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The goal of this study was to determine the impact of access to credit facilities on financial performance among farmers of cooperative societies. The study also tested the predictive power of financial literacy.

The descriptive survey research design was used for the study while the sample size was 240 farmers of cooperative societies from South-East Nigeria. The farmers were categorised into those with access to credit facilities and those without access to credit facilities. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Data were analysed using multiple analyses of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analysis.

Farmers with access to credit facilities reported higher financial performance such as return on investment, working capital, net profit, profit margin and sales. However, those without access to credit facilities reported lower mean scores on financial performance. Also, financial literacy, like financial knowledge, attitude and awareness, significantly predicts the impact of access to credit facilities on financial performance. It was also found that the duration of repayment of credit facilities, like medium and long term, contributes more to improving financial performance.

This study has shown that even though access to credit facilities impacts financial performance, financial literacy is an important consideration. Also, the duration of repayment is a crucial factor.

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.

In this paper, the heterogeneity of the linkages among financial development, productivity and growth across income groups is emphasized.

An empirical analysis is conducted with an illustrative sample of 130 economies over the period 1991–2019 and classified into four subsamples: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), developing, least developed and net food importing developing countries. Forecast error variance decompositions and panel vector auto-regressive estimations are computed, with insightful findings.

Higher levels of output stimulate the economic development in the agricultural sector, mainly via the productivity channel and, in the most developed economies, also through access to credit. Differently, in developing and least developed economies, the role of access to credit is marginal. The findings have practical implications for stakeholders involved in the planning of long-run investments. In less developed economies, priorities should be given to investments in technology and innovation, whereas financial markets are more suited to boost the development of the agricultural sector of developed economies.

The authors conclude on the credit–output–productivity nexus and contribute to the literature in (at least) three ways. First, they assess how credit access, agricultural output and agricultural productivity are jointly determined. Second, they use a novel approach, which departs from most of the case studies based on single-country data. Third, they conclude on potential causality links to conclude on policy implications.

This study aims to gain insight into the motivations behind the decision to use high-cost payday loans by households who possess mainstream credit and to determine whether this behavior has changed over time.

Using data from Statistics Canada’s Surveys of Financial Security, probit models are used to examine the sociodemographic and financial indicators associated with payday loan use.

The analysis uncovers the sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan-user households with access to lower-cost short-term loans. The findings indicate that the likelihood of payday loan use has risen over time. Additional analysis reveals that indicators of financial instability are positively associated with payday loan use among this group.

This research highlights the dichotomy of payday loan users and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.

This research highlights the distinguishing sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan user households and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.

This is the first study, to our knowledge, to focus analysis on payday loan use of those with access to lower-cost short-term credit alternatives in Canada and to include measures of financial instability in the analysis. This research is timely given the current economic environment of high interest rates and high levels of household debt.

The reason for concern is the rapid decline in loans to small enterprises which is critical to their performance, compared to large businesses following the periods of banking reformations in Nigeria. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of risk perception on bank lending behaviour to small enterprises. It also investigates the impact of government intervention, consolidation and recapitalization on the relationship between risk perception and bank lending behaviour to small enterprise.

This study empirically analysed (ordinary least square) secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletins, Annual Statement of Accounts covering the period 1992–2020.

The results show that the absence of government interventions and the presence of banking reformations have statistically negative significant effect on bank lending to small enterprises. The findings challenge the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending because of small enterprise’s inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study found theoretical support for the variation of bank behaviour in lending to small enterprises depending on the status of wealth of the financial system.

A key lesson from this study for government concerned about promoting performance of the small enterprise sector is that regulating and enforcing lending requirements on access to debt financing of the sector is necessary if constraints in access debt finance is to be eliminated. Second, while strategies such as bank consolidation, recapitalization may help strengthen and make financially robust the banking system; it places the banks in a gain position where losses looms to them than gain.

This study challenges the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending as a result of inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study reveal a variation in lending to small enterprises and suggests that the position of the bank in relation to a reference point influences how risk is perceived by the bank and thus impacts on their risk decision-making behaviour.

This study aims to examine the influence of stock liquidity on the trade credit of publicly listed companies in Saudi Arabia.

In this study various econometric models were used to test the data of 900 firms listed in Saudi Arabia during the period of 2010–2019.

The robust results of the various econometric models indicate that firms are more willing to offer trade credit to customers when stock liquidity is greater; however, they are less likely to rely on obtaining more payables from suppliers. The findings further indicate that payables and receivables are indeed related, but not exclusively, in the sense that more payables lead to more receivables. The study also reveals a pattern of persistence in payables and receivables during the period of study.

The sample of the present study is only made up of Saudi listed companies. Future research could extend the sample of this study taking into account listed firms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as a whole so as to gain more insights from the entire region including oil-producing and non–oil-producing countries. More studies are needed to further examine the impact of alternative options for credit access and their linkage to stock liquidity. Finally the difference in difference (DiD) method of analysis as quasi experimental method can be another extension of this research.

The findings would provide implications for managers and investors by recognizing the potential role of stock liquidity in affecting trade credit and understanding the association between the stock liquidity and trade credit. Management of the firms should look for the ways to enhance the stock liquidity of the firms so as to help in reducing the extreme debts usage and therefore, alternative source of funds can be available accordingly. Once the advantage of stock market is identified, firms' managers should search for chances and policies that can promote stock liquidity and hence make use of the advantages of being liquid.

This paper provides new evidence from the emerging market, particularly the Saudi Arabia. The attempt is one of the first in the region to broaden the knowledge about the effects of stock liquidity on trade credit. It provides market participants with insights on the role of stock liquidity in financial flexibility.

This study aims to investigate the intricate relationship between corruption and the credit costs faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in OECD countries, a critical yet underexplored area in financial crime research. The primary aim is to dissect and understand how corruption impacts SMEs’ access to credit, highlighting a significant yet overlooked aspect of financial crime. This research seeks to fill a gap in the literature by providing empirical insights into the economic consequences of corruption, specifically on SMEs financing.

This study used secondary panel data from the World Bank and OECD databases. The data covered the period 2007–2020 for 25 OECD countries. This study used interest rate for SMEs loans as a dependent variable and GDP per capita, inflation and corruption index as independent variables. This study used the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to examine the relationship between variables.

The empirical findings derived from Panel ARDL postulate an intriguing dichotomy in the effects of GDP per capita, inflation rate and corruption on interest rates in both the short and long run. It was discerned that an increase in GDP per capita and inflation rate correlates with a decrement in interest rates in the long run, suggesting a potential compromise by central banks between controlling inflation and fostering economic growth.

This paper makes a novel contribution to the field of financial crime by illuminating the often-overlooked economic dimensions of corruption in the context of SMEs financing. It provides a unique perspective on the ripple effects of corrupt practices in credit markets, enriching the academic discourse and informing practical approaches to combating financial crime.

Entrepreneurship policy is a vital component of any entrepreneurial ecosystem. However, the specific policy initiatives that have a greater impact on women's entrepreneurship remain unclear in many developing economies. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of entrepreneurship policies targeted at women’s entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this paper utilises and analyses secondary data collected by the World Bank's Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) from 1970 to 2020, encompassing 48 countries within SSA.

Through our analysis, we identified two configurations that sufficiently support women's entrepreneurship. First, a combination of gender-based policies focussing on enabling “access to credit” and “signing of contracts”; and second, a blend of policies supporting “signing of contracts”, “business registration”, and “opening a bank account”, represent significant antecedents to supporting women's entrepreneurship. These distinct pathways are crucial to fostering women’s entrepreneurship in the SSA region.

The study's findings indicate that the impact and effectiveness of entrepreneurship policies targeted at women entrepreneurs in developing economies depend on the effectiveness of other policies that are in place.

This study offers new insights into the intricate interrelationship between entrepreneurship policies and women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries by considering the interdependence and combinative value of gender-based policies that effectively support women’s entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.

Trade credit is an important business-to-business marketing tool for building firms’ competitive advantage. Many studies explore the determinants of trade credits from a trust-based view, but the role of political connections is largely overlooked, despite their potential influence in assessing firms’ trustworthiness in the context of emerging economies. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how political connections affect the capacity of emerging economy firms (EEFs) to grant and receive trade credit.

This study tests a conceptual model using secondary data collected from 1,149 Chinese privately owned listed manufacturing firms between 2008 and 2016.

This study finds that political connections reduce EEFs’ accounts receivable and payable; their philanthropic activities alleviate this negative effect for accounts payable, while patent applications reduce it for accounts receivable. These findings suggest the effect of political connections can spillover to EEFs’ relationship with their up- and down-stream partners.

This study has implications EEF managers, particularly in pointing to the detrimental effect of political connections on relationships with buyers and suppliers, and highlights the need to adopt suitable approaches to offset this effect.

This study sheds new light on the negative effect of political connections on EEFs’ capacity to grant and receive trade credit in their exchanges with up-stream and down-stream partners. It enriches the trust-based view of trade credit by revealing the significant influence of EEFs’ political connections, while also advancing a contingency view by testing the moderating role of corporate philanthropic activities and patent applications.

This study aims to focus on the impact of multi-level knowledge sharing between and within organizations on the risk control of rural inclusive finance. The paper presents a synergistic risk control system integrating external and internal factors for rural inclusive finance by constructing different knowledge-sharing platforms in an environment, which is full of many uncertainties.

This study is based on survey methods. To achieve the research objectives, the authors adopt a single case study approach. For data collection, the authors apply a wide variety of methods such as semi-structured interviews, field visits, second-hand databases and official websites.

The results emphasize that using multi-level knowledge sharing such as the inter- and intra-organizational level, can facilitate the risk control of rural inclusive finance during the post-COVID-19 era. Furthermore, it is also noted that achieving knowledge sharing at different levels by building diverse knowledge-sharing platforms can promote the risk control of rural inclusive finance from the individual-organization level to the chain level of multi-organization collaboration, which contributes to the formation of symbiotic risk control ecology.

The authors have formed the “Chinese wisdom” to deal with inclusive financial risks and to promote in-depth development in relation to the “last mile” practice of inclusive finance, which means the final and the most important phase of a project. The conclusions contribute to enriching the outcomes regarding the risk control of rural inclusive finance, provide experiences to its sustainable development and offer a reference to other countries with their risk control of rural inclusive finance.

Drawing on the knowledge-sharing approach, this study creatively resolves the persistent problems in the risk control of rural inclusive finance, which forms a powerful supplement to the extant literature. Meanwhile, the paper combines the two contextual factors of the post-COVID-19 era and emerging economies, which can be deemed as a novel attempt.