Determinants of capital structure : evidence from Malaysian SMEs

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of capital structure of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from manufacturing sector in Malaysia. Specifically, this study wants to examine the effect of asset structure, profitability, quality of information, size and age on leverage. Multivariate regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to investigate the most significant factors that affect the capital structure choice of Malaysian SMEs during the year 2013. In the first model, both results find a negative and significant relationship for profitability and size with leverage while asset structure, quality of information and age show negative but not significant relationship with leverage. However, using a second model, asset structure shows a significant positive relationship with leverage, while quality of information shows significant negative relationship with leverage. The analysis indicates that firstly; the results are consistent with some capital structure theories such as trade-off theory and pecking order theory. Secondly, quality of information, asset structure, profitability and size are important factors that affect capital structure choice of Malaysian SMEs

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