Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey

Financial capability goes beyond the knowledge of financial concepts and includes behaviors, skills, and attitudes that enable sound financial decision making. Owners and managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) require a distinct set of fin...

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Main Author:	World Bank Group
Format:	Technical Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	FINANCIAL CAPABILITY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ACCESS TO FINANCE FINANCIAL PLANNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCOUNTING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS SME FINANCE SMEs FIRM SIZE SURVEY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/884291527663849364/Investigating-the-financial-capabilities-of-SMEs-lessons-from-a-24-country-survey-technical-note http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30058

id	okr-10986-30058
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-300582021-05-25T09:16:00Z Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey World Bank Group FINANCIAL CAPABILITY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ACCESS TO FINANCE FINANCIAL PLANNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCOUNTING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS SME FINANCE SMEs FIRM SIZE SURVEY Financial capability goes beyond the knowledge of financial concepts and includes behaviors, skills, and attitudes that enable sound financial decision making. Owners and managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) require a distinct set of financial capabilities in order to manage finances and grow their businesses sustainably. Improving the financial capability of SME decision makers can significantly boost SME growth and stimulate sustainable economic development in low- and middle-income countries, especially in areas with large informal job sectors. This report details a World Bank Group project that designed and conducted pilot SME surveys in 24 countries and aimed to establish a comprehensive understanding of SME financial capability that is essential for designing policies to promote financial health in the SME sector. The project’s combination of self-assessment and direct testing methodologies, together with behavioral questions, yields a comprehensive view of SME financial capability that clearly identifies the clusters of vulnerable SMEs and recommended areas of policy intervention and support. In contrast to the traditional assessments of SMEs based on their past performance, the project’s new survey instrument offers identification of strengths and underperformance at earlier stages of the business development cycle, enabling early stage targeted policies to help SMEs improve performance and attract investors and technical support. 2018-07-20T14:40:47Z 2018-07-20T14:40:47Z 2018-06 Technical Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/884291527663849364/Investigating-the-financial-capabilities-of-SMEs-lessons-from-a-24-country-survey-technical-note http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30058 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Financial Sector Study Economic & Sector Work
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	FINANCIAL CAPABILITY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ACCESS TO FINANCE FINANCIAL PLANNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCOUNTING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS SME FINANCE SMEs FIRM SIZE SURVEY
spellingShingle	FINANCIAL CAPABILITY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES ACCESS TO FINANCE FINANCIAL PLANNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACCOUNTING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS SME FINANCE SMEs FIRM SIZE SURVEY World Bank Group Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey
description	Financial capability goes beyond the knowledge of financial concepts and includes behaviors, skills, and attitudes that enable sound financial decision making. Owners and managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) require a distinct set of financial capabilities in order to manage finances and grow their businesses sustainably. Improving the financial capability of SME decision makers can significantly boost SME growth and stimulate sustainable economic development in low- and middle-income countries, especially in areas with large informal job sectors. This report details a World Bank Group project that designed and conducted pilot SME surveys in 24 countries and aimed to establish a comprehensive understanding of SME financial capability that is essential for designing policies to promote financial health in the SME sector. The project’s combination of self-assessment and direct testing methodologies, together with behavioral questions, yields a comprehensive view of SME financial capability that clearly identifies the clusters of vulnerable SMEs and recommended areas of policy intervention and support. In contrast to the traditional assessments of SMEs based on their past performance, the project’s new survey instrument offers identification of strengths and underperformance at earlier stages of the business development cycle, enabling early stage targeted policies to help SMEs improve performance and attract investors and technical support.
format	Technical Paper
author	World Bank Group
author_facet	World Bank Group
author_sort	World Bank Group
title	Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey
title_short	Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey
title_full	Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey
title_fullStr	Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey
title_full_unstemmed	Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey
title_sort	investigating the financial capabilities of smes : lessons from a 24-country survey
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/884291527663849364/Investigating-the-financial-capabilities-of-SMEs-lessons-from-a-24-country-survey-technical-note http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30058
_version_	1764471059146342400

Investigating the Financial Capabilities of SMEs : Lessons from a 24-Country Survey

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