This article studies the determinants of the capital structure of 2694 small Ecuadorian companies throughout their organizational life cycle, breaking down their total liabilities in long‐ and short‐term leverage. The empirical investigation focuses on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the commercial sector, with 11,023 observations during the period 2015–2019. The results suggest both that information asymmetry and agency problems are important and that larger size and higher collateral are very important, for accessing long‐term leverage financing. Liquidity is negatively associated with leverage, while higher profitability is positively associated with lower levels of leverage. When internal finances are insufficient, commercial SMEs appear to be highly dependent on short‐term leverage financing, due to difficulties in accessing long‐term leverage. The main conclusion of this study is that small companies' capital structure follows the predictions formulated by the main financing theories, in agreement with the results of previous studies of SMEs.

中文翻译：

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中小企业的企业杠杆和可持续性的决定因素：厄瓜多尔商业公司的案例


本文研究了 2694 家厄瓜多尔小公司在整个组织生命周期中资本结构的决定因素，细分了它们的长期和短期杠杆负债总额。实证调查重点关注商业领域的中小企业（SME），2015年至2019年期间有11,023个观察数据。结果表明，对于获得长期杠杆融资，信息不对称和代理问题都很重要，而更大的规模和更高的抵押品也非常重要。流动性与杠杆负相关，而较高的盈利能力与较低的杠杆水平正相关。当内部资金不足时，商业中小企业由于难以获得长期杠杆而显得高度依赖短期杠杆融资。本研究的主要结论是，小企业的资本结构遵循主要融资理论的预测，与以往中小企业研究的结果一致。