External Financing Constraints Research Articles

Social credit and patent quality: Evidence from China

We combine the discredited people database disclosed by the China People’s Supreme Court and the China industry business performance database from 2003 to 2014 and examine the effect of regional social credit on the quality of patents, measured by knowledge breadth. We find that a loss of social credit can result in a significant decline in patent quality. The result remains robust to a series of sensitivity checks, including using the alternative measures of key variables and exploiting the number of missionary universities established since the Opium War as an instrument for social credit. The possible mechanisms for the effect of social credit on patent quality are further verified, including attenuating external financing constraints and enhancing the innovation incentive.

Real estate assets, heterogeneous firms, and debt stability

By constructing a “financial accelerator” model that combines real estate assets and heterogenous enterprises, we use China’s housing price data to explore the effect of real estate assets on corporate debt and macroeconomic stability in the context of the Chinese economy. Based on the dynamic economic characteristics of the model, we find that the financial accelerator mechanism of housing prices further amplifies the various effects of housing price fluctuations when transmitted to the macroeconomic system, resulting in the size of corporate debt closely related to the economic boom–bust cycles. However, owing to the institutional factors, heterogenous firms have some differences in debt stability under the influence of asset price fluctuations. There is an obvious crowding-out effect of state-owned enterprise (SOE) credit on private-owned enterprise (POE) credit, and the existence of the implicit guarantee ratio of SOE credit will weaken the external financing constraints on the SOE and promote the expansion of SOE credit. Finally, the effect of fiscal and monetary policies on corporate debt stability is somewhat divergent, institutional factors can similarly weaken policy effects.

The Mixed Impact of Environmental Regulations and External Financing Constraints on Green Technological Innovation of Enterprise.

Green technological innovation is an important force for high-quality economic development and high-level ecological environment protection. Environmental regulation and market financing are important factors affecting enterprise green technological innovation, while the relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise green technological innovation is most likely to be nonlinear. Additionally, this impact may be moderated by market financing. Based on the data of 2278 manufacturing enterprises in China, this article intends to empirically test the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise green technological innovation. Green technological innovation is divided into green process innovation and green product innovation. Based on this, the analysis of the heterogeneous impact of environmental regulations on different types of green technology innovation is implemented. Moreover, the moderating effect of external financing constraints on the relationship between environmental regulation and green technological innovation is further discussed. It shows that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise green technological innovation. This conclusion will not change due to the types of green technological innovation, while the impact of environmental regulation on enterprise green product innovation is greater than that of green process innovation. In addition, external financing constraints will reduce the impact of environmental regulation on enterprise green technological innovation. The research conclusions have certain reference value for deepening the understanding of green technological innovation and optimizing the relationship between government and market.

How Does Green Finance Reform Affect Enterprise Green Technology Innovation? Evidence from China

The construction of pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations (GFRI) is an important initiative for the Chinese government to develop a green economy. Based on 3236 A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2018, this paper uses the difference-in-differences method (DID) to examine whether GFRI can promote enterprise green technology innovation. The results show that GFRI can significantly enhance enterprise green technology innovation. This conclusion is still robust after the parallel trend test, PSM-DID and placebo inspection. The mechanism research shows that GFRI can relocate the internal and external financing constraints, and then promote enterprise green technology innovation. Further, heterogeneity analysis shows that GFRI’s green technological innovation incentives only exist in the eastern region and non-state-owned enterprises, which not only significantly improves the total green technology patents, but also significantly improves the green invention patents and green practical patents. For the central and western regions and state-owned enterprises, GFRI can only enhance the green invention patents. From the perspective of enterprise green technology innovation, this paper assesses the implementation effect of GFRI, providing theoretical support and empirical evidence for green finance policies to serve China’s green economy.

Managing the external financing constraints of social enterprises: A systematic review of a diversified research landscape

AbstractSocial enterprises, located between non‐profit organisations and for‐profit firms, often struggle to acquire external funding. An increasing amount of research on the external financing of social enterprises stems from a fragmented body of the literature anchored in a variety of subject areas (e.g. entrepreneurship, public sector management, general management and strategy). We systematically review 204 academic articles published between 1998 and 2021 to bridge the knowledge gaps in these subject areas by: (1) mapping the field of the external financing of social enterprises at the individual, organisational and institutional levels; (2) synthesising the findings to develop an overarching framework; and (3) discussing theoretically sound future research avenues. We find that research at the individual level focuses primarily on investors’ perspective of the ideal characteristics of a social entrepreneur. Research at the organisational level often addresses the dual logics of social enterprises and their impact on the successful financing of these businesses and the role of investor–investee collaboration. Research at the institutional level can be clustered into cultural, economic, political and legal factors. Overall, we stress the need for research that adopts an overarching view by considering all three levels of analysis simultaneously and using organisational and economic theories.

Litigation risk and corporate performance

Sued firms are susceptible to external financing constraints, diversion of top management’s time, harmful reputational costs, higher legal fees, and loss of customers and suppliers, which can impact their performance. Using a unique hand-collected dataset on corporate lawsuits, we examine the relationship between litigation risk and operating performance. We find that firms involved in a lawsuit have lower operating performance as measured by the return on assets (ROA) and equity (ROE). Our results remain qualitatively similar to several robustness tests.

Two-sided market power and firm performance

We examine the effects of demand-side (product market) and supply-side (supply chain) market power on firm profitability and the ease of access to bank financing. Using granular supply-chain and bank-loan information, we empirically demonstrate that both demand-side and supply-side power are associated with higher profitability and greater provisions for bank financing. However, product-market power appears to be marginally more beneficial than supply-chain power. Furthermore, the association between power and performance is non-linear and power beyond an optimal threshold can adversely impact performance. We show that the key insights of our analyses remain robust irrespective of alternative measures of performance, market power, and the nature of customer–supplier interactions. Using a game-theoretic analytical framework, we capture analytical insights consistent with our empirical findings. The novelty of our analyses is in showcasing that firm power emanating from both the demand-side and supply-side operations can significantly ameliorate performance and alleviate external financing constraints.

Tax incentive and corporate financial performance: Evidence from income tax revenue sharing reform in China

How to stimulate corporate performance is a crucial issue of general concern in all countries. This paper examines how China’s Income Tax Revenue Sharing Reform in 2002 affects corporate financial performance. Unlike general tax policies that directly adjust the nominal tax rate or depreciation allowance, this reform indirectly affects the effective Enterprise Income Tax (EIT) rate by switching tax administration, thereby affecting corporate financial performance. We use a firm-level data-set from Annual Survey of Industrial Firms (ASIF), and test the impact by using a quasi-natural experimental design through regression discontinuity design (RDD). We find that after the reform, the effective EIT rate (ETR) of enterprises collected EIT by State Administration of Taxation (SAT) was 10% lower than that of enterprises collected EIT by the Local Administration of Taxation (LAT). If the ETR reduces by 1%, corporate financial performance, more specific, Return on Asset (ROA), increases by 1.7%. There are two available channels: increasing fixed asset investment (FAI), and alleviating external financial constraints. Additionally, the impact can be weakened for locally SOEs, large firms, firms with low SA index and those in less competitive industries.

Do Listed Companies' Technological Innovations Make Institutional Investors' “Group Holdings” More Favorable?

This paper constructs a dynamic panel threshold model with a sample of firms in the Chinese A-share market. We analyse the non-linear relationship and the mechanisms between the two. The study found that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between corporate technology innovation and institutional investors’ group holdings, and an inverse N-shaped relationship between corporate technology innovation output and institutional investors’ group holdings. And when we add the innovation input to a lag operator, the model calculations are similar to the inverse N-type non-linear model of innovation output, and the two innovation indicators are consistent. When institutional investors feel the sentiment and the “pass the parcel” in the market, they will exit the group because of the risk factor. Although technological innovation in companies will contribute to their long-term development, it is important to be more aware of the risks involved. Excessive levels of investment will still be subject to external financing constraints.

The impact of environmental regulation on enterprises' green innovation under the constraint of external financing: evidence from China's industrial firms.

In recent years, the value of green innovation in achieving high-quality development in China has been increasingly recognized. However, studies on different types of green innovation under various environmental regulations have not established a systematic framework; especially, those considering external financing constraints are lacking. This study subdivides both environmental regulation and green innovation. Specifically, environmental regulation is divided into command-and-control regulation, market-incentive regulation, and public-participation regulation. Green technology innovation is divided into cleaner production technology innovation and end-of-pipe technology innovation. Moreover, this study explores whether and how environmental regulation affects green technology innovation, and investigates the moderating effect of external financing constraints, by matching the data from China Environmental Yearbook and China Industrial Enterprise Database. The results show that both command-and-control regulation and market-incentive regulation have the U-shaped relationship with cleaner production technology innovation. Meanwhile, public-participation environmental regulation significantly and positively affects cleaner production technology innovation, whereas market-incentive regulation and public-participation regulation have the inverted U-shaped relationship with end-of-pipe technology innovation. In addition, the external financing constraints have a moderating effect on the relationship between environmental regulation and cleaner production technology innovation.

Unexpected money growth, nonfinancial firms as large shareholders and investment-cash flow relationship: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper uses a sample of listed firms to raise questions as to how unexpected money growth affects firm-level investment in Vietnam, resembling tightening monetary policy impact. We find that most results that hold true in other countries also apply to Vietnamese firms during the years of our study. In particular, we find that higher cash flows are associated with higher investment when the assumption of tightening monetary policy is conducted, which is stronger in firms with external financial constraints. We also examine the impact of non-financial firm ownership and find that its presence reduces the investment impact of tightening monetary policy for affected firms. These results imply that the impacts of changes of the monetary stance on corporate investment seem to differ in a way that depends on cash flow and firm ownership characteristics.

Does service trade liberalization relieve manufacturing enterprises’ financial constraints? Evidence from China

A growing body of literature has discussed the effect of service trade liberalization on external financial constraints of enterprises in China. Based on a dataset of Chinese manufacturing firms and service trade restriction indices, we contribute to this discussion by analyzing how service trade liberalization affects financial constraints of Chinese enterprises through altering their ability to access external financing, as well as internal financing and commercial credit financing. We find that service trade liberalization alleviates financial constraints of Chinese enterprises through strengthening their ability to obtain both external and internal financing. There exist heterogeneous outcomes for different types of firms. While service trade liberalization eases exporters’ financial constraints, it deteriorates financial constraints of non-exporters through tightening their commercial credit financing. In addition, non-SOEs or SMEs gain from service trade liberalization through easing internal and external financing constraints while SOEs or large enterprises lose due to tightening commercial credit financing constraints.

Investment efficiency of firms outside the business group

Using Korean firms between 1987 and 2010, we show that non-group firms suffer more from investment inefficiency if they operate in industries where group firms belong to larger business groups. We also find that this effect exists mainly during a period characterized by a capital supply shortage and low cash flow pledgeability to investors. Further analyses indicate that the effect is attributable not to human capital constraints, but external financing constraints imposed by business group firms and that causality runs from business group strength to investment inefficiency of non-group firms.

Slowing investment rates in developing economies: Evidence from a Bayesian hierarchical model

Using a large unbalanced panel of 11,812 publicly listed firms covering 11 major developing economies between 1997–2017, we detail a slowdown in investment rates post-2008: from 2013 for Chinese incorporated firms, and 2008 for others. We test competing explanations for slowing investment rates using a Bayesian ‘mixed effects’ model consisting of time-varying and country-varying coefficients. Firms’ estimated underlying mean impetus to invest (their ‘animal spirits’) falls more sharply than raw investment rates from 2008 to record lows by 2017. One-third of the variation in falling ‘animal spirits’ over time is statistically explained by the corporate sector’s changing median leverage, which declines by 40% since 2008. Firms’ investment rates have increasingly been sustained through external financing constraints loosening (as cash flow coefficients decline), and firms becoming more responsive to investment opportunities — reflected by time-varying Q regression coefficients increasing. At the country-level, we find that loosening external financing constraints is associated with greater responsiveness of firms to investment opportunities.

Do macroeconomic conditions affect corporate cash holdings and cash adjustment dynamics? Evidence from GCC countries

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influence of macroeconomic conditions on corporate cash holdings in terms of their influence on the level of cash and the speed of adjustment of cash to target levels in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC).Design/methodology/approachThe study employs both static and dynamic regression analyses considering a sample of 2,878 firm-year observations drawn from stock markets in GCC countries over the 2010–2018 period.FindingsConsistent with the precautionary motive, the results show that GCC firms tend to accumulate cash reserves in weak economic periods. Evidence also reveals that the estimated adjustment coefficients from dynamic panel models show that GCC firms adjust more slowly toward their target cash ratio in periods of unfavorable economic conditions.Practical implicationsThis study has important implications for managers, policymakers and regulators. For managers, the study is an important reference to understand and design cash management policies by considering financial constraints imposed by macroeconomic conditions. In particular, managers should pay more attention to periods of credit crunch and weak economic conditions in which firms may be exposed to greater bankruptcy risks. For policymakers and regulators, this study may be useful in assessing the effect of macroeconomic factors on firm's cash holding decision. Therefore, in an effort to increase the supply of external financing available to firms, policymakers may devise investment friendly environment by controlling macroeconomic factors.Originality/valueThis paper offers some insights on the macro determinants of cash holdings by investigating emerging economies. It explores the role of macroeconomic conditions on corporate cash holdings in terms of their influence on the costs of external funds and financial constraints.

“When it rains, it pours”: Fiscal policy, credit constraints and business cycles in emerging and developed economies

Fiscal procyclicality, meaning co-movement between government expenditure and macroeconomic fundamentals, is an important feature of business cycle dynamics for emerging and poor economies. I estimate a panel SVAR to investigate the reasons for fiscal procyclicality. The analysis sheds light on the role of external financial constraints in shaping fiscal policy. My findings suggest that the response of emerging governments to output fluctuations is similar to that of developed governments. However, emerging governments curtail spending in response to increases in the sovereign borrowing rate, which forces their consumption expenditure to act more procyclically. Using counterfactual analysis, I show that the key forces behind fiscal procyclicality are the sensitivity of government spending to international borrowing costs and the procyclical nature of these costs for emerging economies.

The combined impacts of fiscal and credit policies on green firm's investment opportunity: Evidences from Chinese firm‐level analysis

This article investigates the combined impact of fiscal and credit policies on green‐firm investment opportunities using firm‐level panel data of green industries in China. Our empirical results demonstrate that subsidies, tax rebates, and green credit loans have significantly U‐shaped nexuses with green‐firm investment opportunities: Subsidies, tax rebates, and green credit policies generate significant interactions on green‐firm investment opportunities. External financing constraints may weaken the incentive of subsidies, tax rebates, and green credit loans on green‐firm investment opportunities.

Investor Attention and Corporate Innovation Performance: Evidence from Web Search Volume Index of Chinese Listed Companies

Leveraging from the online search index of Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2018, we empirically test the relationship between investors’ attention and corporate innovation performance for the first time. The main results are as follows: (1) investors’ attention significantly improves listed companies’ innovation performance, which is reflected in the increase of patent applications. This indicates that investors’ active information collection behaviour affects China’s economic development by promoting enterprise innovation. (2) This paper’s conclusion remains intact after a battery of robustness checks, such as alternative measures of key variables and empirical specifications and a series of endogenous treatment. (3) The mechanisms tests show that: “information asymmetry”, “financing constraint”, and “agency cost” are supported. In other words, with the increase of investors’ attention, not only the information asymmetry is reduced, which greatly improved the information environment of the capital market, but also the external financing constraints of enterprises are alleviated. The opportunistic management behaviour is effectively suppressed, thus motivating the corporate innovation incentives and improving the corporate innovation of input, output and quality. (4) Further research shows that investor attention to listed companies also improves the efficiency of capital allocation. This paper’s conclusion shows that investors’ initiative information acquisition behaviour can improve enterprises innovation performance, thus providing a driving force for China’s economic development.

Research of the Impact of Financial Dimensions and Entrepreneurial Capacity on Business Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Central Java

Background: The number of Indonesian SME units in 2018 was 99.9% of the total business units (62.9 million units), absorbing 97% of the total employment and contributing 60% to GDP. However, two fifth of Indonesia SMEs has internal and external capital and financial acquisition constraints. Purpose: Based on the entrepreneurship and finance theories, this study aims to analyze the influence of the entrepreneurship capability on improving the business performance of a Central Java fashion industry of batik SMEs with the mediating effect of financial dimension. Methodology: Types of data used in this study are primary data and secondary data. The study population was the owner of the SME batik business in Pekalongan, Central Java. The sampling technique was non-probability sampling with a purposive sampling approach of saturated sampling. Principal results: The results showed that the entrepreneurship capability and the internal financial dimension had a positive effect on the business performance of the batik SMEs, while the external financial dimension had a negative effect on the business performance. Moreover, the internal financial dimension was able to mediate the entrepreneurship capability on the business performance of the batik SMEs. Major conclusions: The improvement in the performance of batik SMEs is influenced by the entrepreneurship capability and it will increase if it is mediated by the internal financial dimension. Contributions to the field: There are research contributions of this study, by exploring the indicators from the funding dimension variable and indicators from the entrepreneurship capability variable from a psychological side. Important aspects of the study: What makes this research different from previous researches is that the independent variables used and the research object are different and broader.

"When it rains, it pours": fiscal policy, credit constraints and business cycles in emerging and developed economies

Fiscal procyclicality, meaning co-movement between government expenditure and macroeconomic fundamentals, is an important feature of business cycle dynamics for emerging and poor economies. I estimate a panel SVAR to investigate the reasons for fiscal procyclicality. The analysis sheds light on the role of external financial constraints in shaping fiscal policy. My findings suggest that the response of emerging governments to output fluctuations is similar to that of developed governments. However, emerging governments curtail spending in response to increases in the sovereign borrowing rate, which forces their consumption expenditure to act more procyclically. Using counterfactual analysis, I show that the key forces behind fiscal procyclicality are the sensitivity of government spending to international borrowing costs and the procyclical nature of these costs for emerging economies.