Gender and Sources of Finance in Finnish SMEs: A Contextual View

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of gender on the usage of different funding sources in a sample of Finnish SMEs. The aim is also to embed the results into the country-context, which is characterized by the long history of women's economic activity and bank-based capital markets. The funding patterns of women owned SMEs (WOS) and men owned SMEs (MOS) in the data are different: WOS are more likely to use additional equity investments by current owners as a funding source. They do so at least partly because of their positive attitudes towards this funding source. The results also contradict prior studies, which indicate that MOS have easier access to bank lending. Our results suggest that there are no gender-related differences in the use of bank debt. Also in contrast to prior studies, we find no differences in firm size or profitability between WOS and MOS. The results of our study both confirm and contradict the results of prior research and we suggest that this is due to the context-specific features of the Finnish labor market and the gender system as well as the bank-centered financial markets. Concerning the issues of gender and finance, policy makers and financial experts in any country should not uncritically rely on the research results arrived at in other countries.