Small firm finance and economic geography

This paper argues that firm finance is something of a 'black-box' in economic geography, a largely take-for-granted aspect of production. Focusing on small firms,the paper argues that firm finance warrants analysis, not simply to 'add' to knowledge and to form another sub-discipline of economic geography, but in order to further develop and refine our understanding of uneven development. The paper explores the neglect of firm finance in economic geography and highlights some of the contributions of literatures in economics and business. Finally, the paper outlines three points of intersection between these disparate, usually disciplinary-bound, literatures in business, economics, and economic geography: the place-bound nature of firms, the social character of economic relations, and third, the power relations and asymmetries inherent in financial relationships. These intersections are used to critique existing small firm finance literatures and to outline the contours of an emerging research agenda in economic geography.