China's short stock market history has already seen three merger waves, yet little is known of the performance drivers of acquirers. Using an acquirer's announced target value as the proxy of the firm's acquiring capacity, the link between that and its operational and/or financial conditions was...

Small businesses in Croatia are recognized as a locomotive for economic restructuring and increase of rate of employment. Bank credits have become more accessible in Croatia for the SME sector following privatization by foreign banks, which now participate with more than 90 percent in total bank...

China's astonishing economic growth in recent years has attracted many research interests. It is well documented that small and medium-sized enterprises have become a major driving force making China's economic miracle. Financing is critical to small business; however, there are limited studies...

Existing theories of the firm are silent with respect to cross-sectional differences in performance or characteristics of firms attributable to different types of managers. We hypothesize that the investment, financing and dividend decisions of founders differ systematically from those of...

There is now extensive evidence on short-term performance improvements in buy-outs, but little relating to the longer-term. This paper examines the relatively neglected area of the longevity and longer-term effects of smaller buy-outs. In terms of longevity, the evidence presented shows that the...

In planning for succession of ownership, oftentimes the owner of a private business seeks to sell the business to either family members or employees. Arranging outside financing may be difficult or costly, making internal financing attractive. Self-cancelling installment notes (SCINs) provide an...

The one-share, one-vote rule applicable to the governance of most business firms provides for proportional voting power which differs substantially from proportional shareholdings of investors. This problem is particularly acute in small firms where several (or many) shareholders may hold...

The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of how collective lending strategies leverage social capital to improve firm performance. Drawing on economic and sociological perspectives and fieldwork in Bulgaria, I argue that social capital may enhance the effects of financial capital...

Two recent papers examine the impact of corporate bankruptcy laws on new business start-ups in 29 countries over 1990 - 2008 (Peng et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2010). In this commentary, I briefly point out two significant issues which future researchers might want to consider. First, several countries...

This paper discusses the issue of shareholder liability for corporate obligations in small business. Although the law allows individuals to incorporate their businesses to limit liabilities, the courts have in many cases pierced the corporate veil and held shareholders liable for obligations of...