How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an indispensable role in China’s economy through making huge contributions to GDP, national employment, financial innovation and government taxation. However, SMEs in China have long faced financing constraints due to their inherent problems, such as fi...

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Main Authors: Yang Jian, Zhang Yawen, Gong Jinguo, Liu Tong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2024-12-01
Series:ECONOMICS
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2024-0031
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author Yang Jian
Zhang Yawen
Gong Jinguo
Liu Tong
author_facet Yang Jian
Zhang Yawen
Gong Jinguo
Liu Tong
author_sort Yang Jian
collection DOAJ
description Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an indispensable role in China’s economy through making huge contributions to GDP, national employment, financial innovation and government taxation. However, SMEs in China have long faced financing constraints due to their inherent problems, such as financial information asymmetry, immature governance mechanisms, and lack of collateral under the traditional financial system, which have hindered their long-term development. In recent years, financial technology (Fintech) has entered a rapid development track, especially in China, providing new ideas and methods for solving the financing difficulties of SMEs from a technical perspective. In order to examine this, this paper measures the degree of financing constraints through the cash flow sensitivity of cash model and explores how the Fintech development affects financing constraints of SMEs in China and how this impact further communicated to the performance and the risks of SMEs by adopting two-way fixed effects models. The results show that Fintech could alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs. Furthermore, the mediating role of ownership is identified, presenting a better mitigating effect of Fintech on the financing constraints for private SMEs. In addition, both the performance and the risks of SMEs showed the upward single-sided U-shaped relationship with the increase of the Fintech development index, which indicates that Fintech could amplify performance while magnifying the risks of SMEs. The findings of this paper offer an important implication for China that regulatory authorities should consider and balance the financing constraint mitigation effect and risk amplification effect of Fintech.
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spelling doaj-art-c42f70cb10c848979267b5cdeaeeda342025-01-02T05:58:42ZengSciendoECONOMICS2303-50132024-12-0112313210.2478/eoik-2024-0031How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From ChinaYang Jian0Zhang Yawen1Gong Jinguo2Liu Tong31University of Edinburgh, Business School, UK2Hangzhou Xingyu Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., China2Hangzhou Xingyu Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., China3Technical University of Munich, GermanySmall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an indispensable role in China’s economy through making huge contributions to GDP, national employment, financial innovation and government taxation. However, SMEs in China have long faced financing constraints due to their inherent problems, such as financial information asymmetry, immature governance mechanisms, and lack of collateral under the traditional financial system, which have hindered their long-term development. In recent years, financial technology (Fintech) has entered a rapid development track, especially in China, providing new ideas and methods for solving the financing difficulties of SMEs from a technical perspective. In order to examine this, this paper measures the degree of financing constraints through the cash flow sensitivity of cash model and explores how the Fintech development affects financing constraints of SMEs in China and how this impact further communicated to the performance and the risks of SMEs by adopting two-way fixed effects models. The results show that Fintech could alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs. Furthermore, the mediating role of ownership is identified, presenting a better mitigating effect of Fintech on the financing constraints for private SMEs. In addition, both the performance and the risks of SMEs showed the upward single-sided U-shaped relationship with the increase of the Fintech development index, which indicates that Fintech could amplify performance while magnifying the risks of SMEs. The findings of this paper offer an important implication for China that regulatory authorities should consider and balance the financing constraint mitigation effect and risk amplification effect of Fintech.https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2024-0031fintechfinancing constraintstwo-way fe modelcash flow sensitivity of cash modelc10d22g21m20
spellingShingle Yang Jian
Zhang Yawen
Gong Jinguo
Liu Tong
How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China
ECONOMICS
fintech
financing constraints
two-way fe model
cash flow sensitivity of cash model
c10
d22
g21
m20
title How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China
title_full How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China
title_fullStr How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China
title_full_unstemmed How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China
title_short How Does Fintech Development Affect Financing Constraints of Smes? Evidence From China
title_sort how does fintech development affect financing constraints of smes evidence from china
topic fintech
financing constraints
two-way fe model
cash flow sensitivity of cash model
c10
d22
g21
m20
url https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2024-0031
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AT zhangyawen howdoesfintechdevelopmentaffectfinancingconstraintsofsmesevidencefromchina
AT gongjinguo howdoesfintechdevelopmentaffectfinancingconstraintsofsmesevidencefromchina
AT liutong howdoesfintechdevelopmentaffectfinancingconstraintsofsmesevidencefromchina