A Study on the Influence of Financial Factors on the Growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Portuguese High Technology and Medium-high Technology Sectors

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to find important financial influential factors to the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high technology and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors in Portugal. Using the fixed effects model and the pooled regression model, the impacts of some financial variables in previous year on firm growth are observed. In addition, the total sample is further classified into the young firm group and the mature firm group in order to compare the differences of the impacts at different age stages. The results show that there are more financial factors (such as, receivables, short-term loans, intangibles, long-term debt and industry dummy) impacting on young SMEs compared to mature SMEs, which means that young SMEs tend to be more susceptible. In particular, the impacts of profitability and leverage are constant for both young and mature SMEs; the two factors of trade credit (accounts receivables and payables) are negatively related to growth. By contrast, firm age and GDP show different effects at different age stages. This paper has two main contributions: it can help SME managers identify important financial factors to firm growth and then promote development of SMEs; it also contributes to the empirical studies on SME growth in high technology and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors from financial perspective.