Economic Performance and capital Structure Choices

The aim of this research is to explore the relationship between the economic performance of a sample of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in the southern Italian textile-clothing industry and the different financial structures they may have chosen to adopt, and then to examine the extent to which the performance itself may change the economic burden imposed by the various financial sources available to these companies. Performance data were collected through the AIDA Bureau Van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BvDEP) database, while an online questionnaire allowed data collection of the other variables. The results of a Mann-Whitney U test show that the financial structures chosen by the SMEs under investigation are closely linked to their economic performance, which in turn changes the burden of some of the available funding sources. Limitations and recommendations for future research are presented.