Financial constraints and innovation in SMEs
The objective of this work consists in studying the impact of the financial constraints on the innovative behaviour in small and medium-sized enterprises. We start from the methodology of Fazzari Hubbard and Petersen (1988) which supposes that in a context of asymmetry of information, the sensitivity of the investment to an indicator of the internal wealth of the firm involves the existence of financial constraints. The results of a study obtained by a Logit model, done on a sample of 117 small and medium-sized firms show a positive and significant impact of the cash-flow on the innovative investment what implies a sensibility of the innovation to the internal resources which further confirms that the innovative SMEs are financially constrained. Other investigations reveal a more important sensitivity for the enterprises involved in research and development activities, as they are more exposed to the constraints as for the access to the external financing.