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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between religious beliefs and socially responsible investment in the Indian agricultural industry. Design/methodology/approach Owners of small agribusiness firms from India were interviewed regarding their perceptions of religious beliefs and socially responsible investment in the agricultural industry. Findings The survey indicates that while religious beliefs and internal financing sources increase perceived socially responsible investment, the higher cost of debt capital decreases perceived socially responsible investment in the Indian agricultural industry. The higher level of internal financing sources, however, decreases the perceived cost of debt capital which may increase socially responsible investment in the Indian agricultural industry. Research limitations/implications This is a co-relational study that investigated the association between religious beliefs and socially responsible investment. There is not necessarily a causal relationship between the two. The findings of this study may only be generalized to firms similar to those that were included in this research. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on the factors that increase socially responsible investment in the agricultural industry. The study also provides critical policy recommendations to minimize managerial implications. The findings may be useful for financial managers, agribusiness owners (farmers), investors, agribusiness management consultants, and other stakeholders.

We formulate and analyze a stylized dynamic model of a price-taking firm that manages production and capacity, uses only internal financing, and faces stochastic market environments. The firm has two operationally independent production facilities, each of which makes two products, and a cash reserve that finances all operations and dividend issuance. Each period the firm chooses the amount of dividend to issue, and at each facility it chooses production quantities and amounts of capacity to augment or divest. Relevant market data are exogenous and evolve stochastically. We completely characterize the optimal policy and the endogenous values of the capacities and cash reserve, and show that they invite a real-option interpretation. We find that internal financing creates a spillover between the endogenous values of the two operationally independent facilities, and we specify how this leads to interdependence of their optimal policies. We show that an “invest/stay put/divest” (ISD) policy remains optimal for partially irreversible investments, but internal financing changes the ISD thresholds. If the exogenous data are intertemporally independent, an internally financed firm is less likely to issue dividends or to expand capacity than if it were in a perfect capital market. As the market becomes more volatile, the endogenous values of capacities and cash increase, and the firm becomes more reluctant to issue dividends. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2017.0655 . This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Issue on Interface of Finance, Operations, and Risk Management.

Do the effects of corporate governance on corporate capital structure choices change as a public firm ages? First, we address the direct effects of firm age and governance features on both its decisions to use debt and how much debt to employ. Our analysis reveals a number of novel results. While firm age is positively correlated with the use of debt, it is negatively correlated with how much debt a firm uses. We also find that the effects of firm age on how much debt a firm uses is primarily due to the interaction between firm age and its governance features. The more power that insiders possess, the less debt that the firm uses as it ages. We interpret our evidence as implying that over time, managers allow their risk preferences to dominate their firm capital structure decisions when they are protected from discipline.

This study addresses the recent concerns in the capital structure literature about the reliability of tests of the target-following behavior. Using a novel testing strategy, we examine whether and to what extent firms' financing choices–rather than the movement of their debt ratios per se – concur with the target-following behavior. We find that firms' financing decisions are not generally consistent with systematic target-following. Our results remain similar when we examine an extended period of time and also when we consider that firms may have a range of target debt ratios rather than a unique target or varying financial constraints. Our results are also robust to different target specifications and our methodology can reliably distinguish the target behavior from random financing. Further tests also confirm our results by suggesting that the firms' financing decisions are not primarily driven by deviations from the firms' target debt ratios.

The capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises is closely related to enterprise financing. At present, the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises in China is unreasonable. There are disadvantages such as low proportion of internal financing, single external financing channels and excessive short-term liabilities. The theory of enterprise capital structure studies how the enterprise arranges its capital structure in its development or contraction, which means how the enterprises determine the ratio of their own capital, equity capital and debt capital in order to maximize their market value. In other words, how to find the optimal capital structure of the enterprise is the central task of the theory. This paper starts from the economic environment and characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises, discusses the internal and external factors affecting the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises and puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions for optimizing capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises.

We investigated the association between socially responsible investment, internal financing sources, and access to bank financing in the production industry of India. Using a survey research design, owners of small production firms were asked about their perceptions regarding socially responsible investment, internal financing sources, and access to bank financing. We found that socially responsible investment and internal financing sources help owners of small production firms improve access to bank financing. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between socially responsible investment, internal financing sources, and access to bank financing. The findings may be useful for financial managers, production firm owners, investors, consultants, and other stakeholders.

We evaluate the effect of a pan-European innovation funding program on firm growth and innovative output. Using a difference-in-differences estimation on a sample of matched firms, we find that subsidized firms are able to invest more in tangible and intangible assets, achieve higher growth of turnover and employment, and file more patent applications. We then analyze the dynamic treatment effect and find that the effects of subsidization tend to get stronger over time. Moreover, our findings indicate that the effect of subsidization is highly heterogeneous across sectors with different R&D or knowledge intensity and level of competition. Finally, we explore some economic channels to explain how subsidies generate strong effects on firm performance. We show that subsidized firms are able to generate more internal financing and attract more long-term borrowing after receiving the subsidy, yet we find no evidence that subsidized firms are able to attract more external equity financing than similar unsubsidized firms.

Firm managers of defined-benefit (DB) pension plan sponsors reveal their primary motives — risk-shifting or risk-management — through their assumed expected rates of return (ERRs) on the plan assets. Managers with risk-shifting motives choose high ERRs to exploit flexible internal financing from employees via pension underfunding. Those with risk-management motives choose low ERRs to reduce future cash-flow uncertainty by improving the pension funding status. We examine if ERRs predict the firms’ future cash-flow allocation between pension funding and corporate investments, in a Japanese sample that mitigates the selection bias concern for US DB plan sponsors. Using dynamic panel regressions that control for lagged dependent variables, firms’ business prospects, and unobserved fixed effects, we show that higher ERRs precede higher capital investments, R&D expenses, and net pension obligations while revealing managerial aggression, especially among firms with high external financing costs. Higher ERRs predict higher market-to-book ratios for the firms with larger R&Ds and/or underfunding, suggesting that the risk-shifting channel of internal financing with high ERRs can help alleviate underinvestment problems.

This paper examines the financing behaviour of R&D investments in emerging markets. Drawing on institutional theory and using panel data of generalized methods of moment (GMM) estimation for a sample of 302 firms from 20 countries during the period 2003-2015, we find that emerging market firms tend to use internal funds for financing R&D investments. Interesting results emerged when the sample was divided as alliance and non-alliance firms, and bank-based and market-based financial systems. The results show that R&D financing behaves differently for alliance and non-alliance firms. Alliance firms use both internal and external funds for R&D investments, while non-alliance firms do not use external funds. We also document that a country’s financial system influences the choice of available sources of finance. Firms from countries that follow a bank-based financial system tend to rely on external funds while firms from countries that follow a market-based financial system depend more on internal funds for financing R&D investments. This study is important as it provides new evidence on financing R&D investments in emerging countries taking into account the institutional arguments of financing choices, and so should guide stakeholders about appropriate sources of R&D financing.

In this paper, we discuss how a capital-constrained retailer determines his optimal advertising/ordering policy and selects his financing mode when he faces the following modes: no financing service, bank financing, and supplier/mixed financing. For each mode, we construct an optimization model and present a method for how the retailer determines his corresponding optimal advertising and ordering policies in the terms of his initial capital level. Furthermore, we derive the conditions of retailer selecting the optimal financing mode based on both his initial capital level and the interest rates of the financing services. We show that when the retailer is relatively “poor,” he prefers bank financing mode if the bank interest rate is lower than the supplier, otherwise mixed financing mode; when he is moderately “rich,” he only selects supplier financing mode if the bank interest rate is greater than a threshold value and otherwise bank financing mode; however, when he is relatively “rich,” he always chooses bank financing mode even if the bank interest rate is higher than the supplier. We conduct numerical studies to illustrate the theoretical results and find adopting financing service significantly improves the retailer’s performance especially when he has relatively low initial capital level.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of partnership financing on bank efficiency. Partnership financing, which has similar concept with venture capital, refers to the equitable sharing of risks and profits between the client and bank. By employing output distance function on Malaysian and Indonesian Islamic bank over 1996 to 2012, we estimate bank efficiency score using Stochastic Frontier Approach and examine its determinants. Our results show that banks with partnership financing are more efficient than other banks. Banks with low capital risk coupled with large amount of partnership financing tend to be more efficient. However, when estimating the probability of crises using an early warning system, banks with high partnership financing appear to be less efficient during crises. The results suggest that the use of partnership financing improves efficiency, especially for banks with low capital risk except during crisis.

A mix of public and private funding is employed worldwide to enable the construction of large public projects and even, in some cases, the work of public services. In this study, the selected methods of financing of participatory projects of water and water wastes were studied and prioritized. Questionnaires and comments of experts were used along with AHP decision-making and Expert Choice software. Different financing methods include: BOT and BOO and its types, the publication of bonds, foreign direct investment, the method of buyback, internal financing, current financing, development banks, Barter transactions, new tax resources and foreign financing. Results are shown and discussed and a final ranking is provided.

This study explores the impact of investment characteristics, mainly investment location relative to the firm's primary market, on financing choices by real estate investment trusts (REITs). Using a large sample of commercial property acquisitions, we show that REITs are 4-8% less likely to use secured (mortgage) debt when acquiring properties in their primary markets than elsewhere. The documented evidence supports a demand-side story for the relation between investment characteristics and financing. Moreover, the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that REITs avoid mortgage financing in their primary markets to preserve operational flexibility in those markets. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Herry Achmad Buchory - STIE EKUITAS School of Business ; Jl. P.H. Hasan Mustopa No. 31 Bandung, Indonesia ; Advanced Science Letters Vol. 23, issn : 8837–8842, 2017 ; American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved ; doi:10.1166/asl.2017.9980

This paper analyzes the decision of firms to sell assets to fund investments (financing asset sales). For a sample of U.S. manufacturing firms during the 1971-2010 period, we document new stylized facts about financing asset sales that cannot be explained by traditional motives for selling assets, such as financial distress or financing constraints. Using a structural model of financing, investment, and acroeconomic risk, we show that financing asset sales attenuate the debt overhang problem, because asset sale financed investments imply lower wealth transfers from equity to debt than otherwise identical but equity financed investments. This novel motive to reduce the debt overhang problem can explain how financing asset sales relate to firm characteristics and business cycles. We also confirm with simulated panels of model firms that are structurally similar to their empirical counterpart that they indeed feature the dynamic patterns of financing asset sales we observe in the data for real firms.

This paper develops a top-down model of capital budgeting in which privately informed executives make investment choices that convey information to the firm's stakeholders (e.g., employees). Favorable information in this setting encourages stakeholders to take actions that positively contribute to the firm's success (e.g., employees work harder). Within this framework we examine how firms may distort their investment choices to influence the information conveyed to stakeholders and show that investment rigidities and overinvestment can arise as optimal investment distortions. We also examine investment distortions in multi-divisional firms and compare such distortions to those in single-division firms.

This study analyzes whether corporate financing policies of the US industrial firms have depended on borrowing costs during the last forty years. The results show that the impact is either zero or slightly negative. Even in the latter case, the results are economically insignificant. Overall, our findings suggest that firms do not adjust their capital structures based on interest rates, except when market participants expect that real gross domestic product growth will be negative. Using a dynamic partial equilibrium model, we show that relatively high leverage adjustment costs are able to explain the weak negative relation between interest rates and a firm's leverage. Our results are also consistent with the view that firms target debt-to-asset ratio rather than debt level.

This article examines the relationship between supplier financing and small- and medium-sized firms’ value as well as the variation in the marginal value of supplier financing that arises from diff...

To prevent investment growth from 2013 to 2015 from decreasing, the Industrial Ministry provided fiscal incentives to stimulate investment-growth. Nevertheless, the investment growth of manufacturing firms still declined. This condition indicated that fiscal stimulus might be ineffective to prevent investment-growth from declining. The decline of investment might be influenced by the increase of firm financial constraints to access a source of long term debts. This study aimed to examine the influence of financial constraints in moderating the effect of financing decisions from internal financing sources on investment. The population of the study was all listed-manufacturing firms in Indonesia from 2013 to 2015. Samples were chosen based on the availability of firms’ financial report covering the period of the study. The study concluded that financial constraints significantly weaken the effect of internal funding decision on investment. Unconstrained firms had a higher beta than constrained firms. Although unconstrained firms had an opportunity to choose their source of funding, they preferred to finance their investment from cash flows because the cost of debts might be much higher than the cost of equity. Hence, to help firms to finance their feasible investment opportunity, the government should not only provide tax incentives but also provide a low-interest loan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26905/jkdp.v21i3.1357

This paper aims at explaining the volatility of two main macroeconomic variables (interest rate and exchange rate) that impact the cost of international capital and, consequently, the international financing decision. Firstly, the main economic theories are called to illustrate the relevant determinants of these variables from the perspective of demand and supply of capital sides. The state intervention through monetary policy is introduced to emphasize the alteration of these prices (the price of capital, the price of foreign currencies). The paper is presenting the role of these prices in international financing decision (based on the theoretical model used to estimate cost of international capital), their impact on the foreign direct investment decision and on the international portfolio investment decision. Finally, the paper describe the economic consequences of the monetary public intervention on the financing and investment decision in direct connection with the business cycle theory. The paper associates the monetary policy to the business cycles. The paper comments the unsound solutions proposed against the economic crises and that continued to harm negatively these prices generating the seeds for next international economic recession. The paper is a theoretical one, containing some very interesting research hypothesis and opening the paths for presumable further empirical researches.

Emerging markets have common weaknesses in their financial market development. Financial development is one institutional force that shapes financing and governance of firms in emerging markets. Debt and equity are alternative governance instruments. Trade credit is part of debt and therefore should be treated as such in corporate governance. We used a fixed effect regression of financial sector development and trade credit of firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to ascertain the relationship of financial sector development and trade credit. We also analyzed the Socially Responsible Index (SRI) which measures corporate governance. We find that good corporate governance practices do not result in substituting of trade credit, despite its high implicit costs, with bank loans for working capital financing.

Using a panel data of listed companies, this paper studies how internal financing and external financing affect the innovative investment of Chinese industrial enterprises. It finds that internal fund is the primary source of financing for the innovative investment undertaken by Chinese nonfinancial firms and the role of external financing varies in the ownership structure of the firm. We find that for the centrally controlled State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), bank loans is an important secondary source of financing for innovation, while for both local SOEs and listed non-SOEs bank loans are not important. External smoothing mechanisms also vary across types of ownership structure. We find that central SOEs mainly use bank loans to buffer against negative shocks to internal funds, while both local SOEs and listed non-SOEs use equity financing from the stock market for the same purpose. Our study shows that it is the accumulation of internal fund, rather than the development of formal financial sector, that contributes to the rapid growth of total innovative investment of Chinese firms.

This study sought to determine the effects aggressive/conservative current asset investment and financing policies have on firms′ return for six manufacturing firms listed at Ghana Stock Exchange for a period of 2000-2013. Data were obtained from the annual reports of the firms and the Ghana Stock Exchange. The study adopted longitudinal explanatory non-experimental research design applied to dynamic panel ARDL framework in analyzing the data. The results revealed that the current asset investment and financing policies have highly significant positive effects on returns to equity holders in the long-run. The empirical evidence suggests that conservative current asset investment policies increase firms return while conservative financing policies yields negative returns. The study therefore would enable finance managers to be able to fashion out the appropriate working capital management policies. A firm pursuing conservative current asset investment policy should balance it with aggressive current asset financing policy in order to enhance profitability and create value for their investors.

Insufficient sources of internal financing and inaccessibility of external financing are acknowledged as crucial constraints on new investment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study examines how capital structure is related to investment decision for SMEs in Vietnam. In particular, we investigate the effect of capital structure on the decision to seek new investment as well as the choice of its financing sources. The main results reveal that SMEs with high financial leverage tend to engage more in seeking new investment. Moreover, empirical results demonstrate that among SMEs seeking new investment, those with higher financial leverage are more likely to choose external financing rather than internal financing. These results confirm the dynamic feature of the pecking order theory in the context of SMEs’ capital structure in Vietnam.

This article provides a comprehensive assessment of private firms’ financing sources and their relation with financial reporting practices. We consider debt financing (bank financing, leasing, and government guarantees), equity financing (family ownership, government ownership, employee ownership, and private-equity financing,), and trade credit (supplier credit and factoring). Our primary conclusions are that there is significant heterogeneity in the way in which private companies are financed that is influenced by their specific business contexts, and that this heterogeneity in financing is associated with differential demand for and supply of financial reporting.

Political environment is an important determinant of financial intermediation costs, which eventually affects the external financing patterns of firms. Political gyrations create policy uncertainty, which increases the information risk, weakens the investor demand, and reduces the offer size. This raises the securities' placement costs for the financial intermediaries, who pass on these costs to the issuing firms in the form of higher underwriter spreads. The issuance costs for new equity and debt capital increase, leading to lower leverage. Simultaneous equation analysis of financing, investment, and cash policies reveals that this channel is distinct from previously documented effects of policy uncertainty on corporate outcomes.

This work explores the dynamics of the ‘virtuous circle’ driving the impressive Chinese catching-up and growth by investigating the micro relationships linking productivity, profitability, investment and growth, based on China's manufacturing firm-level dataset over the period 1998–2007. Interestingly and somewhat puzzlingly, we find that productivity variations, rather than relative levels, are the prevalent productivity-related determinant of firm growth. Moreover, the direct relation between profitability and firm growth is much weaker and its contribution to the explanation of the different rates of firm growth is almost negligible. The only visible profitability-growth relationship is mediated via investment. Firm's contemporaneous and lagged profitabilities display positive and significant effect on the probability to report an investment spike, and, in turn, investment activities are related to higher firm growth.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of debt financing on both performance and systematic risk in Amman Stock Exchange listed firms. The authors focus the study to analyze the differences between services and industrial firms in one sense and the differences between international and domestic firms in the other sense, as the study depends on the geographical distribution of sales to classify the nationality of firms. Design/methodology/approach The study sample includes all listed Jordanian firms in Amman Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2013 for both industrial and services sectors. Using panel data techniques, fixed effects regression with modified Driscoll-Kraay standard error as a remedy for heteroscedasticity problem is employed. Findings The results show that there is a significant negative impact of debt financing on the firm’s performance, where the sector and the sales nationality play an important role. Moreover, the results indicate that there is a significant positive impact of debt financing on the firm’s systematic risk. Taking the sector and sales nationality into consideration, the authors find that the debt financing has no significant impact on the systematic risk of services firms and domestic firms. Additionally, the findings indicate that services firms and international firms are, on average, more riskier than industrial firms and domestic firms, respectively. Originality/value The paper provides a visibility on the comparison between international and local firms in Jordan in terms of the impact of debt financing on the financial performance and systematic risk in one research.

This study examines the relationship between financing structure and bank liquidity risk. We compare the findings between Islamic and conventional banks for the case of Malaysia. We adopt four measures to represent financing structure; namely 1) real estate financing, 2) financing concentration, 3) stability of short-term financing structure and 4) stability of medium-term financing structure. Two BASEL III liquidity risk measures are tested; namely, liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) to measure short- and long-term liquidity risk, respectively. Based on panel data regression comprising 27 conventional and 17 Islamic banks from 1994 to 2014, our findings show that real estate financing and stability of short-term financing structure for Islamic banks are positively related to both liquidity risk measures. This implies that an increasing number of real estate financing and a stable short-term financing structure may increase Islamic banks’ short- and long-term liquidity risks. However, although real estate financing does not affect conventional banks’ liquidity risks, a stable short-term financing structure and increasing financing concentration can positively influence bank long-term liquidity risk. Our findings shed light crucial policy implications for regulatory bodies and market players in the context of liquidity risk management framework as well as the need to develop a separate framework between conventional and Islamic banking institutions.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influence of macro-financial conditions on firm-level capital allocation as a micro-transmission mechanism of monetary policy in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach The authors employ a dynamic model of investment based on the Euler equation approach that allows for financial frictions. The financial conditions are proxied by a composite index of the current states of financial variables, including interest rates, exchange rates, stock prices, and credit demand – which captures short-term shocks in monetary transmission channels. Corporate financing constraints, as a reflection of financial frictions, are measured by the sensitivity of investment to internal funds, which are extensively examined in terms of both negative and positive cash flows. Findings In the presence of a non-monotonic (or U-shaped) investment–cash flow relation, the empirical evidence from Vietnamese listed firms indicates that financial conditions affect investment behavior for only firms with negative cash flows, in the sense that better financial conditions alleviate the level of “negative” financing constraints (i.e. the sensitivity of investment to negative cash flow). This effect is greater for larger firms and more likely pronounced for firms without state ownership. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on corporate financing constraints in a manner of considering the macroeconomic dimension, specifically exploring the asymmetric impacts of financial conditions on the investment sensitivity to cash flow.

Despite the surge in corporate savings and heightened interest in understanding the reasons for this behaviour, little is known about the forces behind this stylised phenomenon in emerging markets (EMs). Using a large sample of firms from nine African countries over the period 2001–2015, we posit and find that the propensity to save is higher in this context due to limited access to external finance. However, when we examine the effects of innovation on corporate savings, we find that the results are reversed as, relative to Non-R&D firms, R&D firms save less of their operating cash flow. This is in stark contrast to the extant literature in advanced economies, which shows that savings are essential to smoothen lumpy, irreversible and risky investments in innovation. We find this is due to the reversal in firm-specific factors, with R&D firms in this context being larger and more mature; hence, relying less on internal financing sources compared to young and less-mature R&D firms in advanced economies. We interpret our results as suggestive of the overarching influence of access to external finance as a major determinant of the propensity to save and deterrent to investing in innovation. Our finding helps explain the glut in innovation amongst small and young firms in emerging markets and calls for policies that promote innovation.

We evaluate the effect of a pan-European innovation funding program on firm growth and innovative output. Using a difference-in-differences estimation on a sample of matched firms, we find that subsidized firms are able to invest more in tangible and intangible assets, achieve higher growth of turnover and employment, and file more patent applications. We then analyze the dynamic treatment effect and find that the effects of subsidization tend to get stronger over time. Moreover, our findings indicate that the effect of subsidization is highly heterogeneous across sectors with different R&D or knowledge intensity and level of competition. Finally, we explore some economic channels to explain how subsidies generate strong effects on firm performance. We show that subsidized firms are able to generate more internal financing and attract more long-term borrowing after receiving the subsidy, yet we find no evidence that subsidized firms are able to attract more external equity-financing than similar unsubsidized firms.

This paper investigates the impact of investment characteristics on the financing choice. We investigate instances of seasoned equity, bank debt, straight non-bank debt, and convertible issues by U.S. firms where the stated use of proceeds is capital expenditure and where we are able to hand-collect and classify the characteristics of the investment. Controlling for a firm’s existing assets, capital structure and valuation, we document a strong empirical link between an investment’s characteristics and the choice between debt and equity financing. Factor analysis indicates that the principal determinant of the financing choice is whether an investment’s payoffs can be described as a hit or miss.

Problem defi nition: Startups are emerging in many industries, and many startups have to compete with an existing fi rm in the market. The most critical decisions for a startup include what product should be developed and how to nance the company. Academic/practical relevance: Although they are interrelated decisions, the joint product development (in terms of product design and pricing) and fi nancing (in terms of internal or external financing) decisions of a startup, especially in the presence of a market incumbent, have not been studied in the prior literature. Methodology: We study the problem using a stylized model under the framework of vertical product differentiation where consumers differ in their willingness-to-pay for quality and market uncertainty exists for the startup product. Results: We fi nd that it is optimal for a startup to pursue pure internal financing, even if external financing is available, when the startup product's market uncertainty is either very small or very large. Otherwise, the startup benefi ts from a combination of internal self- financing and external debt financing, and the optimal debt leverage first increases then decreases with the market uncertainty. We characterize conditions for when the startup should launch a high-end or low-end product relative to the incumbent's. Surprisingly, having fewer (resp., more) financial resources|when external financing is inaccessible (resp., accessible) to the startup|does not always lead to a poorer (resp., better) product offering from the startup. Managerial implications: Our work provides guidance for how a startup should make joint product development and financing decisions in the presence of a market incumbent and shows the impact of the startup's accessibility to external financing on the firms and the consumers.

We study the relationship between financing constraints and the workforce composition of firms that employ both casual and non-casual workers. We use data on Australian firms from 2009-2014 and a more direct measure of firm financial constraint than previous studies. We show that the proportion of casual workers in firms grew over the time period being analysed. This was the case regardless of whether a firm was financially constrained or not. However, the magnitude of this change differed between financially constrained and unconstrained firms. We find that of firms whose workforces were growing, financially constrained firms hired relatively fewer casual workers than financially unconstrained firms did. This is consistent with firms using internal financing to cope with a lack of access to credit and equity.

This paper examines the level and efficiency of private firms’ investments with respect to corporate tax cuts. Earlier research has focused mainly on public firms. Research into private firms is especially relevant since these companies tend to finance future growth through internal financing. Using a sample of 2,635 firm-year observations of private Spanish companies and a matched difference-in-differences analysis, our results show that private companies engaged in intertemporal income shifting to gain additional tax savings. However, this is only observed in cash-constrained firms that increased their investments immediately after the tax reform. Additionally, we provide evidence that the investments made by such firms are not always efficient. This is in line with the idea that firms receiving cash windfalls do not necessarily use them wisely.

Jeder Anfang ist schwierig - besonders für Startups, die ganz am Anfang ihres Lebenszyklus stehen. Eines der Hauptprobleme, mit denen sich Startups auseinandersetzen müssen, ist der Bedarf an externer Finanzierung zur Aufrechterhaltung ihrer Betriebsabläufe und Investitionen für künftiges Wachstum. Die richtige Mischung aus Fremd- und Eigenkapitalfinanzierung zu finden, die die beste Finanzierung zu den geringsten Kosten ermöglicht, ist ein Grundprinzip jeder umsichtigen Geschäftsstrategie. Das Unternehmen geht eine langfristige Verpflichtung bei der Finanzierung ein, die nicht nur für ein Unternehmen aus kurzfristiger Sicht bedeuten ist, sondern sich auch auf die Zukunft des Unternehmens auswirkt. Nichtsdestotrotz ist die Finanzierung eines Startups eine individuelle Entscheidung. Derzeit gibt es keine allgemeine Formel, die den Gründern die Entscheidungsfindung erleichtert und es ist wahrscheinlich, dass dieses Rätsel nie gelöst werden kann. Viele Wissenschaftler haben sich über die Jahre mit diesem Thema auseinandergesetzt und es wird immer noch als ein interessantes Forschungsgebiet angesehen. Benjamin Franklin war ein Mann mit vielen Interessen und er zeichnete sich auf diesen Gebieten aus. In diesem Zitat "Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship", erklärte er, wie ein kleines Leck auf einem großen Schiff großen Schaden anrichten kann. Wenn kleine Ausgaben kontinuierlich ignoriert und kumuliert werden, können Beträge in Hunderte oder sogar Tausende von Dollars erreicht werden. In unserem Fall kann dieses kleine Leck durch den Ausschluss von Steuern bei der Entscheidungsfindung verursacht werden. Diese Masterarbeit versucht, die Bedeutung von Steuern hervorzuheben, da es nicht möglich ist, die Entscheidungsfindung auf rein steuerbezogene Fragen zu beschränken. Zunächst konzentriert sich diese Arbeit auf die Bedeutung der Unternehmensfinanzierung aus literarischer Sicht und die ambivalente Situation von Startups hinsichtlich ihrer Finanzierung. Einerseits werden sie oft als ungeeignet für einen Bankkredit angesehen und andererseits haben sie leichter Zugang zu anderen Mitteln der Finanzierung. Zweitens werden die verschiedenen Finanzierungsformen vorgestellt und dann ihre steuerlichen Auswirkungen aus der Sicht der Investoren diskutiert. Da eine Differenzierung der Rechtsform eines Startups über den Rahmen einer Masterarbeit hinausgeht, konzentriert sich dieser Beitrag auf die steuerlichen Implikationen des Investors, die durch die Finanzierungsform verursacht werden. Wie Forschungen bereits gezeigt haben, sind nicht nur die Steuern der Gründer zu berücksichtigen, sondern auch die Steuern auf Investorenseite beeinflussen die Kapitalstruktur von Startups. Every beginning is difficult - especially for startups at the very start of their lifecycle. One of the key issues startups have to face is their need of external money to maintain their operations and investments for future growth. Finding the mix of debt and equity financing that yields the best funding at the lowest cost is a basic tenet of any prudent business strategy. Nevertheless, the financing of a company is a long-term commitment which does not only affect the present operation of a company but also every decision that it will make in the future. How a startup should finance their operations is an individual decision. Currently, there is no general formula to ease the decision-making of the founders and it is likely that this mystery may never be solved. Many scholars concerned themselves with this topic and it is still regarded as an interesting field of research. Benjamin Franklin was a man with many interests, and he excelled in those areas. In this quote “Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship”, he explained how a small leak on a great ship may cause great damage. If small expenses are continuously ignored and cumulated it will continue to grow and grow to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. In our case this small leak may be caused by the exclusion of taxes in the decision making. This master thesis tries to emphasize the importance of taxes as it is not possible to limit the decision to only tax related issues. Firstly, this paper focuses on the importance of corporate finance from a literary perspective and ambivalent situation of startups concerning their financing. On the one hand they are often seen as unfit for a bank loan but on the other hand they have easier access to other means to finance their objectives. Secondly, the various forms of financing are presented and then their tax implications from the investors' perspective are discussed. Since a differentiation of the legal structure of the startup exceeds the papers limitations this master thesis concentrates on the tax implications of the investor that is caused by the form of finance. As research has shown not only the founders’ taxes have to be regarded but also investors’ taxes influence the capital structure of startups. vorgelegt von: Xiao Jie Chen Wien, FH Campus Wien, Masterarb., 2020

In this work we illustrate a simple logical framework serving the purpose of measuring value creation in a real-life solar photovoltaic project, funded with a lease contract, a loan contract and internal financing (i.e., withdrawal from liquid assets). We use the projected accounting data to compute the value created. We assess the project from both an investment perspective (operating assets and liquid assets) and a financing perspective (debt and equity). Furthermore, focusing on value creation for equity-holders, we calculate the expected contribution on shareholders wealth increase of operating and financing activity. In particular, we highlight the role of the distribution policy in financial modeling, by underlining the strict logical connections between estimated data and financial decisions.

Financial constraint is a major obstacle for firm growth, especially in developing countries where credit is scarce. This paper explores the role of tax policy in relaxing firms’ financial constraints by exploiting the exogenous shocks from China’s value-added tax (VAT) reform in 2009. We find that VAT reform significantly reduces effective VAT rate, which in turn improves both internal and external financing capacity for firms through the increase in liquidity, cashflow and commercial credit, and through the decrease in borrowing cost as well. The findings are robust to alternative specifications but show heterogeneity across ownerships, firm sizes, regions and between export and non-export firms. Our analysis suggests tax deduction is useful to relax firms’ financial constraints.

Responding to the substantial finance gap for achieving Sustainable Development Goals 6.1 and 6.2, the water and sanitation sector has mobilized to launch new blended finance vehicles with increasing frequency. The sustainability and scale-up of financial solutions is intended to support increased access to unserved, marginalized populations. However, without addressing foundational issues in the sector, any finance mechanism, whether public, private or blended, will be a short-term, band-aid solution and the sector will continue the cycle of dependency on external assistance. This paper presents the results of a collaborative effort of Water.org, the IRC water, sanitation and hygiene sector (WASH), and the World Bank Water Global Practice. Drawing from the latest research on effective public financial management and based on evidence from the countries where these organizations work, the paper demonstrates that sustainable success in mobilising finance on a large scale is dependent on a reasonable level of performance across 10 foundational areas. The paper presents evidence on the 10 foundational areas and discusses why other aspects of finance and governance, while necessary, are not sufficient. Better coordination amongst all development partners and governments, including a collective commitment to and prioritization of working on these foundational issues, is a necessary first step.

We examine the relationship between real exchange rate fluctuations and firm-level investment and growth using data for a sample of close to 33,000 firms from 68 advanced and emerging market countries over the 2000–2014 period. We show that real depreciations boost profits, investment, and asset growth of tradable sector firms that have higher labor shares and are relatively more financially constrained. These findings are consistent with an “internal financing channel” whereby depreciations boost profits by reducing real product wages, spurring investment of labor-intensive but financially-constrained firms. Our results are robust to controlling for alternative channels through which real exchange rates affect corporate investment, including via direct competitiveness gains, balance sheet mismatch, costs of imported intermediate inputs, and aggregate credit supply.