University of Caen. University of Rennes 1. CREM Working Papers Series 2011-27: Does the regional dimension matter as regards finance and entrepreneurship?

This article investigates the interrelationships between finance and entrepreneurship by exploring regional discrepancies in France. The focus is (1) on regional differences in financial relationships, (2) on the way these relations influence financial constraints on new firms and (3) on the complementary/substitutable effects between funds. No path of exclusion is identified. Rather, firms that are self-constraining or suffer from a weak credit rationing are the ones that later on develop intensive relationships with banks. Substitution exists in almost all the French regions. Results suggest the departure point of an original pecking order theory according to the entrepreneurial intensity of regions.