Determinants of credit availability for high-tech start-ups

The availability of financial support for start-ups, especially high-tech start-ups, is an important factor in their growth. This paper studies the determinants of credit availability of high-tech enterprises in Taizhou, which are the epitome of China’s private economy. It is found that when collateral is taken into account, the first determinant is collateral followed by annual sales revenue, and then property of high-tech enterprises. Ignoring collateral, the first determinant is annual sales revenue followed by the properties of high-tech enterprises, and then the policy-based credit guarantee. The financial ecological environment is not a determinant. However, among different levels of high-tech enterprises, the main differences are whether the age of enterprise and the growth rate of sales revenue are the top three determinants. The obvious difference between municipal and provincial/national high-tech firms is that the age of enterprise is ranked in the top three, while the policy-based credit guarantee is not among the top three determinants. The difference between national and provincial/municipal high-tech firms is that the sales revenue growth rate ranks in the top three determinants. The results can provide decision support for financial institutions to promote the financial availability of high-tech start-ups and empirical evidence for further study.