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The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of small-business lending following the recession.

The authors survey the literature and analyze recent surveys of small-business lending.

The results reinforce the importance of owner equity as a primary source of small-business financing. In addition, the authors find that small firms have been seeking and obtaining less capital since the 2008 financial crisis.

The findings about the main sources of small-business financing will be informative when formulating financial regulation.

The available evidence suggests that new regulation of the financial services industry may be restricting access to products that small-business owners rely on and may adversely affect small banks.

The authors offer the most recent analysis of small-business financing, focusing on changes that may have been caused by the recession and major financial regulations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of social capital of non-resident family members on small business debt financing. Recent literature in entrepreneurship suggests that small businesses can borrow social capital to improve their access to debt financing.

Micro-entrepreneurs from India were interviewed regarding their ability to raise capital from family members as well as their relationship with banks and politicians.

The survey indicates that small business entrepreneurs are able to borrow social capital from non-resident Indians. Results also suggest that these small businesses are more likely to be connected to banks and politicians facilitated by their non-resident family members, which not only improves micro-entrepreneurs’ access to debt financing but also reduces their cost of borrowing.

This is a co-relational study that investigates the association between social capital of non-resident family members and small business debt financing. There is not necessarily a causal relationship between the two. The findings of this study may only be generalized to firms similar to those that were included in this research.

This study contributes to the literature on the factors that improve the access to small business debt financing. The findings may be useful for financial managers, investors, financial management consultants, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders.

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances provides robust information on the financing of small businesses, including an overview of the firms’ organization, financial characteristics, and credit use. Information from the survey is used in this study to compare the financial characteristics of metro and rural small businesses. While many financial characteristics are similar, rural small businesses do own more land and depreciable assets, and have lower inventory and other current assets when compared to metro firms. Rural firms have relatively similar access to technology and financial services, although utilization varies. Both metro and rural small businesses rely on a wide variety of sources for financing; however, rural small businesses have significantly more mortgages, loans from shareholders, and other types of loans, but fewer credit cards. Use of nonparametric rank order statistical methods was required because normality assumptions were violated due to asymmetric distribution of small firms.

The case is strong for declaring an inadequacy of export finance for small business. In 1988–90, the documentation has expanded beyond that of academic research and claims by the Small Business Administration to Congressional testimony by exporters and bankers, surveys by trade associations of manufacturers and bankers, and investigations by the Government's export finance agency as well as our central bank. Nonetheless, small business is exhorted to look abroad in its marketing efforts and so to participate in reducing the U.S. trade deficit. As one means of alleviating this international marketing challenge, the Export‐Import Bank of the United States (Eximbank) has moved to convert a pilot program of 1988–89 into a fall‐fledged decentralized effort to deliver export finance to qualified small firms. The intention is that carefully trained administrators in selected states will be able to match qualified exporters with financial institutions and thereby assure that the small firms receive working capital in adequate quantity to meet terms and conditions of an export contract. While Eximbank's staff is poised to support the marketing and credit analysis work of the state/local administrators, this paper examines the need for a fully cooperative effort among four parties or groups in the face of a national retrenchment by many banks in the provision of export finance for small firms.

The paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance in the relationship between small businesses financing choice decisions on the business performance.

The paper was situated within the financial growth cycle theory and stewardship theory and survey approach was adopted for data collection. The statistical analysis was conducted by using partial least square structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that the interaction of corporate governance and financing choice decisions strengthens the performance relationship. Further, corporate governance mediates the positive relationship between financing choice decisions and performance. Thus, suggesting that corporate governance can carry the effect of the financing choice decisions to business performance.

The findings of our research reveal that, small businesses who follow solid corporate governance procedures should expect higher business performance. This is because financing decisions alone will not assure positive business performance unless they are tied to a broader perspective of effective corporate governance practices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the small business financing choice and performance literature by combining the strengths of financial growth cycle theory and stewardship theory to explain the financing choice decisions and, in particular, the role of corporate governance in the relationship. Further, the study is unique in its nature because it presents a successful model for small businesses in emerging economies to concentrate more on the role of corporate governance in enhancing business performance.

The purpose of this research is to show that while mainstream finance for small businesses has been researched, hard to reach segments of the UK owner/manager population have eluded empirically rigorous investigation. The authors investigate the financing preferences of owner/managers in small ethnic minority businesses in the UK and examine their access to both formal and informal finance as well as the use of personal funding networks. The emergent results are compared with the findings from a matched “control sample” of white small business owner/managers.

Identical, in‐depth, face‐to‐face interviews were used with a sample of ethnic minority small business owner/managers and a matched control sample of white respondents in the West Midlands region of the UK.

Family and close associate networks were very important for the support of both ethnic minority and white owner/managers. All the respondents required loans from banks and other financial institutions, both at the start‐up stage and in subsequent years. For the ethnic minority owner/managers, the initial importance of financial institutions declined over the years. In contrast, in the control sample, institutional borrowing needs increased considerably. Ethnic minority owner/managers showed a preference for less intrusive and more “user friendly” financing options that allow them to remain in full control of their businesses.

Caution is advised in the use and generalisation of results emerging from qualitative research that involves small samples of respondents chosen from a restricted area of the UK.

The research shows the importance of “user‐friendly” financing options for owner/managers.

Examines how a finance gap for small firms might be addressed by means of government policy to support informal financing initiatives. A review of both the finance and the government policy literature provides the basis for discussing and conceptualising the financing difficulties faced by small firms, the role of informal financing in alleviating certain of these difficulties and the areas where public policy is currently usefully employed in addressing such financing problems. Undertakes a questionnaire survey to collect data concerning small business awareness and use of informal finance and to identify issues concerning difficulties encountered in gaining access to finance. The results suggest that a debt finance gap may exist for a minority of firms, though an equity finance gap may represent a more significant issue for small firms. Four categories of policy action emerge from the study towards the achievement of economic and social policy objectives.

Studies real cases of export development to examine the challenges which face small‐sized firms in financing their export activities and to identify new services which financial institutions can provide further to support export financing. Details data obtained during interviews conducted with the export financing executives of various financial institutions, and with entrepreneurs and managers of several companies in various stages of export activities and representing many industries. Aims to offer insights on the evolving export financing needs of small firms and to identify new opportunities towards which financial institutions can target their services and marketing strategies. Results indicate that several growth areas exist and banks which will lead in developing these opportunities will position themselves for good profits and growth.

Introduction: According to the existing research, one of the key determinants of a company’s survival and market development is its ability to get bank loans or other external sources of finance for business expansion.

Purpose: The study aims to explore the factors affecting access to finance and their effects on the development of medium- and small-sized businesses. These factors include business size and age, profitability, the length of a company’s association with a commercial bank, and banking sector characteristics.

Need for the study: It is particularly crucial for small- and medium-sized businesses since they often have trouble getting funding from banks because they don’t supply the banks with the information they need to assess their loan application prospects, however, when a company’s economic and financial situation improves, banks get access to more information about the firms, and financing is thus more readily available.

Methodology: This research is based on qualitative methods, focus on an elaborative study of the existing literature, and provide suggestions based on the same.

Findings: The findings show that small- and medium-sized businesses, like those in other European nations, have less access to finance than large businesses. It revealed that the company’s size, liquidity, profitability, and banking industry state significantly influence the availability of bank loans.

Women's contributions to socio-economic development of many developed and developing economies have improved substantially over the years. However, women participation in economic development and contributions to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are still inadequate as a result of insufficient access to finance to enhance their business performance and other challenging factors such as infrastructure, government policy and enabling business environment. This study aimed to examine the financing issues faced with female entrepreneurs in Nigeria in terms of supply side finance gap that hinders their performance. Other specific objectives are to: establish reasons for external source of finance; identify various financial options available for female-owned businesses in Nigeria; investigate the effect of financial options on the performances of female-owned businesses in Nigeria. Survey research design was employed with administration of structured questionnaire on nine hundred and seventy five (975) female entrepreneurs of selected Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from the population of nine million, six hundred and two thousand, two hundred and forty nine (9,602,249). Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics of regression analysis. Results of the regression analysis at 5% significant level using two-tailed test for all the variables of financial options displayed significant effects on the performance of female businesses in Nigeria. It was recommended that more female-owned businesses should take the advantage of these financial options to enhance business performance as only 38% of them have successfully utilized these financial sources to bridge the finance gap.