Title: Financial structure effects on export intensity and diversification: the case of Portuguese industrial firms

Authors: Luís Pacheco

Addresses: Department of Economics, Management and Computer Sciences, Universidade Portucalense, room 201, Portucalense Institute for Legal Research – IJP, Research on Economics, Management and Information Technologies – REMIT, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, Porto, 541-619, 4200-072, Portugal

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between a set of financial variables and export performance. Although many empirical papers studied the impact of financial structure on firms' performance its effect on firms' export performance has been less studied. The primary objective of our paper is to fill that gap, particularly for the case of Portugal, focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), where agency problems and lack of resources could impact more on export performance. Using a panel data methodology and considering a sample of 3164 Portuguese manufacturing SMEs for the period 2011-2014 our results indicate that SMEs with less debt, higher profitability and of greater size tend to present higher export intensity and diversification. This exploratory paper gives a contribution to clarify which are the main financial determinants of an export-oriented firm, which is an important issue not only for managers but for all the stakeholders, particularly policy makers aiming to promote outward orientation of domestic firms.

Keywords: financial structure; SMEs; small and medium enterprises; internationalisation; export intensity; export diversity; capital structure.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSB.2017.089900

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 2017 Vol.9 No.4, pp.252 - 276

Received: 29 Oct 2016
Accepted: 10 Jul 2017
Published online: 16 Feb 2018 *

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