IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jrisks/v10y2022i4p74-d785153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leverage, Growth Opportunities, and Credit Risk: Evidence from Italian Innovative SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Manelli

    (Department of Management, Polytechnic University of Marche, Piazzale Martelli 8, 60121 Ancona, Italy)

  • Roberta Pace

    (Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Mezzanotte, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy)

  • Maria Leone

    (Department of Management, Polytechnic University of Marche, Piazzale Martelli 8, 60121 Ancona, Italy)

Abstract

The link between leverage and growth opportunities has been a topic issue in corporate finance for many years. The present paper aims to investigate the link between credit risk, leverage, and growth opportunities in a sample of Italian innovative small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), given the lack of empirical literature on the subject. The results of the WLS model confirm the relationship between investments, leverage, and credit risk highlighted by the literature—in particular, a negative relationship emerges between credit risk and investments and between leverage and investments, while the analysis reveals a positive relationship between investments and liquidity. Furthermore, in consideration of the significant economic differences existing between the regional macro-areas into which Italy is divided, the firms were classified by geographical areas. The results show that the northeast area is the region characterised by the most reliable and significant results. The paper is organised as follows: Introduction provides a review of the theoretical and empirical literature on the link between leverage, investments, and growth opportunities and on credit risk; Materials and Methods explain the model; Results explain the WLS regression; Discussions contain the main finding of the analysis; Conclusions summarize the study.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Manelli & Roberta Pace & Maria Leone, 2022. "Leverage, Growth Opportunities, and Credit Risk: Evidence from Italian Innovative SMEs," Risks, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-10, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:10:y:2022:i:4:p:74-:d:785153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/10/4/74/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/10/4/74/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July.
    2. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    3. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    4. Ratnam Vijayakumaran & Sunitha Vijayakumaran, 2019. "Leverage, Debt Maturity and Corporate Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(4), pages 491-506, May.
    5. McGuinness, Gerard & Hogan, Teresa & Powell, Ronan, 2018. "European trade credit use and SME survival," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 81-103.
    6. Grzegorz Zimon & Robert Dankiewicz, 2020. "Trade Credit Management Strategies in SMEs and the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Case of Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-16, July.
    7. Ratnam Vijayakumaran & Sunitha Vijayakumaran, 2019. "Leverage, Debt Maturity and Corporate Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(4), pages 491-506.
    8. Zaghdoudi Khemais & Djebali Nesrine & Mezni Mohamed, 2016. "Credit Scoring and Default Risk Prediction: A Comparative Study between Discriminant Analysis & Logistic Regression," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4), pages 39-53, April.
    9. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    10. Edward I. Altman & Gabriele Sabato, 2013. "MODELING CREDIT RISK FOR SMEs: EVIDENCE FROM THE US MARKET," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Oliviero Roggi & Edward I Altman (ed.), Managing and Measuring Risk Emerging Global Standards and Regulations After the Financial Crisis, chapter 9, pages 251-279, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    12. Ahn, Seoungpil & Denis, David J. & Denis, Diane K., 2006. "Leverage and investment in diversified firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 317-337, February.
    13. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1995. "Equity ownership and the two faces of debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 131-157, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berger, Allen N. & Bonaccorsi di Patti, Emilia, 2006. "Capital structure and firm performance: A new approach to testing agency theory and an application to the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1065-1102, April.
    2. Hong-Yi Chen & Cheng Few Lee & Tzu Tai, 2020. "The Joint Determinants of Capital Structure and Stock Rate of Return: A LISREL Model Approach," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 35, pages 1345-1397, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Ugur, Mehmet & Solomon, Edna & Zeynalov, Ayaz, 2022. "Leverage, competition and financial distress hazard: Implications for capital structure in the presence of agency costs," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    4. Asiri, Mohammed & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Duong, Lien, 2020. "Is corporate tax avoidance associated with investment efficiency?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    5. repec:cte:wbrepe:wb1503 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Claudiu Boţoc & Cosmin Enache, 2013. "Underinvestment Problem: Romanian Evidence," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 2(15), pages 1-20.
    7. Firth, Michael & Lin, Chen & Wong, Sonia M.L., 2008. "Leverage and investment under a state-owned bank lending environment: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 642-653, December.
    8. Lewellen, Katharina, 2004. "Financing Decisions When Managers Are Risk Averse," Working papers 4438-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    9. Tiago Loncan & Styliani Panetsidou & Angelos Synapis, 2024. "Leverage, investment and institutional environments: Evidence from emerging markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 849-866, January.
    10. Jiang, Wei & Zeng, Yeqin, 2014. "State ownership, bank loans, and corporate investment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 92-116.
    11. Haowen Luo & Ian Liu & Niranjan Tripathy, 2021. "A Study on Firms with Negative Book Value of Equity," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 145-182, March.
    12. Shaikh, Ibrahim A. & O'Brien, Jonathan Paul & Peters, Lois, 2018. "Inside directors and the underinvestment of financial slack towards R&D-intensity in high-technology firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 192-201.
    13. He Xiao, 2023. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and corporate investment efficiency," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 359-392, June.
    14. Ning Ding & Kalimullah Bhat & Khalil Jebran, 2020. "Debt choice, growth opportunities and corporate investment: evidence from China," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, December.
    15. Enrique Batiz‐Zuk & Fabrizio López‐Gallo & Abdulkadir Mohamed & Fátima Sánchez‐Cajal, 2022. "Determinants of loan survival rates for small and medium‐sized enterprises: Evidence from an emerging economy," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4741-4755, October.
    16. Harvey, Campbell R. & Lins, Karl V. & Roper, Andrew H., 2004. "The effect of capital structure when expected agency costs are extreme," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 3-30, October.
    17. Aggarwal, Raj & Zhao, Xinlei, 2007. "The leverage-value relationship puzzle: An industry effects resolution," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 286-297.
    18. Le, Thi Phuong Vy & Phan, Thi Bich Nguyet, 2017. "Capital structure and firm performance: Empirical evidence from a small transition country," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 710-726.
    19. Adra, Samer & Gao, Yang & Huang, Jin & Yuan, Jiayi, 2023. "Geopolitical risk and corporate payout policy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Feld, Lars P. & Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Overesch, Michael, 2013. "Capital structure choice and company taxation: A meta-study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2850-2866.
    21. Jayati Sarkar & Subrata Sarkar, 2005. "Debt and corporate governance in emerging economies: Evidence from India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2005-007, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:10:y:2022:i:4:p:74-:d:785153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.