Выбор структуры капитала высокотехнологичными компаниями на развивающихся рынках

This paper studies the association between observed leverage and a set of explanatory variables, using panel data analysis to establish the determinants of a time varying capital structure from high-tech companies in emerging markets over the period 2009-2019, and to find differences between the capital structure of high-tech and non-high-tech companies. The paper also explores whether the main theories of firm financing (Trade-Off Theory and Pecking Order Theory) can explain the capital structure of these companies. We used annual data from 1404 companies across 26 emerging markets countries cap-tured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. High-tech companies, for purposes of this paper, include firms from Software & Services, Technology Hardware & Equipment, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Science industry groups. Regarding methodology, this paper attempts to empirically determine the factors that affect capital structure by using the panel data analysis. We used both Fixed and Random Effects panel models. We found that companies engaged in innovative activities decide on the formation of debt differently than firms for which innovative activity is not intrinsic. Moreover, high-tech firms, on average, have lower debt levels than companies from other sectors and this difference comes mostly from long-term part of debt. We also explored that the capital structure choice of hi-tech companies in emerging markets is more consistent with the Trade-Off theory, but it still could be argued by other authors. The result we obtained is that the R&D expenses variable, which is the most significant variable in the model, has a positive coefficient, while the operating capacity variable, calculated through capital expenditures, is not significant in the resulting model. Therefore, we can con-clude that for high-tech firms R&D expenses is a better proxy for future growth potential.