New Research Program Focuses on Financing and Growth of SMEs

Professors Allan Riding, Miwako Nitani, Barbara Orser and Martine Spence will examine the financing and growth of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with an $82,070-grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). This research program seeks to understand better the role of bank financing on growth of young firms. The team will investigate linkages among financing constraints, remediation, growth, innovation, and exporting. 

About the researchers:

Allan Riding holds the Deloitte Professorship in the Management of Growth Enterprises (with Professor B. Orser). His work spans bank financing, loan-guarantee programs, angel and venture capital, and initial public offerings. Current research focuses on the structure of the Canadian venture capital sector, preferences for, and access to, financing sources for knowledge-intensive small firms, and financing impediments to international trade.

Miwako Nitani is an assistant professor in finance whose work identifies obstacles facing companies in need of capital and evaluates public policies in support of business creation and growth. Professor Nitani's research encompasses, among other topics: the roles of banks and governments; junior stock exchanges; credit rationing; liquidity constraints and bank lending.

Barbara Orser is a full professor and the Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises. She conducts research on SME growth, including entrepreneurial decision-making, gender influences, internationalization of SMEs, and public policy. She is the co-author of a book on female entrepreneurship that will be published by Stanford University Press in 2015.

Martine Spence is a full professor whose research focuses on, among other areas, international entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship, and export marketing. She has held a number of research fellowships from Canadian, British and supranational organizations for her research on international entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurship in the context of Canada and of emerging and developing nations.