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Refereed/Peer-reviewed Growing public concerns about sustainability and adopting environmentally responsible practices increase risks as well as opportunities for firms and banks. It is unclear whether being environmentally responsible matters for unlisted firms, which are significant contributors to the degradation of the environment but which are not under strict scrutiny like public listed firms. Using a sample of 3915 firms from developing economies, we investigate whether the superior environmental performance of unlisted firms leads them to better loan conditions. After controlling for endogeneity and sample selection bias, we find that firms with better environmental performance received approximately 6.4% higher loans (as a ratio of total sales) and that this effect is more prominent in small and medium firms. This finding supports an information asymmetry view of agency costs. Our results, however, show that environmental performance does not affect loan duration and collateral requirement, indicating no spillover economic effect of corporate environmental performance on loan conditions. This partially supports a new perspective of legitimacy theory in relation to the ‘greenwash strategy’. Overall, our study shows that strategically engaged environmental activities that are integrated with core business objectives represent an important business strategy for firms to enhance credit access.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed We investigate the formal credit effect on firm level innovations of small and medium enterprises in developing economies. Using the instrumental regression method, we control for potential endogeneity in innovation and credit relationships. Results indicate that formal credit availability boosts all four types of innovations. However, this impact is more significant for soft innovations compared to hard innovations. The results also point to the importance of informal finance as a source of external finance for firms where capital markets suffer from imperfections. Our study encourages the development of policy around financing for various types of innovation, which is especially suited for developing economies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in substantial constraints for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) worldwide. The techniques in which SMEs handle recent crises and the degree to which environmental performance is advantageous when the marketplace experiences an adverse shock is fairly untouched in the literature. To assess this probability, we examine, using data from 6,597 SMEs in 13 developing countries, the effect of firm environmental efficiency on firm financing during the COVID-19 outbreak. We consider three aspects of external financing – bank, non-bank and trade credit – and suggest that it pays for firms to show devotion to environmental obligations in a global pandemic. Our research implies that the trust between a firm and its stakeholders, if it is based on environmental performance, pays off when the trust freefall during periods of shock and adversity.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed Financial inclusion (FI) provides significant possibilities for poverty alleviation. Information communication technology (ICT) is an essential component of any FI strategy aiming to enable access to a wide range of financial products and services. This study explores entrepreneurs’ assessments of the role of ICT for their FI and its effect in Africa. Using data for 1436 entrepreneurs, from the World Bank Enterprise Survey database and applying an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) based on propensity scores, the results of our study indicate that ICT increases entrepreneurs’ FI. In particular, we find that the average FI of entrepreneurs using ICT in their business is approximately 12% higher than their counterparts who do not use ICT. Further, separate treatments of email, website, and mobile phone, show that business website ownership has the highest impact on FI, followed by mobile phone and email. The results are robust through a series of robustness checks including the bivariate probit model, propensity score matching model, and alternative proxies for FI. Our findings confirm the significant role technological deepening plays in advancing FI in Africa, and its potential for wider applicability to other developing economies.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed This study investigates the factors that have potential to affect profit reinvestment decisions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in small island countries. Using World Bank Enterprise Surveys data, and Generalised Least Square regression model, we report that access to bank loans and overdraft facilities increases profit reinvestment by SMEs by approximately 5 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Fair Judiciary also increases profit reinvestment by approximately 6 percent, whereas government expropriation leads to a reduction in reinvestment by 0.9 percent. Therefore, the policymakers in these small island countries should make an effort to improve the quality of the judiciary, and implement policies that lead to a reduction in corruption levels. Also, it is important to introduce more external finance sources for SMEs.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed Using a comprehensive dataset on unlisted firms in 22 developing countries this paper analyses the relationship between gender, microfinance and access to bank credit. Using heckprobit to control sample selection bias, we reveal evidence of discrimination against female-owned and female-led firms. Also, we find that a mechanism for microfinance to empower women is facilitating loan applications and loan approvals for female-owned firms. Our paper highlights the importance of addressing gender discrimination in the credit market in order to facilitate the development of female-owned firms.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed This study uses a financial lens to investigate and discuss how symbiotic relationships can enhance business performance, particularly in terms of risk and return for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). A mixed-method approach, using both Partial Least Square Structure Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and thematic analysis, is employed to analyse the information from 200 MSMEs. The findings indicate that symbiotic relationships among businesses help MSMEs to reduce risks and increase returns. The study provides a model that is potentially applicable to other settings and pertinent for policymakers, trade associations and MSMEs.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed This paper provides analyses of the effect of corruption in South Asia on (1) credit access for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and (2) credit constraints faced by female-owned and male-owned SMEs. By addressing potential endogeneity and reverse causality of corruption and credit constraints via instrumental variables, this study reports that corruption has a detrimental effect on credit access. Specifically, corruption increases the probability of SMEs credit constraints by 7.63%. However, gender differences emerge, indicating that bribery is slightly more effective when used by female SME owners. When male-owned SMEs pay bribes, they are on average 0.61% more credit-constrained than their counterparts. For female-owned SMEs paying bribes, they are on average 0.78% more likely to be less credit-constrained compared to female SME owners who do not pay bribes. Overall, bribery is not very effective in achieving the desired outcome and attitudes towards bribery as unethical may be more a question of culture than of gender.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed This paper explores the relationship between firm-level innovation and external finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Our sample consists of 13,430 firms from Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries. A propensity score matching approach reports a positive relationship between formal finance and product and process innovation, which is greater for early-stage SMEs than for mature counterparts. However, informal finance has more significant impact on mature firms' product innovation. Our empirical evidence highlights policy implications for countries desiring to enhance the innovation of their SMEs by improving the external finance of these SMEs.