We provide a comprehensive review of firms’ financing channels (internal and external, domestic and international) around the globe, with the focus on alternative finance—financing from all the non-market, non-bank external sources. We argue that while traditional financing channels,...

Recent decades have seen a sharp increase in financial competition, intensified by globalisation. Excessive risk-taking leading to inevitable business failures at times reached worrying proportions. A contributing factor arose from the complexities of the derivative and other new markets. This...