Purpose The purpose of this paper is to involve the differences in the entrepreneurial intentions of student at higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Portuguese regions (mainland and insular). Design/methodology/approach Applying a sample of 594 valid responses, the authors analyzed the data according to linear regression models. Findings The results convey how HEI students generally do not intend to become entrepreneurs in both the mainland and the insular regions. Although HEI students broadly do not aim to launch their own businesses, the results show that students in mainland regions feel they have the skills to start a business and drive it to success. In insular regions, students feel encouraged by their friends and family to set up their own business. When comparing insular and mainland regions, the results demonstrate how in insular regions, there is a greater probability that HEI students become entrepreneurs than in the mainland regions. Furthermore, entrepreneurial intentions in the mainland regions develop in terms of “opportunities” while driven by necessity in the insular regions. Practical implications This furthermore makes recommendations to regional governments and to HEIs in order to enable better encouragement of entrepreneurship in academia. Originality/value This study is original and innovative due to its comparison of the entrepreneurial intentions prevailing in mainland and insular regions and may propose new highlights to the academic scientific literature.

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The objective of this study was to analyze the determining factors that explain the capital structure decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the province of Cabinda, Angola. In this study, debt maturity was also analyzed and, therefore, total indebtedness was broken down into short, medium, and long-term debt ratios. This study is motivated the poor number of studies on the determinants of the capital structure of SMEs in developing countries, more specifically in Cabinda, Angola. This research is relevant for Corporate Finance, particularly regarding the capital structure of SMEs located in a developing country like Angola. Also, it corroborates previous studies on the applicability of the principles of the pecking-order theory to SMEs in developed countries. This research present contributions to Corporate Finance, as it identifies the determinants of the capital structure of SMEs in a developing country - considering the debt maturity -, through the analysis of total debt ratios-, short-, medium- and long-term debt. Based on a sample of 73 SMEs for the period between 2011 and 2016, we used panel data models (pooled OLS, fixed and random effects). The results of this study show that tangibility, age, liquidity, and non-debt tax shield are determining factors in the decisions of the capital structure of SMEs in the province of Cabinda, Angola. Furthermore, they suggest that these firms follow the principles of pecking-order theory in capital structure decisions. The research contributes to increase studies in Corporate Finance, particularly concerning the determinants of the capital structure of SMEs located in a developing country.

This chapter aims to analyze the importance of financial theories for SME capital structure decisions. The financial theories considered for this study were trade-off theory and pecking order theory. From the various empirical evidences researched in the Web of Science and Scopus database, it was found that most SME capital structure decisions follow the financial theory of hierarchical hierarchy, that is, the SME finance their investment opportunities through retained earnings, debt issuance, and finally stock issuance.