Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify business practices that may promote internal financing of growing SMEs. The authors expand the literature on entrepreneurial finance that reduces business practices to either financial management or bootstrapping, by exploring all management practices that may have an impact on liquidities. This study enriches the literature on business practices. This is an important consideration for managers of SMEs who intend to preserve their financial independence and their capacity to survive different crises.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical study involved a sample of 235 growing Canadian SMEs. The sample was extracted from a private database using a questionnaire that covered a wide range of business practices. Variance testing of business practices between SMEs with a line of credit and those without (and lower overall debt) was supplemented by a logistic regression.

Findings

SMEs which make use of efficiency-promoting technology, carry out preventive maintenance and control their costs and turnover during their growth are more inclined to use less external financing.

Originality/value

This is the first study that associates business practices, beyond bootstrapping, with financing and which answers a critical question posed by SME executives on how to preserve their financial and decision-making autonomy through growth stages. In addition, the desire to retain control of the company does not compel the SME manager to limit the size of the company.

中文翻译：

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成长中的中小企业和内部融资：商业惯例的作用

目的

本文的目的是确定可能促进成长型中小企业内部融资的商业实践。作者通过探索可能对流动性产生影响的所有管理实践，扩展了创业金融的文献，将商业实践简化为财务管理或引导。本研究丰富了有关商业实践的文献。对于打算保持财务独立性和在不同危机中生存的能力的中小企业管理人员来说，这是一个重要的考虑因素。

设计/方法/方法

实证研究涉及 235 家成长中的加拿大中小企业的样本。样本是从私人数据库中提取的，问卷调查涵盖了广泛的商业实践。有信用额度的中小企业和没有信用额度的中小企业（以及较低的总体债务）之间的商业实践的差异测试得到了逻辑回归的补充。

发现

在成长过程中利用增效技术、预防性维护、控制成本和营业额的中小企业更倾向于使用较少的外部融资。

原创性/价值

这是第一项将商业实践与融资联系起来的研究，它回答了中小企业高管提出的关于如何在成长阶段保持财务和决策自主权的关键问题。此外，保留对公司控制权的愿望并不迫使中小企业经理限制公司规模。