A study of the process of the financing decision in small business by – demand side through – the manager[Étude du processus de la décision de financement dans la petite entreprise par – la demande à travers – le dirigeant]

The financing of small businesses (SBs) remains a key concern, which this article addresses through the study of the poorly addressed topic of the financing decision through the demand-side. The article is based on the importance of the role of the manager as a decision maker. Taking a step aside from the work in classical entrepreneurial finance, this research focuses on the building of the decision, and is based on a processual approach. To this end, the theoretical framework is based on the initial hypothesis of a manager's choice based on a proxemic logic. Seven cases are then studied empirically to explore this hypothesis, using developments from strategic decision-making in SMEs. The results reveal the existence of a behavioral spectrum ranging from proactivity to an opportunistic wait-and-see attitude among executives of SMEs. Decision-making can be modeled in four fundamental stages. They also show a limitation of the historical three-dimensional model to study the financing decision in SMEs. Finally, they suggest embracing the proxemics approach as a heuristic for small business management, particularly with respect to financing decisions.