This paper explores the problems experienced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions in gaining access to debt and equity finance for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects. We develop several arguments why such small businesses are expected to face severe financing constraints for foreign investments and provide an explorative empirical analysis of these issues for a sample of thirty-two Belgian SMEs. We find that the market of FDI finance for SMEs is subject to considerable capital market imperfections. The information problems, lack of collateral, the home bias of financiers and the capital gearing method used by banks to evaluate small firms' foreign projects give rise to financial constraints. The FDI finance gap hinders SMEs in their internationalization strategy and negatively affects their economic performance.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
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