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 ofproduction. Focusing on small firms, the paper argues that firmfinance warrants analysis, not simply to ‘add’ toknowledge and to form another sub-discipline of economic geography,but in order to further develop and refine our understandingof uneven development. The paper explores the neglect of firmfinance in economic geography and highlights some of the contributionsof literatures in eco-nomics and business. Finally, the paperoutlines three points of intersection between these disparate,usually disciplinary-bound, literatures in business, economics,and economic geography: the place-bound nature of firms, thesocial character of economic relations, and third, the powerrelations and asymmetries inherent in financial relationships.These intersections are used to critique existing small firmfinance literatures and to outline the contours of an emergingresearch agenda in economic geography.