Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Financial Practices: Facilitators and Inhibitors

The subject of this book, Financial Practices of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is one of the most pertinent topics in the present scenario. Globally, the contribution of SMEs in the economic growth of the country is well acknowledged. Specifically, the role of SMEs in generation of employment, evenly distribution of wealth and revitalization of the economy is critical for the wellbeing of a nation. In order to develop a vibrant and resilient SME sector, an understanding of the business practices, specifically financial practices of SMEs are paramount. This book provides the timely examination of the financial practices of SMEs, focusing on the similarities and differences in the financial practices of SMEs and large enterprises, professionalism in the financial practices of SMEs, predictors of the professionalism in the financial practices of SMEs and facilitators and inhibitors of the financial practices of SMEs.
The literature on SMEs financial practices is at its infancy and primarily focuses on SME financing. This book differs from the existing literature as it employs a data from a survey of Indian SMEs on varies aspects of the financial practices that include capital budgeting practices, capital structure practices, working capital management practices, profit appropriation practices, financial planning and control practices, accounting practices, enterprise governance practices and enterprise risk management practices. The above approach offers an insight on the issues related to management and resources that SMEs faces when managing financial aspects of its business. Further, a comparison of SMEs financial practices with large enterprises offers insights on the similarities and differences in the financial practices of SMEs and large enterprises. The uniqueness of this book is that it applies multivariate data analysis to develop a comprehensive model on the predictors of the professionalism in the financial practices of SMEs by incorporating enterprise characteristics and owner-manager/manager characteristics into the model. This book apart from incorporating the view of owner-manager/manager also incorporates the view of other stakeholders of SMEs such as regulators, commercial bank, industry association and others to offer insights on the facilitators and inhibitors of the financial practices of SMEs with a focus on Indian SMEs.
The orientation of this book is academic however, the book captures the important policy issues such as the professionalism in the financial practices, ease of doing business for SMEs, access to early-stage financing for SMEs among others. This book is a result of a mix approach, wherein the financial practices of SMEs were investigated based on the survey of a sample of SMEs in India. Next, the financial practices of SMEs were compared with the financial practices of large enterprises based on a study by Jain Singh and Yadav, 2013. Finally, the role of policy interventions on the financial practices of SME was analyzed based both on secondary data and the views of the various stakeholders ‘collected through open-ended structured interview method.