Capital structure have implications in determining the ability and success of a firm, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper analyses the capital structure of SMEs in Malaysia focusing on Enterprise 50 (E50) SMEs. E50 is an annual awards program initiated by government and organized by SME Corporation & Deloitte Malaysia since 1997 to recognize the 50 best SME companies in Malaysia based on their performances and potential to succeed. The secondary data from Companies Commission of Malaysia has been collected for the study. The study employed regression analysis on 334 companies, utilised the accounting data for the five year period of 2005 to 2009. Capital structure is the Dependent Variable referring to debt ratio of the companies, decomposed into Long Term Debt ratio and Short term Debt ratio. The Independent Variables (IV) are age; size; tangibility; liquidity; profitability; growth and taxation. Two theories of capital structure have guided this study i.e. the Trade-Off Theory and the Pecking Order Theory. The study found that size is important if we decomposed the debt into longand short term. In addition, asset tangibility, liquidity and profitability are the main capital structure determinants for SMEs. Age and growth are important for a long term, while taxation is not an important consideration in capital structure decision.

This paper examines the performance of manufacturing firms in Libya. Specifically, it evaluates firm level technical efficiency. The paper uses an econometric approach based on a stochastic frontier production function to analyze 207 firms from survey conducted from March to May 2013. The results from estimations reveal that technical efficiencies of Libyan manufacturing firms ranging from 37.77 percent to 95.27 percent, with an average of 71.27 percent. While, the percent of firms that considered technically efficient is only 17.87 percent of the total firms.

No abstract

The progress of any firm and the wealth it accumulates depends upon the business environment in which the firm functions. Firms of all kinds are strongly influenced by the business environment that they experience and a good business environment ensures their prosperity. In this paper, we have conducted a survey of the manufacturing firms in three different commercial strong Libyan cities to determine the influence of the business environment on the growth of the sales of the firms located in these three Libyan cities. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) method is used in this paper and the empirical variables are calculated for the purpose of the study. These results point to a strong correlation between the growth of the firm's sales and the prevailing factors of corruption, crime, financing, infrastructure, business regulations and human capital. However, the research does not indicate any kind of relationship between the level of competition faced by the firm and its sales growth. To improve the Libyan business environment, it is necessary to frame effective policies and to enforce the Anti Corruption Law and also to finish the red-tape and bureaucratic hurdles. A legal system would have to be developed which provides sufficient finance for the businesses and a proper system of rules for the financial markets would also have to be developed.

This study investigated the determinants of growth performance of the small service enterprises (SSEs)