Purpose

The main aim of the paper is to examine the small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) capital structure determinants in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used panel models to analyze financial data of 15,253 companies operating in the years 2014–2017.

Findings

The authors confirmed the dominant role of firm-specific factors. Industry and country variables explain only 4% of debt variability of the surveyed companies. The direction of influence of the diagnosed firm-specific factors is consistent with the pecking order theory. About one-fourth of SMEs in CEE hold a stock of debt capacity. It negatively affects the share of debt in the capital. The authors did not confirm the influence of the systematic industry business risk.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations of the study are (1) the inclusion of only six CEE countries in the sample; (2) the exclusion of microenterprises from the sample; (3) the capital structure relationships are observed following the applications of static panel; (4) the endogeneity issue has not been addressed in the model.

Practical implications

This study shows that business-friendly institutional environment is an important factor influencing the indebtedness of companies. It increases the leverage and, consequently, the return on equity, especially in CEE countries.

Originality/value

SME analyses in CEE countries are not as frequent as for other regions. Despite the classical determinants of the SMEs' capital structure, the authors have included debt capacity and systematic industry business risk in this study.

中文翻译：

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中小企业的资本结构决定因素：来自中欧和东欧的证据

目的

本文的主要目的是研究中欧和东欧（波兰，捷克，斯洛伐克，匈牙利，保加利亚和罗马尼亚）的中小企业（SME）资本结构决定因素。

设计/方法/方法

作者使用面板模型分析了2014-2017年间运营的15,253家公司的财务数据。

发现

作者证实了公司特定因素的主导作用。行业和国家变量仅解释了被调查公司债务变动的4％。诊断的公司特定因素的影响方向与啄序理论相一致。中东欧约有四分之一的中小企业拥有一定的债务能力。它对债务在资本中的份额产生负面影响。作者没有确认系统的行业业务风险的影响。

研究局限/意义

该研究的局限性是：（1）样本中仅包括六个中东欧国家；（2）从样本中排除微型企业；（3）遵循静态面板的应用观察资本结构关系；（4）模型未解决内生性问题。

实际影响

这项研究表明，有利于商业的制度环境是影响公司债务的重要因素。它提高了杠杆作用，从而提高了股本回报率，尤其是在中东欧国家。

创意/价值

中欧和东欧国家的中小企业分析不像其他地区那么频繁。尽管中小型企业的资本结构是经典的决定因素，但作者还是将债务能力和系统的行业业务风险纳入了本研究。