Besonderheiten der Finanzierung kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen | Ein Überblick über die Problemlage

Special Phenomenons in the Financing of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses. A Survey of Problems Compared with bigger companies, small and medium-sized businesses are facing special financing phenomenons and constraints. The main characteristics of their loan-financing schemes are higher transaction costs per unit of capital employed and the wide-spread main-bank principle. This poses the danger of dependence, but also helps overcome information asymmetries. More unfavourable is the situation in respect of financing by genuine venture capital. A lack in the willingness to disclose, big information problems, an inappropriate taxation-law framework and the marked risk aversion of banks and investors form impediments to lively stock-exchange trading. The key problem small and medium-sized businesses face in raising venture capital is in obtaining rates of return on capital invested that are commensurate with the higher risks they bea