SME financing in Zhejiang province

Abstract

This thesis laid the emphasis on Zhejiang Province which SMEs play a dominant role and is characterized with informal finance. The current financial system provided little opportunity for the SMEs to raise fund; companies in temporary illiquidity or facing solvency crisis obviously could not possibly rely upon internal capital for financing. Then, informal finance should be deeply studied. Guiding the informal finance to alleviate the SMEs financing difficulties could make contribution the financial and social stability at large. Therefore, it is a meaningful topic to be studied, both in theoretical and practical perspective.

In chapter 2, the focus is mainly laid on studying the status quo of the SME financing in Zhejiang Province and exploring the role formal and informal financing play. Through literatures consulting, a tailor made questionnaire has been designed to learn the basic information, business establishment, business growth and funding sources of the firms. The copies of the questionnaire have been disseminated to the sampled entrepreneurs of SMEs across Zhejiang Province. Through the data collected from the valid copies, we could gain a brief understanding of these firms and its financing situation through basic descriptive statistics. With the data collected from the 150 valid copies, we have gained a brief understanding of these firms and their financing situation through basic descriptive statistics.

In chapter 3, we tend to adopt various empirical methods to analyze the relationship of usage of formal (informal) lending and other factors. Correlation analysis, binary regression model and ordered logistic regression model is applied on the collected questionnaire data. With this empirical investigation, we try to further explore what impact these reputation and relationship variables may have on the financing practices they try to employ.

From the empirical results, we find that firms with strong political ties, higher education, larger turnover and having received credit rating are more likely to employ formal financing practices. No consistent results have been found for informal financing practices. Moreover, we find that more factors work in the case of global financial crisis while only political ties and credit rating status work in the tightened monetary background like the period after year 2010. Combining these results, we conclude that reputation and relationship are vital in obtaining funds from formal financing channels in China. By contrast, all kinds of SMEs’ entrepreneurs are likely to tap the informal financing market. The finding is critical: on the one hand, the criteria necessary to obtain formal loans are quite stringent; on the other hand, the informal market seems to set no threshold for financing. In the light of these considerations, informal financing will inevitably play a dominant role within the financial system.

In chapter 4, we firstly consult the extant literatures to learn the SMEs practice around the world. We then hold interviews with five managers from a commercial bank to learn their mindset towards SMEs business. Then, through the combination of what we find from the literature and the interviews, as well as the empirical results from the previous chapters, we propose specific policy suggestions. Policy suggestions are proposed from three different dimensions: the supply side of funds for SMEs financing (including both the formal and informal financial institutions); and the demand side. Such grand view will offer more insightful understanding in SMEs financing. The policy suggestions proposed are explicit, specific and practical.