**5. Concluding Remarks**

High-tech firms play an increasingly important role in the contemporary economy. Their growth is more dynamic than classical industries. Employment in high-tech industries has increased considerably, while other industries often record reductions in the number of employees. High-tech firms, especially NTBFs, are characterized by high risk, great information asymmetry, high agency and bankruptcy costs, and a great likelihood of deterioration in their financial standing, which makes access to external financing and, in particular, debt financing, more difficult.

The results of empirical studies allow for the verification of the second hypothesis which states that internal investments in innovativeness have a negative impact on the level of indebtedness in NTBFs, while external investments in innovativeness have a positive impact on the level of debt. These results can undoubtedly be attributed to higher information asymmetry and risk in financing new technologies generated internally as compared with innovations purchased on the market, the usefulness of which is well known and proven. It should be noted that internal investments in innovativeness are not always bound to succeed, and their output is very risky. Financial liquidity has an adverse effect on the level of indebtedness in the structure of financing, so companies with high liquidity and availability of their own funds rely on their own resources and, possibly, on debt financing (Hypothesis 4). Due to big market changes and changes in technologies, highly liquid NTBFs give preference to financing based on their own funds. Age has a positive impact on the share of debt in the capital structure (Hypothesis 6). Those NTBFs which are well established on the market and have long credit history and high reliability tend to rely on debt financing. This effect can be limited in NTBFs with excess liquidity. The impact of intangibility turns out to be statistically insignificant. This may result from the fact that the possession of intangible assets is not a necessary, sufficient or decisive factor in determining a decrease in debt financing. The size of NTBFs does not have a positive impact on indebtedness probably due to the fact

that the analyzed sample comprises moderate-sized entities. The impact of profitability and growth potential is also limited. The impact of these factors on debt levels in NTBFs is probably diversified.

Polish NTBFs create their capital structure, which to a certain degree can be explained by the trade-off theory. This view can be justified by the positive impact of age and liquidity on the level of indebtedness, resulting in lower bankruptcy costs. The analyzed NTBF's population also fits the agency theory because of the limited scale of business operations and relatively limited market experience. Pecking order theory applies to the analysis to a smaller degree—an impact of profitability, size, and risk on indebtedness is not visible. Polish NTBFs apply the following order of financing: retained earnings followed by share capital and debt financing.

The obtained results can be useful for high-tech firms, stock market investors, banks and standard setters. Without support offered by the government and various public institutions the development of NTBFs, especially in countries with a low level of innovativeness, can be hindered due to difficulties in acquiring necessary funds for expansion.

This paper attempts to narrow a theoretical gap in the area of capital structure creation and explore the impact of capital structure theory on the level of indebtedness in NTBFs in an emerging economy. We believe that the empirical verification of the impact of internally and externally generated investment in innovativeness, and the verification of the impact of other capital structure factors on NTFBs in emerging markets characterized by low innovativeness, can be regarded as a significant contribution to the research of the determinants of capital structure in NTBFs. In our opinion, there are not many research studies on emerging markets which empirically verify the determinants of NTBF capital structure, hence the need for further analyses.

The major limitations of this work include a relatively short period of research and a small number of analyzed NTBFs. Further analyses should comprise a larger number of countries and observations, as well as a longer period of study. Possibly significant determinants of NTFB capital structure include various corporate governance characteristics and macroeconomic and country-level factors.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; methodology M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; software, K.G.; validation M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; formal analysis M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; investigation M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; resources B.G. and D.K.; data curation B.G. and D.K.; writing—original draft preparation M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; writing—review and editing, M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; visualization, M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; supervision, M.K., B.G., K.G. and D.K.; project administration, M.K.; funding acquisition, M.K. and K.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the "Regional Initiative of Excellence" Programme for 2019–2022. Project no.: 021/RID/2018/19.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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