Ratings For Innovative Smes & Start-Ups And Intangible Capital: Literature Review And Proposal Of A New Approach

Abstract

Innovative Smes and start-ups are the backbone and strategic drivers of economic growth for all economies. Today, the current COVID-19 pandemic affects all companies regardless of their size or their activity. Some sectors are less impacted than others, but overall, most SMEs and start-ups are strongly impacted by this crisis. Indeed, this context is marked by the lengthening of payment terms, as well as the level of default which should reach 14% by the end of the year, with a peak at the end of the first quarter of 2021(Euler Hermes, 2020).Company default or failure prediction has been the subject of much theoretical and empirical work for forty years. However, little research work focused on the distressed Small and Medium Enterprises, even though the risk of default of this type of business is very common. Innovative Smes and start-ups are often considered to be rich in intangible capital but poor in liquidity (Brassell et King 2013). Based on these shortcomings, the purpose of this paper is to carry out a critical review of the literature on the phenomenon of default from the financial, economic and legal angles, before identifying the main determinants including intangible capital, in order to better understand their detection. We will strive to reflect on a new rating approach integrating the notion of "Goowill" which is linked to the profitability generated by its intangible assets, as a solution to the problem of access to finance for innovative Moroccan SMEs and start-ups.