An Empirical Study On The Relationship Between SMEs' Social Capital And Financing Efficiency

In the new era, with technology developing and society progressing, inter-enterprise transaction costs have been greatly reduced, which makes small and medium enterprises continue to be a viable organization form. Particularly, the special structure of China's resource endowments determines SMEs characterized by labor-intensive will have a comparative advantage. SMEs play a significant role in the creation of value, promoting technological innovation, optimizing industrial structure, boosting market prosperity, increasing employment opportunities and facilitating the people's lives, thus promoting economic development and social stability. However, SMEs have faced a lot of obstacles in financing, which will seriously restrict their persistant development. Therefore, it seems both urgent and important to study the reasons for SMEs financing difficulties and explore effective solutions to match capital supply and demand.Based on substantive literature, we conclude that information asymmetry is the ultimate cause of SMEs' financing difficulties. Thus it is essential to lessen information asymmetries between SMEs and financial institutions. Studies have shown that the higher trust and reciprocity of the relationship between enterprises and external orgnizations, the more information, knowledge and channels the enterprises will acquire, which will help SMEs improving financing efficiency. In other words, enterprises' social capital positively correlates with information acquisition and absorption; information acquisition and absorption positively correlates with financing efficiency; and information acquisition and absorption is mediator between enterprises' social capital and financing efficiency.This paper adopted the method of questionnaire, and we collected 124 valid ones out of of 160 questionnaires. Through reliability analysis, validity analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis of the samples, we successfully tested an empirical hypothesis of the model. We not only validated that level of mutual trust of SMEs' linkages with market partners, debt financing institutions and bureaucratic organization had a significant positive impact on financing efficiency, but also validated that business environment and executive team's social skills had an indirect positive impact on financing efficiency. Besides, we validated that information acquisition and absorption acted as a partial mediator between enterprises' social capital and financing efficiency. These findings basically correspond with our primary construct and assumptions.Finally, according to the research findings, we put forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions in order to improve SMEs' financing efficiency.