Factors Affecting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ Accessibility to Institutional Finance in Pakistan: Moderating Role of Government Support

Abstract

The study aims to explore the factors influencing the accessibility of small and medium-sized enterprises to institutional finance and moderating role of government supports in the relationship between collateral security, interest rates, financial information, business ownership, and accessibility to finance facilities in Pakistan. The moderation multiple regression analysis was applied for analysis using SMART PLS3.0 software. A fully structured questionnaire is used for gathering data or information from the respondents. The results showed that all the variables are directly and significantly influencing access to finance except interest rates, but interest rates indirectly affect the dependent. The government support does moderate in the interaction between collateral security, interest rate, and financial accessibility. On the other hand, the variable doesn't quite moderate the interaction between financial information, business ownership, and financial accessibility in Pakistan. This research aimed at making access to finance services essentially helpful to the SME industry by knowing what impacts their financial accessibility and helping lending institutions in understanding what effectively prevents the SME industry from accessing finance-related services in Pakistan.