Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"

Previous researchers, especially on large enterprises, have revealed that debt financing structure influences enterprise performance. Though the issue has been extensively researched, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have traditionally been operating differently as compared to larg...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Seroka, Ngwanatau
Other Authors: Alhassan, Abdul Latif
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: African Inst. of Fin. Markets and Risk Mngnt 2018
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867614421089517568
access_status_str Open Access
author Seroka, Ngwanatau
author2 Alhassan, Abdul Latif
author_browse Alhassan, Abdul Latif
Seroka, Ngwanatau
author_facet Alhassan, Abdul Latif
Seroka, Ngwanatau
author_sort Seroka, Ngwanatau
collection Thesis
description Previous researchers, especially on large enterprises, have revealed that debt financing structure influences enterprise performance. Though the issue has been extensively researched, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have traditionally been operating differently as compared to large enterprises in terms of their financial decisions, ownership and management style, and behaviour. Therefore, this study will explore the gaps encountered by all MSMEs to grow their businesses. These include forms and type of industry, firm size, asset tangibility, and a firm’s current assets in relation to its current liabilities and profitability level. The study examines the influence of financing structures on performance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in South Africa. The ordinary least squares (OLS) technique of measurement is applied to examine the effects of financing structure on performance across various industrial sectors in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. The findings in this study indicate an increase in the use of leverage to drive the influence of total debt on performance in all industrial sectors of MSMEs in South Africa. From the cross-sectional regression analysis, the results show that financing structure has a negative effect on the profitability of MSMEs, although not absolutely. The findings show that the size of the enterprise, asset tangibility, and the ratio of current assets to current liabilities are the most influential of borrowing decisions in total debt, short-term debt, and long-term debt. A significantly negative effect is observed for long-term debt, while short-term debt (STDR) exhibits a significantly positive effect. Thus the influence on MSMEs’ leverage on performance is driven by the usage of short-term debt. The variables of size of the firm, and ratio of current assets to current liabilities, do not have the same effect in all debt levels; the significance is substantially higher for long-term debt than for total debt and short-term debt. On the other hand, our empirical results suggested that transactional costs, and an asymmetric information problem in smaller firms, may lead to a mainly negative influence on size and total debt. The asset structure on profitability observed across the years showed mixed experiences. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities was found to be positive and significant on long-term debt and short-term debt leverage.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/28374
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:51:46.343Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
publishDateSort 2018
publisher African Inst. of Fin. Markets and Risk Mngnt
publisherStr African Inst. of Fin. Markets and Risk Mngnt
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/28374 The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death" Seroka, Ngwanatau Alhassan, Abdul Latif total debt Short-term debt and Long-term debts financing structure Previous researchers, especially on large enterprises, have revealed that debt financing structure influences enterprise performance. Though the issue has been extensively researched, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have traditionally been operating differently as compared to large enterprises in terms of their financial decisions, ownership and management style, and behaviour. Therefore, this study will explore the gaps encountered by all MSMEs to grow their businesses. These include forms and type of industry, firm size, asset tangibility, and a firm’s current assets in relation to its current liabilities and profitability level. The study examines the influence of financing structures on performance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in South Africa. The ordinary least squares (OLS) technique of measurement is applied to examine the effects of financing structure on performance across various industrial sectors in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. The findings in this study indicate an increase in the use of leverage to drive the influence of total debt on performance in all industrial sectors of MSMEs in South Africa. From the cross-sectional regression analysis, the results show that financing structure has a negative effect on the profitability of MSMEs, although not absolutely. The findings show that the size of the enterprise, asset tangibility, and the ratio of current assets to current liabilities are the most influential of borrowing decisions in total debt, short-term debt, and long-term debt. A significantly negative effect is observed for long-term debt, while short-term debt (STDR) exhibits a significantly positive effect. Thus the influence on MSMEs’ leverage on performance is driven by the usage of short-term debt. The variables of size of the firm, and ratio of current assets to current liabilities, do not have the same effect in all debt levels; the significance is substantially higher for long-term debt than for total debt and short-term debt. On the other hand, our empirical results suggested that transactional costs, and an asymmetric information problem in smaller firms, may lead to a mainly negative influence on size and total debt. The asset structure on profitability observed across the years showed mixed experiences. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities was found to be positive and significant on long-term debt and short-term debt leverage. 2018-09-04T10:26:51Z 2018-09-04T10:26:51Z 2018 2018-09-03T06:36:44Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28374 eng application/pdf African Inst. of Fin. Markets and Risk Mngnt Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle total debt
Short-term debt and Long-term debts
financing structure
Seroka, Ngwanatau
The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"
title_full The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"
title_fullStr The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"
title_full_unstemmed The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"
title_short The Influence of Financing Structure on Performance of MSMEs in South African: "The Valley of Death"
title_sort influence of financing structure on performance of msmes in south african the valley of death
topic total debt
Short-term debt and Long-term debts
financing structure
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28374
work_keys_str_mv AT serokangwanatau theinfluenceoffinancingstructureonperformanceofmsmesinsouthafricanthevalleyofdeath
AT serokangwanatau influenceoffinancingstructureonperformanceofmsmesinsouthafricanthevalleyofdeath