{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]],"date-time":"2025-11-01T05:42:14Z","timestamp":1761975734852,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,9]],"date-time":"2019-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1567987200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["MF"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature on the relationship between debt and firms\u2019 performance, by focusing on the influence of the institutional framework on this relationship and on the role of macroeconomic variables in explaining performance.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The present work is based on a large sample of 48,840 manufacturing firms from nine European countries covering the 2008\u20132013 period and uses a fixed effects model.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Results show that the impact of debt on a firm\u2019s performance depends on the measure of debt (short-term debt positively affects a firm\u2019s performance, whereas long-term debt presents a negative relationship) and that the institutional framework is indeed affecting the relationship between debt and a firm\u2019s performance: the positive effect of debt on a firm\u2019s performance tends to be higher the greater the \u201cefficiency of the legal system\u201d and the greater the \u201ccredit market regulation.\u201d Macroeconomic variables also play a key role in explaining performance.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>Unlike most of the existing studies, which focus only on the relationship between debt and firms\u2019 performance in a single country, the present work uses a sample of firms from nine countries with the purpose of filling a research gap and bringing new empirical evidence to this research area.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/mf-04-2018-0169","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,13]],"date-time":"2019-08-13T06:16:24Z","timestamp":1565676984000},"page":"1272-1291","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["The relationship between debt and a firm\u2019s performance: the impact of institutional 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