This research aims to explore the borrower-specific financial constraints that prevent black youth entrepreneurs in Tshwane from accessing finance to for their own start-ups. To achieve its goal, the research seeks to explore whether there are significant differences between black youth entrepreneurs in Tshwane in terms of their personal demographics, business information and personal factors towards business. The empirical results and theoretical literature are examined to facilitate a better understanding of the borrower-specific financial constraints preventing access to finance for start-ups by youth entrepreneurs. These learnings contributed to the body of knowledge relating to entrepreneurship development in South Africa. The literature review revealed that although youth entrepreneurial activity is vital to sustained economic growth, access to finance is the challenge that negatively impacts youth entrepreneurial activity globally. More specifically, the literature indicates that borrower-specific factors to a large extent prevent youth entrepreneurs from accessing finance for their start-ups. The borrower-specific financial constraints are described. During this research, data was obtained by way of a judgment sample using a structured questionnaire consisting of 40 questions. A total of 110 useable questionnaires were returned. The findings of the study reveal that there are no significant differences for respondents in relation to factors for personal savings, business acumen and credibility differences. There are significant differences to certain factors for borrower-specific financial constraints, such as the intention to commence business start-up, gender and the educational level of respondents in relation to their attempt to access finance. Finally, significant learnings from the research are that the poor attitude of black youth towards saving are similar to youth reviewed in the literature, and the culture of South African black youth towards entrepreneurship has improved. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study investigates why some firms have no debt in their capital structure despite the potential benefits of leverage. A logistic regression analysis is used to examine the impact of firm-specific characteristics on a firm’s propensity to have zero leverage. The validity of five theoretical explanations for the zero-leverage phenomenon are examined based on how the theories predict characteristics to affect a firm’s propensity to be unlevered. Analysing a new sample of Swedish firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm in 2005-2018, I show that on average 14.2% of all firms are unlevered. The regression results suggest that the phenomenon of zero-leverage firms can be explained by a combination of several theories. Some firms seem forced to follow zero-leverage policies due to credit rationing by lenders. Others appear to be deliberately debt-free either because they have low needs of external financing or because they strategically want to avoid debt. The study’s main findings for zero-leverage firms are also robust to firms with very low debt (book leverage less than 5%).

This licentiate thesis consist of two essays. Both essays deal with corporate finance and its impact on innovation investment.  In the first essay we use German Community Innovation Survey to identify financially constrained firms. Contrary to previous studies we find that the relationship between financial constraints and firm size is inverted u-shaped and that it is the group of medium sized firms which has the largest funding gaps. This is explained by the fact that these firms have high innovation capabilities but at the same time face high cost of capital. Furthermore, we test if financial constraints have an impact on firm productivity growth. We find negative effects from funding gaps on productivity, but only for investment in tangible capital and not for innovation investments. The second essay investigates whether there has been a change in the productivity and funding mix of innovative SMEs post stricter bank regulations. Our result shows that the likelihood of using bank loans as a funding source has not changed for innovation investments nor for tangible investments after stricter capital regulations have been announced. On the other hand, sources such as subsidies have increased due to regulatory programs that have been implemented in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis. Furthermore, SMEs productivity has not changed post stricter bank regulations. Overall, the impact from different sources of funding on productivity is rather limited. / <p>QC 20180110</p>

Yes / In this paper, we extend Tobin’s Q model under financial frictions (Hennesy, Levy, and Whited, Journal of Financial Economics (2007)), using a discrete-time version of their model, to include private benefits of control of managers and other stakeholders and soft budget constraints in the form of money injections into the firm. Managers are not viewed to maximise shareholder value, but to maximise the value of their shareholding plus their private benefits of control. Private benefits of control introduce elements of asset stripping into the model. We characterize the optimal investment policy, analyse comparative statics and discuss applications to firms in transitional economies.

Yes / In this paper, we empirically analyze the impact of ownership groups on companies’ investment rates in Ukraine using a new dynamic Tobin’s Q model allowing investment rates to depend on present and lagged Q. We find that the presence of a majority in and increases in state, non-domestic and financial companies’ ownership has a significantly negative impact on investment rates. State and insider ownership are associated with soft budget constraints whereas non-domestic, financial companies’ and financial and industrial groups’ ownership with hard budget constraints. The dynamic model shows persistence in the market-to-book value of equity, the proxy for Q.

Yes / We empirically analyze the impact of different ownership groups on companies’ investment rates in Ukraine allowing investment rates to depend on present and past market-to-book values of equity. We relate the impact to the presence of soft and hard budget constraints, to the free cash flow and the cash constraint hypothesis and discuss over- and under-investment. Several robustness checks, in particular, the potential endogeneity of ownership variables are considered.

Yes / This paper examines how deviation from firms’ target leverage influences their decisions on undertaking foreign acquisitions. Using a sample of 5,746 completed bids by UK acquirers from 1987 to 2012, we observe that over-deviated firms are more likely to acquire foreign targets. Consistent with co-insurance theory, we find that over-deviated firms engage in foreign acquisition deals to relieve their financial constraints and to mitigate their financial distress risk. We also note that foreign acquisitions enhance over-deviated firms’ value and performance, measured by Tobin’s q and return on assets (ROA) respectively. These findings support the view that over-deviated firms pursue the most value-enhancing acquisitions. Overall, this paper suggests that co-insurance effects, value creation and performance improvements are the main incentives for over-deviated firms’ involvement in foreign acquisitions.

Yes / The increased equity lending supply (ELS) in the equity loan market, available for short sellers to borrow, exposes a firm to greater short selling threats. Considering short sellers’ strong incentives to uncover firm-specific information and monitor managers, we hypothesize that short selling threats, proxied by ELS, enhance corporate investment efficiency. We find that ELS significantly reduces managerial tendencies to underinvest (overinvest) especially for firms prone to underinvest (overinvest). The effect of ELS on investment efficiency is stronger for firms with higher information asymmetry and weaker corporate governance, confirming short sellers’ role in mitigating information and agency costs. However, short selling risk weakens the effect of ELS. Our evidence is robust to endogeneity checks and suggests that corporate investment can be driven by a particular capital market condition: the amount of lendable shares in the equity loan market.

Este trabalho tem por meta focalizar a adaptação necessária na metodologia de planejamento atual, norteada segundo uma ótica determinística e conservadora, afim de permitir a elaboração de Programas de Obras de Transmissão/Subtransmissão, condicionados por limitações de teto no montante de investimento a curto e médio prazos. Para tanto, como tema central, busca-se desenvolver uma base conceitual e metodológica, para permitir uma exploração maximizada das possibilidades de carregamento de equipamentos e instalações do sistema de transmissão, contemplando a especificação das ferramentas computacionais necessárias para dar consequência prática à proposta. Considerando o potencial de análise proporcionado por métodos e técnicas de natureza probabilística, aplicados ao planejamento de Sistemas Elétricos, a espinha dorsal da evolução metodológica delineada no texto repousa sobre a avaliação de confiabilidade global e quantificação de riscos operativos. O texto foi estruturado em 8 capítulos onde, a partir de um capítulo introdutório, enfoca-se sequencialmente os temas: * Conceitos e Metodologias para Maximização do Carregamento de Transformadores de Potência. * Conceitos e Metodologias para Maximização do Carregamento de Linhas aéreas de Transmissão. * Impacto das Restrições Financeiras no planejamento e possibilidade de atuação a nível técnico para administrar o conflito entre qualidade de serviço e recursos limitados. * Conceitos e Metodologias para relaxação dos Critérios limitantes para o carregamento máximo de componentes do sistema, em ambiente de severas restrições financeiras, no horizonte de curto prazo. * Resultados obtidos em aplicações concretas a situações do Setor Elétrico, visando caracterizar o alcance do ferramental preconizado nos capítulos anteriores. * Critérios e Procedimentos para Padronização de Subestações e Linhas de Transmissão , coerentes com os conceitos de maximização de carregamento introduzidos nos dois primeiros capítulos. Ao final do texto, incluiu-se um capítulo de \"Conclusões\", com o objetivo de sumarizar os aspectos mais relevantes abordados no texto, assim como indicar linhas de ação e novos desenvolvimentos, necessários para permitir a efetivação prática da metodologia proposta. / An important problem posed to power system planners in developing countries is now becoming commonplace, even in developed countries, and concerns on how to fit an expansion plan into a tight budget, with the least reduction in reliability levels. This problem is known as power system planning under financial constraints and a series of methods is now available to deal with it. So, this work addresses the necessary adjustments in order to permit the Transmission / Sub-transmission Expansion Program establishment when there are investments constraints in a medium/short term range. The main emphasis is on the development of a methodological and conceptual framework, aiming at a maximizes exploration of the loading capability of transformers and transmission lines of the power network. In this context, a new methodological framework for transmission system planning in a financial constrained environment is presented. The proposed approach combines transmission projects priority evaluation and ranking as well as criteria flexibilization, being particularly suitable for short-term planning. The problem to be faced is to operate the system after a project postponement, while the service quality is kept so adequate as it is possible. One of the main issues to be focused is the transmission system uprating since a maximized equipment utilization can contribute to avoid a more significant restriction to the costumers. Therefore, a detailed description of the models for transmission lines and transformers loading limits assessment is presented, with emphasis on the main concepts and the application of probabilistic tools to circumvent the inherent conservatism of deterministic methods. A summary of the contents is presented in what follows: * Concepts and Methodology for Transformers loading maximization. * Concepts and Methodology for Transmission Lines loading maximization. * Financial Restrictions impacts on Expansion Planning Process and the possibilities to manager the conflict between service quality and investment constraints. * Concepts and Methodologies to the relaxation of Criteria that limits the loading capability of transmission lines, aiming at short term Planning under severe financial restrictions, * Obtained results in concrete applications of the proposed methodology and computational tools to Brazilian Electric Power System. * Methods and Criteria to standardization of Substations and Transmission Lines, according the main issues formerly introduced. * Conclusion and Future Research.

La santé est un domaine particulier au sein duquel les intérêts humains sont confrontés à la réalité du coût de la délivrance de soins. Dans ce contexte, il faut alors s'interroger sur une question particulière qu'est la gestion du risque pénal par les établissements de santé. Cette problématique est essentielle car la protection de la santé et la préservation de l'intégrité corporelle des patients, mais également des personnels et de tout intervenant extérieur, sont au cœur de leur activité. Leur objectif est alors de soigner en faisant face à un grand nombre de contraintes, sanitaires mais aussi économiques, en évitant la réalisation du risque pénal, et même en maintenant le niveau de ce dernier au minimum et ainsi éviter l'engagement d'une quelconque responsabilité pénale. / The health is a particular domain within which the human interests are confronted with the reality of the cost of the delivery of care. In this context, it is then necessary to wonder about a particular question that is the management of the penal risk by the establishments of health. This problem is essential because the protection of the health and the conservation of the physical integrity of the patient, but also the staffs and every outside person, are at the heart of their activity. Their objective is then to look after by facing a large number of constraints, sanitary but also economic, by avoiding the realization of the penal risk, and same by maintaining the level of the latter at least and so avoid the commitment of any penal responsibility.