Relationship between Financial Asset Allocation, Leverage Ratio, and Risk-Taking of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in China: Taking Environment-Related Industries as an Example

Abstract

With the improvement of environmental policies and industry requirements for enterprise production and management, small- and medium-sized enterprises in environment-related industries were also changing. It was known from the existing research that the investment allocation of assets of small- and medium-sized enterprises was closely related to risk and return, and the leverage ratio of enterprises affected the risk-taking level of enterprises. In the process of sustainable development, enterprises will inevitably bear certain risks, but excessive risk-taking will bring all kinds of uncertainty and bankruptcy risk to the expected income and future cash flow of enterprises. Therefore, taking small- and medium-sized enterprises in environment-related industries as an example, this paper put forward relevant assumptions by analyzing the interaction between the existing enterprise financial asset allocation, risk-taking level and leverage ratio. In order to facilitate empirical analysis, A-share listed companies in environment-related industries in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, small- and medium-sized board and GEM listed companies in Shenzhen stock exchange from 2007 to 2019 were selected as research samples. These data came from the information open platform for small- and medium-sized enterprises in environment-related industries, the research reports of third-party consulting companies and CSMAR and Wind databases. The empirical results showed that the allocation of financial assets had a significant impact on the level of risk-taking, and there was a U-shaped relationship between them when other conditions remained unchanged. At the same time, the financial asset allocation of small- and medium-sized enterprises in Chinese environment-related industries had a significant impact on the enterprise leverage ratio. Under other conditions unchanged, there was a U-shaped relationship between the two. In addition, leverage played an intermediary role in the relationship between financial asset allocation and risk-taking level. In addition to directly affecting the allocation of financial assets, it can also indirectly affect the risk-taking level of enterprises through leverage ratio.