acknowledged SMMEs as an important topic in development policy. Despite their belated discovery by policy makers and their contribution to the economy, their growth remains constrained by a number of key constraints including access to finance. Access to finance has a significant impact on the development or failure of SMMEs. That is to say, finance has increasingly been recognised as a major obstacle in the development of SMMEs. Without finance, SMMEs may not able to develop and sustain their businesses through innovation, hiring of additional staff and the addition of more facilities. The SMMEs sector is known to be very diverse. Indeed, Studies point that there is no single definition of SMMEs, they are defined differently in different contexts and most of SMMEs in Africa operate in the informal sector. This situation has challenged policy makers, making difficult the development of one size fits all policies. The objective in this study is to examine the problem of finance in SMME development and promotion in Africa and more particularly in Gabon and South Africa. The study examined the existing literature on SMMEs in general and more particularly the problem of access to finance in SMME development. The study highlights that SMME's access to finance is constrained by factors such as a lack of information, high interest rates, financial sector policy distortion, the high risk of SMME operations, blacklisting of SMME owners and a lack of government support awareness. In addressing this problem, a number of policies have been developed and include the market developing policies, the market enabling policies and the market harnessing policies.

No description available.

No description available.

In some point in time, an employer would require the services of an independent contractor. Very often one would find that the employer does not have sufficient information in his possession to make a decision to either engage the services of an independent contractor or an employee. Most employers would be aware of their requirements should they choose to engage the services of an employee, however the problem or lack of information arises when the employer decides to engage the services of an independent contractor. This might seem as a simple decision; however an investigation into the taxation of independent contractors proved otherwise. Generally an employer would engage the services of an independent contractor to perform a specific task and pay him for that service. However there are various mechanisms in place that would deem that independent contractor to be an employee. Should this be the case, the employer would be faced with extra costs in the form of interest, penalties and additional levies if he did not deduct employees tax from the independent contractor and pay this over to the Commissioner for South African Revenue Services.. The other taxes that are effected by an independent contractor who is deemed to be an employee are, Pay As You Earn, Skills Development Levy, Unemployment Insurance Contributions, Regional Service Levies and the Labour Laws. It is imperative that the employer understands the various laws in respect of the engagement of an independent contractor. Failure to do so or ignorance of the law would be a disadvantage for the employer. The investigation into the tax implications of independent contractor's would highlight the requirements and problem areas that one should be aware of. This would include how to identify if a contractor is truly and independent contractor or deemed to be an employee. This distinction is very important especially to the employer. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

In his study, the impact of preferential procurement on Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs') was evaluated. Most developing countries, including South Africa are characterised by a rapidly growing population, high unemployment rate and poverty. To redress the situation, the South African government, both at National and Provincial level has shown an interest in the development and sustainability of SMMEs' There is a dire need for the redistribution of income and opportunities to the historically disadvantaged individuals. The South African economy is not labour absorbing because of the inherited capital-intensive structure of the economy. The South African SMME sector is far from homogenous and would require a fine tuned set of interventions rather than the generic assistance currently provided. Only a few dynamic SMMEs' show a potential to contribute to rapid employment creation whilst survivalist activities constitute the vast majority of South African SMMEs' (Kesper, 2000). It is also important for government to know the value of SMMEs', especially in the creation of employment and the impact that preferential procurement has on the SMME sector within the Molopo Region of the North West Province. This study should serve as an informative reference to the North West Province and other relevant stakeholders, seeking greater insight into the effect that preferential procurement has on SMMEs' within the Molopo Region. In order to obtain a meaningful insight on the data collected, two sets of questionnaires were developed. The questionnaires were structured so as to get the views of : The management of the Department of Finance. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises. The tabular and graphical representations indicate the responses from the management of the Department of Finance and the owners of SMMEs' within the Molopo Region. Personal interviews were also carried out in order to obtain a meaningful insight into the research. However, there were some research limitations to the study as indicated hereunder: On going changes of government rules and regulations. The continuous revision of government programmes. Restructuring within government departments. The results of the study reflect that SMMEs' do generate employment and the management of the Department of Finance are fully aware of the impact that preferential procurement has on the SMME sector within the Molopo Region, with respect to job creation, empowerment and sustainability of the SMMEs'. The need for a fully integrated and up to date database cannot be over emphasised. By contributing to the development of the country's economy, SMMEs' will facilitate a greater and more equitable distribution of wealth. It will also assist in reducing the gap between small and big businesses, allowing businesses to meet the challenge of a global competitive economy. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2004

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.

Despite the importance of SMEs and increased knowledge in the area of strategic management, empirical research on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in this area of management has not only been limited but also neglected. In an attempt to investigate the strategic factors that can influence the performance of SMEs, this study focuses on Malaysian exporting SMEs. This study adopts the conceptual framework in the context of strategic management. The conceptual framework is developed based on the strategic management variables; business strategy, distinctive capabilities and performance. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the business strategy, distinctive capabilities and performance of Malyasian exporting SMEs. The study was based on a sample survey consisting of 150 Malaysian exporting SMEs, which is based on the listing provided by MATRADE. Using structured questionnaires, the data were collected through mailed questionnaires to the managers and owners of exporting SMEs throughout Malaysia. There were statistically significant differences in the performance of Malaysian exporting SMEs that adopted different business strategies, and there is a relationship between distinctive capabilities and performance of Malaysian exporting SMEs. / In general, all of the strategic variables used in this study significantly influence the performance of the exporting SMEs in Malaysia. Although there are different impacts of strategic factors on the various performance measures, in general the strategic factors used in this study seem to significantly influence the business performance of the Malaysian exporting SMEs studied. / Thesis (DoctorateofBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2005.