A Study On The Impact Of Social Capital On Financing Constraints Of Small And Medium-sized Enterprises

The financing constraints of SMEs have always been the focus of scholars' attention.At present,the research on financing constraints of SMEs mainly focuses on micro factors such as the size of enterprises and the nature of property rights,and financial development,financial structure,market competition and other factors in the institutional environment.On the one hand,the disadvantages of “congenital deficiency” of SMEs are difficult to change;on the other hand,China is a developing country with imperfect system,which has limitations in improving the financing dilemma of SMEs.So it is necessary to turn to the informal system to find ways to relieve the financing constraints of SMEs.Therefore,this paper takes social capital as the breakthrough point,and deeply explores the role of social capital in financing activities of SMEs.This paper studies the ways in which social capital influences SMEs' financing activities,and the differences of the impact of social capital on SMEs' financing activities under different institutional backgrounds.Provide the basis for releasing the financing dilemma of SMEs from the perspective of informal institutionsThis paper studies the impact of social capital on financing constraints of SMEs from both mechanism and empirical aspects.Firstly,it expands the extension of social capital,dividing social capital into four dimensions: social trust,social norms,social network and information sharing.Secondly,this paper analyses the mechanism of social capital influencing SMEs' financing constraints from the above four aspects,and then establishes a more comprehensive social capital index system on the basis of theoretical analysis.This paper chooses the unbalanced panel data of SMEs listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2017 as the research sample,establishes a model to empirically test the impact of social capital and its four dimensions on the financing constraints of SMEs.The results show that:(1)At present,China's SMEs face significant external financing constraints.(2)Social capital helps to alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs,and the four dimensions that constitute social capital—social trust,social norms,social networks,and information sharing—have played a beneficial role in easing SME financing constraints.(3)In areas with low marketization levels,social capital and its four dimensions(social trust,social norms,social networks,information sharing)have a significant mitigation effect on SMEs' financing constraints.In areas with high level of marketization,social trust can significantly improve SMEs' financing constraints,but its effectiveness is weakened compared with those in areas with low level of marketization,while social norms,social networks and information sharing have no significant impact on SMEs' financing constraints.Therefore,this paper proposes to improve the level of social capital development from four aspects: strengthening communication and cooperation with its stakeholders,increasing policy support for the construction of social intermediary organizations,strengthening the construction of social credit environment,and cultivating the awareness of building social capital,so as to relax the financing constraints of SMEs.