Growth strategy, financial life cycle and financial management of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Summary Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face financing constraints that limit their growth strategies and financial management flexibility. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of SMEs' growth strategies and their management and financing of working capital requirements (WCR). The first part focuses on the growth strategies implemented by SMEs. The first chapter presents the main characteristics of external growth operations of SMEs and the articulation of these operations with the IPO. The second chapter studies the impact of external growth operations on performance. The third chapter proposes an exploratory study of the formation of corporate groups by SMEs. In the second part, the characteristics of the management and financing of the working capital of SMEs are analyzed. The fourth chapter shows that the performance of SMEs is negatively affected by underinvestment in working capital through opportunity costs and that this effect is stronger than for larger firms. The fifth chapter shows that newly listed SMEs offer longer payment terms to their customers but that other aspects of working capital management are not modified by the listing. The sixth chapter shows the financial flexibility offered by being part of a corporate group in terms of WCR management.