Suchergebnisse

Questo articolo analizza le fonti di finanziamento e le strategie delle nuove imprese tecnologiche utilizzando un'indagine sulle imprese effettuata dalla Fondazione Kauffman. I risultati rivelano come le imprese tecnologiche, ed in particolare quelle basate sull'alta tecnologia - high tech - ottengono in fase di avviamento somme di capitali mediamente maggiori rispetto alle altre imprese. Questo risultato suggerisce inoltre che, contrariamente alle teorie basate sulla gerarchia delle fonti di finanziamento - Pecking Order - e sul ciclo di vita - Life Cycle - i proprietari delle imprese altamente tecnologiche sono disposti, ed al contempo capaci, di utilizzare capitale esterno come fonte di finanziamento.

"This paper investigates the capital structure choices that firms make in their initial year of operation, using restricted-access data from the Kauffman Firm Survey. Contrary to many accounts of startup activity, the firms in our data rely heavily on external debt sources such as bank financing, and less extensively on friends and family-based funding sources. This fact is robust to numerous controls for credit quality, industry, and business owner characteristics. The heavy reliance on external debt underscores the importance of well functioning credit markets for the success of nascent business activity"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

In 1977 the Federal Government introduced the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which requires banks to provide credit in low-income areas, which often include minority neighborhoods. Using data on small businesses seeking bank loans, Timothy Bates and Alicia Robb find that banks were using inconsistent standards to evaluate the loan applications of black and Latino small businesses. In minority neighborhoods where CRA scrutiny was high, they were as likely as equally creditworthy whites to receive loans, while in other urban neighborhoods, they were disproportionately rejected. They write that in order to address this loan gap, regulatory authorities should rate banks comprehensively on their minority business lending performance in all areas, and publicize those rankings widely.

The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) established a bold agenda requiring financial institutions in the USA to serve the credit needs of low- and moderate-income areas, including traditionally excluded minority residential areas. Initially opposed by both bankers and the federal regulatory authorities responsible for enforcement, the CRA has been contentious for decades. This study explores CRA impacts by investigating whether small businesses located in minority neighbourhoods have the same degree of bank-loan access as equally creditworthy firms located in other environs. We analysed both the unmet credit needs of small firms and the outcomes of their loan applications. We found that equality in loan access has been attained in some respects, indicating the CRA has had positive effects on loan availability. Inequality nonetheless persists. Regarding unmet credit needs, firms are penalised if their owners are African American, Latino or Asian American. Since roughly half of owners in minority communities are minorities, our challenge was to disentangle the effects on loan access of small-business geographic location versus owner race. Causal factors underlying our findings were investigated. Did bank regulators take the initiative in lessening traditional discriminatory lending practices? Alternatively, were activist community groups responsible? While the agenda advocated by activist groups coincides closely with actual gains, the overlapping but differing stated objectives of regulators did not.

Although minority and immigrant entrepreneurs in the US have chosen to concentrate in low-profit retail and service lines of business clustered geographically in urban minority neighbourhoods, their reasons for doing so are unclear. We investigate their motivations by analysing viability among urban small businesses; specifically, we compare the longevity of firms targeting clients in minority neighbourhoods to those serving clients in nonminority-white residential areas. Our broader concerns are to understand why the entrepreneurial occupational choice has been embraced. A key objective is to identify specific barriers that may retard small-firm creation and development in minority-neighbourhood environs. While some claim this market offers attractive opportunities, others stress that predominance of minority- and immigrant-owned firms in this sector reflects the fact that only the least desirable market niches are accessible to them. We find that serving local clienteles in minority neighbourhoods is strongly related to firm closure and low profitability.

Introduction : why growth? -- A status report on growth-oriented women entrepreneurs -- What we know about the challenges for growth-oriented women -- A star is born! : financing strategies for nascent entrepreneurs -- First things first : financing strategies for early stage firms -- The white knuckle flight : survival strategies for growth-oriented firms, part I -- Brave new world : survival strategies for growth-oriented firms, part II -- Crowdfunding : the new kid on the block -- Liftoff! : financing strategies for scaling up and managing rapid growth -- Going for gold : harvesting value -- No rest : life after harvesting value -- Let the circle be unbroken : women investors