The question of an `optimal' capital structure of a firm has been studied for publicly listed businesses for years. From these studies, agency theory has emerged as a good way to understand a firm's capital structure. This paper empirically examines the role that agency theory plays in...

Successful decision making in small firms requires the availability of financial information and its deployment in a variety of financial management techniques. This prescriptive dictate and the techniques and practices it advocates have developed from, and are supported by, a framework of...

This paper examines how banking market concentration affects small business credit. Based on an idea that line-of-credit (L/C) limit and L/C balance provide useful proxies for credit supply to and credit demand of a firm, we examine the effect of bank concentration on L/C limits and L/C...

This study examines the expectations that both small business firms and bankers have regarding the bank selection process. The purpose of the study is to determine whether or not bankers understand the needs of the small business customer. It is based on a nationwide survey of 115 small business...

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...

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...

This paper attempts to extend the Certification Paradigm--mainly used in the literature as an explanation for IPO underpricings--to provide guidelines to entrepreneurs in their efforts to secure funding for new ventures. After extending the model to cases of pre-venture-capital start-up firms,...

This paper demonstrates that control premiums are warranted in the valuation of closely-held firms when perquisites exist. The value of control is a function of the ownership structure and the size of perquisite cash flows. The conventional logic of assigning control premiums based upon...

The research in small firms financing is characterized by a lack of a theoretical framework. One basic assumption in this study is that agency theory can provide an essential framework to explain the interaction between informal and formal venture capitalists and their portfolio firms. Five...

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...