Enterprises Life Cycle and Capital Structure of SMEs

Abstract

生命周期对企业财务行为有着重要影响。本文以571家中小企业板制造业企业2010~2014年的数据为样本，用现金流量法界定企业所处生命周期，并对不同阶段的资本结构及其影响因素进行对比分析。实证结果表明，相对于成熟期和衰退期，成长期企业资产负债率和长期负债率更高。在企业生命周期的不同阶段，资本结构的影响因素也存在差异：成长期企业资产负债率与成长能力正相关，与非债务税盾负相关，而成熟期和衰退期企业资产负债率则受到盈利能力的负向影响；成长期和衰退期企业长期负债率受企业规模的正向影响以及成长能力和非债务税盾的负向影响，而成熟期企业长期负债率则与盈利能力负相关。 The enterprises life cycle always has a significant effect on financial behavior. In this paper, we construct a panel data containing 571 listed SMEs during 2010 and 2014 as samples. We use cash flow structure to measure life cycle of our samples, and aim at exploring and comparing the decisions of capital structure of SMEs in different life cycle. It turns out that compared with maturation and recession stages, the growth stage has higher Debt-Asset Ratio (DAR) and Long Term Debt Ratio (LTD); influencing factors of the capital structure are various among different stages. The growth has a positive effect on DAR in growth stage while non-debt tax shield has a negative one. But the probability and DAR in maturation and recession stages are negatively correlated. Besides, the firm’s size has positive effects on LTD in growth and recession stages while the non-debt tax shield and growth have negative ones. Probability is negatively correlated with LTD in maturity stage.