Small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs’) access to finance in selected East Asian economies

Authors

Sothea Oum, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia
Charles Harvie, University of WollongongFollow
Dionisius Narjoko, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia

RIS ID

44123

Publication Details

Oum, S., Harvie, C. & Narjoko, D. (2011). Small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs’) access to finance in selected East Asian economies. The 8th SMEs in a Global Economy Conference: Rising to the Global Challenge: Entrepreneurship and SMEs development in Asia (pp. 261-298). Thailand: Khon Kaen University.

Abstract

This paper attempts to shed light on the issues of SME financing in selected East Asian economies. It elaborates on the following questions: (i) what are the key sources of external finance for SMEs (ii) the extent to which, if any, the SME sector identified by size, country and in aggregate for a sample of countries in East Asia are systematically disadvantaged, or rationed, with respect to access to external financing, (iii) what are the key factors contributing to the extent of this rationing (stringent requirements) focusing upon firm characteristics, owner characteristics and firm performance, and (iv) identify the importance of rationing for the performance of SMEs in a sample of East Asian economies.