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This study employs firm-level data to evaluate how the knowledge economy impacts the financing constraints of businesses across 106 low- and middle-income nations, focusing on the influence of technological transformation on corporate financing choices.

The research centers on privately held, unlisted firms and examines the distinct effects of knowledge at both the within-country and between-country levels using a panel dataset. Rigorous sensitivity and endogeneity analyses are conducted to ensure the reliability of the findings.

The findings indicate that greater levels of the knowledge economy correlate with reduced financing constraints for firms. However, this effect varies depending on the location within a country and across different geographical regions. Firms situated in larger urban centers and more innovative regions reap the most significant benefits from the knowledge economy when seeking external funding. Conversely, firms in smaller cities, rural areas and regions characterized by structural and institutional inefficiencies in knowledge generation experience fewer advantages.

The impact of knowledge exhibits variability not only within and among countries but also between poor and affluent developing nations, as well as between larger and smaller countries. The knowledge effect on firms' access to external finance is influenced by factors such as financial openness and development, educational quality, technological absorption capabilities and agglomeration conditions within each country.

The authors investigate the role of financial literacy in influencing the relationship between human capital and social capital, with access to finance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Data were gathered from 337 MSMEs in Brunei Darussalam, and analysis on the data was carried out using a number of statistical methods. The relationships between human capital, social capital, financial literacy and access to finance were analyzed using PLS-SEM.

The results show that human capital does influence access to finance but contrary to previous studies, the influence is negative. Financial literacy is an important element in the relationship between human capital, social capital and access to finance, although it plays a greater role in the relationship between social capital and access to finance. Further analysis shows that financial knowledge is significant in moderating the relationships between human and social capital with access to finance. Financial skills is found to only moderate the relationship between social capital and access to finance.

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first that integrates the human capital, social capital, financial literacy and access to finance in a single model. The authors also highlight the importance of enhancing the financial literacy of MSMEs so that the problem of access to finance can be alleviated, especially in developing countries.

Africa is becoming the fastest-growing continent despite significant challenges to accessing finance and the use of technology. This paper aims to examine the direct effect of mobile money adoption on firm performance and its moderation effect by examining how it moderates the effect of access to finance on firm performance.

Quantitative data were obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were done to test the hypotheses.

The main findings show a negative significant relationship between mobile money adoption and firm performance, while access to finance had a positive relationship. The moderation effect though positive was not significant. Research examining the effect of mobile money adoption in Africa on firm performance is limited, and existing studies have focused on the determinants of mobile money usage. By examining the direct and contingency effect on other determinants of firm performance, this research makes both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, this research shows that not all strategic resources are valuable in improving firm performance. Practically, this research provides insights into how technology could be embedded into business processes for firms to benefit from such technology.

This research has complemented by the extant literature by assessing the role of mobile money adoption in moderating the influence of access to finance on firm performance.

This study analyzes the role of regional cooperative banks in identifying and financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from a proximity perspective. Access to finance is a major challenge for SMEs. Regional cooperative banks can remove this barrier based on cooperative bank's characteristics and geographic proximity to SMEs. Understanding the interplay between these financial actors and firms can contribute to a better support of SMEs development.

The results are based on a case study of eight SMEs located in southwestern France. Interviews were conducted with two regional cooperative funds and eight SMEs. The interview guide included questions related to the company, the projects financed and how financing was accessed.

Results reveal that a combination of three forms of proximity allows regional cooperative banks and SMEs to establish effective financing operations. They show that regional cooperative banks are key players in the existing financing mechanisms for SMEs. Such financing is often used to gain access to larger players at a later stage. The findings suggest the need for public policies that promote the integration of financing actors in regional ecosystems to advance SMEs' development.

This article examines how SMEs access financing, with a focus on regional cooperative banks, which have received little attention in the literature. Moreover, the relationships between these actors are studied through the lens of proximity. Regional cooperative banks are able to finance projects that may have been overlooked by traditional banks due to trust-building local dynamics.

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between financial availability and crime by measuring it across five dimensions: banking, securities, insurance, private lending and digital inclusive finance.

The study utilizes 2011–2017 data from prefecture-level cities as a representative sample. Moreover, these findings remain robust after addressing endogeneity through the use of the historical distance between cities and the railroad network as an instrumental variable.

The findings demonstrate a significant negative relationship between financial accessibility and crime rates. Heterogeneity exists in the inhibitory effect of different types of financial accessibility on crime, with banking finance exhibiting a stronger inhibitory effect compared to private lending. Areas affected by natural disasters and infectious diseases exhibit a stronger inhibitory effect of financial accessibility on crime rates, particularly in areas with severe shocks of natural disasters and epidemics. This effect is attributed to the low financing threshold and easy access to private lending, which plays a more effective role than bank finance when people face extreme risks.

There should be stricter regulations imposed on private lending markets and the introduction of more rational legislation aimed at guiding a healthy development within these markets; such measures serve as effective and complementary means for individuals from all walks of life to access credit financing.

The regulation of financial resources by the government should always prioritize ensuring the accessibility of financial policies to cater to the needs of the majority population.

This study is for the first time in an emerging economy context, the causal relationship between financial accessibility and crime. To provide a more comprehensive measure of financial accessibility in a region, this paper proposes a five-dimensional methodology.

The primary objective of this study aims to intensively explore the environment of Indonesian regulations and laws related to the Islamic banking system and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) and unveil the restrictive laws and regulatory flaws that potentially hinder the Islamic banking institution and MSME industry in achieving financial inclusion and promoting sustainable growth.

This paper implements a qualitative method by implementing a multi-case study research strategy, both from the Islamic banking institutions and the MSME industries. The data were gathered primarily through an interview approach by adopting purposive uncontrolled quota sampling.

The findings of this paper reveal two essential issues: First, the regulatory imbalances and restrictions could demotivate and hinder the efforts of Islamic banks in providing access to finance for the MSME segment, hence, encumbering the achievement of the financial inclusion agenda from the Islamic banking industry. Second, the flaws in MSME registration and taxation might discourage the formal MSMEs from extending their business license and prevent the informal MSME units from registering their business. This issue would potentially lower their chance of accessing external financing from the formal financial institutions and participating in supportive government programmes due to the absence of proper legality.

Since this paper only observed six Islamic banks and 22 MSME units in urban and rural locations in Indonesia using a case study approach, the empirical findings and case discussions were limited to those respective Islamic banks and MSME participants.

By referring to the recommendations as presented in this paper, two critical policy implications could be expected from adopting the proposed recommendations, among others: By addressing the issues of the regulatory imbalance associated with the Islamic banking industry and introduce the deregulatory policies on profit and loss sharing (PLS) scheme implementation, this approach will motivate the Islamic banking industry in serving the MSME sector better and provide greater access to financial services, particularly in using the PLS financing schemes. By resolving the problems on MSME registration and taxation, this strategy will enhance the sustainability of the formal MSMEs’ operation and encourage the informal ones to register, hence, improving their inclusion into the formal financing services and government assistance programmes.

The present study attempts to address the literature shortcomings and helps to fill the gaps – both theoretical and empirical – by incorporating the multi-case study among Indonesian Islamic banks and MSMEs to extensively explore the Indonesia regulatory environment pertaining to the Islamic banking system (supply-side) and MSMEs (demand-side), and thoroughly investigates and reveals the restrictive laws and regulatory flaws that could potentially hinder the Islamic banking institutions and MSME industries in attaining financial inclusion and contributing to sustainable development.

Research on financing for entrepreneurship has consolidated over the last decade. However, one question remains unanswered: how does the combination of external finance, such as equity and debt capital, and internal finance, such as working capital, affect the likelihood of grant funding over time? The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between different sources of financing and firms' ability to fundraise via innovation grants and to examine the role of female chief executive officer (CEO) in this relationship. Unlike equity and debt funding, innovation grants manifest a form of innovation acknowledgement and visibility, recognition of potential commercialization of inovation.

The authors use firm-level financial data for 3,034 high-growth firms observed in 2015, 2017 and 2019 across 35 emerging sectors in the United Kingdom (UK) to test the factors affecting the propensity of high-growth firms to secure an innovation grant as a main source of fundraising for innovation during the early stages of product commercialization.

The results do not confirm gender bias for innovation fundraising in new industries. This contrasts with prior research in the field which has demonstrated that access to finance is gender-biased. However, the role of CEO gender is important as it moderates the relationship between the sources of funding and the likelihood of accessing the grant funding.

This study does not analyse psychological or neurological factors that could determine the intrinsic qualities of male and female CEOs when making high-risk decisions under conditions of uncertainty related to innovation. Direct gender bias with regards to access to innovation grants could not be assumed. This study offers important policy implications and explains how firms in new industries can increase their likelihood of accessing a grant and how CEO gender can moderate the relationship between availability of internal and external funding and securing a new grant.

This study implicates and empirically demonstrates that gender bias does not apply in fundraising for innovation in new industries. As female CEOs represent various firms in different sectors, this may be an important signal for investors in new product development and innovation policies targeting gender bias and inclusion.

The authors draw on female entrepreneurship and feminist literature to demonstrate how various sources of financing and gender change the likelihood of grant funding in both the short and long run. This is the first empirical study which aims to explain how various internal and external sources of finance change the propensity of securing an innovation grant in new industries.

The main purpose of this paper is to establish the mediating effect of credit counselling in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of micro small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa post COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) through SmartPLS 4.0 was used to generate the standardized parameters to test whether credit counselling mediates the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of MSMEs in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa post COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda.

The SEM bootstrap results revealed that credit counselling enhances access to microcredit by 27% to promote survival of MSMEs in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa post COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda.

The current study focused only on women MSMEs. Future studies may possibly collect data from all the MSMEs to draw better generalization of the findings within the sector.

The findings can help public finance policy to ensure provision of credit counselling to microentrepreneurs who borrow from different financial institutions to reduce the problem of loan defaults and delinquency rampant in lending. This could be done through conducting routine business education and counselling sessions for microentrepreneurs who often need credit to grow their businesses.

This study is amongst the first few studies to establish the mediating effect of credit counselling in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of MSMEs in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda. There is a dearth in literature and theory on the rehabilitative and preventive role of credit counselling in reducing repayment defaults amongst borrowers within the credit market to spur survival of MSMEs seen as the main enabler of economic growth, especially in developing countries. In fact, credit counselling acts as a safety net by substituting financial literacy and education to solve the rampant problem of overindebtedness amongst borrowers who are debt illiterate within the credit market.

The main purpose of this paper is to establish whether trust plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. The main focus of this paper is to specifically test whether relational social capital built by young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups can be more effective in promoting economic exchange in under-developed financial markets since interpersonal trust has recently been found to harbor group collusion, especially among kins. Overall, the paper distinguishes trust among individuals based on their age, gender and ethnic diversity.

This study used structural equation model to test whether trust significantly mediates the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises using Analysis of Moments Structures (AMOS) based on recommendations by Hair et al. (2022) and Baron and Kenny (1986).

The findings from this study revealed that trust significantly and positively mediate the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. Trust developed from relational social capital among young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups create a stronger basis for economic exchange in under-developed financial markets.

While this study generates a positive evidence on the impact of access to microcredit on survival of young women microenterprises, the results cannot be over emphasized and generalized because the data were collected from only a single developing country. Future research may extend the current study to include other developing countries to make a more justified comprehensive analysis.

The findings from this study highlights the importance of using a blend of social policy guided by norms combined with formal regulations as an informal contract enforcement mechanism to achieve efficient economic exchange in under-developed financial markets. Relational social capital formed on the basis of informal norms among groups from diverse population can supplement formal laws to enforce contractual obligations in microcredit access, especially among youthful microentrepreneurs, who seems to have stronger relational behaviors than adults. Financial institutions such as banks should use informal contract enforcement system to increase the scope of financial inclusion of young microentrepreneurs, especially in unbanked rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive where formal laws are weak and sometimes not functional. The findings also show that younger people have a stronger relationship behavior than adults. Therefore, policy should create structures that can promote social activities among youth. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive through their respective Ministry of Gender, Labour and Youth Affairs should create youth clubs that can increase interaction and relational social capital among the younger population to derive economic empowerment. sub-Saharan African governments, Uganda inclusive should rely more on social policy based on relational social capital as a missing link to promote and achieve economic development.

This paper provides an evidence on the unique role of age, gender and ethnicity in information sharing and exchange based on social policy in the financial market to limit group collusion. The authors indicate that diversity in relational social capital among young women microentrepreneurs prohibit strategic defaults, which promotes access to microcredit for survival of women micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through socialization. High level of interaction among younger women microentrepreneurs from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups allow them to close the information gap to timely meet borrowing contractual obligations to derive economic benefits. The paper shows that younger women have more trust than older women while searching for economic value through socialization. In fact, social policy can wholly supplement formal policy to promote growth and survival of young women microenterprises, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive.

This study investigates the significance of trade credit (TC) as an alternative source of funding in financing the growth of financially dependent firms.

Panel data analysis using the difference generalized method of moments (GMM) and fixed-effects ordinary least squares (FE-OLS) is conducted on annual data from publicly listed firms across a number of developing economies. The data cover the period from 2003 to 2019.

The findings indicate that financially dependent firms rely on TC to manage their growth, especially when they have exhausted their debt capacity. This dependence on TC displays a cyclical pattern. As firms enhance their financial position, they tend to scale back their dependence. Nevertheless, firms with significant growth opportunities continue utilizing TC for at least two years after their initial identification as financially dependent.

The author's conclusion highlights that TC can be a valuable and accessible source of funding, especially in developing economies where the real sector may require alternative financing channels. Hence, TC has the potential to play a very significant role in financing corporate growth in these economies.

The current study adds to the existing body of literature by revealing that access to alternative sources of finance is also critical for firms that are dependent on external sources and for firms that have exhausted their financial debt capacity.