Debt signaling and outside investors in early stage firms

Mircea Epure*, M. Guasch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

By imposing a market like governance and directing entrepreneurs towards professional management, debt, and especially business debt, can serve as a reliable signal for outside equity investors. Such signals of firm accountability can alleviate the stringent information asymmetry at the early stages of the firm, and become stronger for bank business debt, in the presence of personal debt, and in high capital industries. Using the Kauffman Firm Survey, we find evidence consistent with our hypotheses. Outside investors can rely on the governance role of debt and its underpinnings such as the bank-firm relationship. We also corroborate that young firms tend to focus on growth rather than profitability.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105929
JournalJournal of Business Venturing
Volume35
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Debt
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Equity
  • Financing
  • Governance
  • Information asymmetry

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