Abstract
Purpose - The study addresses an empirical analysis to identify financial determinants of corporate capital structure for domestic firms, given the possible economic impact in association with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since relatively little attention has been paid on the issue for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it empirically attempts to identify financial components of leverage ratio for the SMEs, which may contribute to mitigating default risk by identifying status quo financial weaknesses after the COVID-19 period. Design/Methodology/Approach - Concerning empirical research settings, the sample observations are defined as the SMEs listed on the KOSDAQ exchange and the sample period is set to be the post period of the global financial crisis (from 2010 to 2018); three hypotheses are postulated to be tested on the issue. Findings - In the first hypothesis, among a total of 10 proposed variables, firm size, profitability, cash flow, foreign equity ratio, R&D ratio, and the interaction between tangible assets and high-tech sector were statistically significant to determine the market-valued debt ratio. In another hypothesis, most of the financial variables showed significant discriminating power between the SMEs and the large enterprises (LEs). Research Implications - Given the economic conditions that may be changed by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the results are expected to be applied in determining corporate target capital structure. It may eventually contribute to maximizing the value of the SMEs at the macro- and micro-levels.