The financial crisis of 2007-2008 had a strong impact on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The bad economic situation of the past decade strongly reduced their performances and limited their access to bank financing with a subsequent decrease of their investment activities. To address this problem, the Italian Government introduced in 2015 a set of instruments known as “Investment Compact”, aimed at lessening SMEs’ financing constraints and at fostering innovation activities for a particular category of Italian firms, defined as “innovative SMEs”. The research provides a critical review of the current literature about finance rationing phenomena and their impact on investments and contributes with novelty to the limited existing knowledge on the topic of “innovative SMEs”. The aim of the work is to identify the relationship between the choices in terms of bank debt financing and the level of investments undertaken by this category of SMEs over the period 2013-2016, by implementing statistical tests for the comparison between the mean values in two consecutive years. The results are further validated through a difference-in-difference estimation, allowing to assess the average treatment effect on the treated by comparing the differences in the outcome of “innovative SMEs” and control group before and after the intervention. In addition, the research has the purpose to investigate the final scopes to which these firms allocated the funds raised through the banking channel, by means of the analysis of certain firm-specific case studies. Results suggest that, in 2016, “innovative SMEs” resorted more on financial debt compared to the previous years. However, the debt capital was not allocated to finance an increase in the level of investments but to working capital management activities.
La crisi finanziaria globale del 2007-2008 ha avuto un forte impatto sulle Piccole e Medie Imprese (PMI). Le avverse condizioni economiche dell’ultimo decennio hanno fortemente peggiorato i loro risultati e ne hanno limitato le possibilità di accedere a forme di finanziamento bancario, con una conseguente riduzione delle loro attività di investimento. In risposta a questo fenomeno, il governo italiano ha introdotto nel 2015 una serie di strumenti, conosciuti con il nome di “Investment Compact”, atti a ridurre i vincoli di finanziamento per le PMI e a supportare le attività di innovazione per una particolare categorie di imprese italiane, definite come “PMI innovative”. Il presente elaborato fornisce una revisione critica della letteratura corrente riguardo ai fenomeni di razionamento dei finanziamenti e al loro impatto sul livello di investimenti e si propone di contribuire ad ampliare l’attuale limitata conoscenza sull’argomento delle “PMI innovative”. L’obiettivo del lavoro è quello di identificare la relazione che esiste tra le scelte di finanziamento bancario e il livello di investimenti sostenuti da questa categoria di PMI nel periodo 2013-2016, implementando dei test statistici per il confronto tra i valori medi in due anni consecutivi. I risultati sono ulteriormente avvalorati tramite l’utilizzo di un modello difference-in-difference, il quale permette di identificare l’average treatment effect on the treated comparando le differenze tra i risultati ottenuti dal campione delle “PMI innovative” e da un gruppo di controllo prima e dopo l’intervento. Inoltre, la ricerca si pone l’obiettivo di investigare, tramite l’analisi di specifici casi di studio, in che modo siano stati utilizzati i finanziamenti raccolti tramite il canale bancario da queste imprese. I risultati suggeriscono che le “PMI innovative” hanno fatto maggiormente ricorso allo strumento del debito bancario nel 2016 rispetto agli anni precedenti. Tuttavia, questi finanziamenti non sono stati destinati ad un aumento del livello degli investimenti, bensì ad attività di gestione del capitale circolante netto.
The investment and bank borrowing choices of the Italian innovative SMEs
CAPITINI, ANDREA;BATTAIOLA, ANDREA
2016/2017
Abstract
The financial crisis of 2007-2008 had a strong impact on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The bad economic situation of the past decade strongly reduced their performances and limited their access to bank financing with a subsequent decrease of their investment activities. To address this problem, the Italian Government introduced in 2015 a set of instruments known as “Investment Compact”, aimed at lessening SMEs’ financing constraints and at fostering innovation activities for a particular category of Italian firms, defined as “innovative SMEs”. The research provides a critical review of the current literature about finance rationing phenomena and their impact on investments and contributes with novelty to the limited existing knowledge on the topic of “innovative SMEs”. The aim of the work is to identify the relationship between the choices in terms of bank debt financing and the level of investments undertaken by this category of SMEs over the period 2013-2016, by implementing statistical tests for the comparison between the mean values in two consecutive years. The results are further validated through a difference-in-difference estimation, allowing to assess the average treatment effect on the treated by comparing the differences in the outcome of “innovative SMEs” and control group before and after the intervention. In addition, the research has the purpose to investigate the final scopes to which these firms allocated the funds raised through the banking channel, by means of the analysis of certain firm-specific case studies. Results suggest that, in 2016, “innovative SMEs” resorted more on financial debt compared to the previous years. However, the debt capital was not allocated to finance an increase in the level of investments but to working capital management activities.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/136904