Investigating Determining Factors of the Financial Structure in a Context of an Underdeveloped Financial Market: An Example of Cameroonian SMEs

Abstract

This study examines the determinants of the financial structure in a context where the financial market is still embryonic. From a sample of 62 enterprises, the research carried out permit to highlight the fact that the financial structure in the small and medium size enterprises is more influenced by certain profile characteristics than others. Thus, the structure of shareholding, the size stated in terms of the number of employees and the nature of property, introduce a high discrimination between non rated enterprises and this with regards to the importance of their owned capital. Also, the importance of negative working capital and the speed of economic access explain the differences between group of enterprises from the point of view of financing equilibrium, as well as the distribution rate of the dividends and profitability which are reputed in explaining significantly the differences in the indebtedness rate as far as the SME of our sample are concerned.