Purpose

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depend on a large measure on commercial banks for external capital, and US SMEs are increasingly experiencing bank credit constraints and resorting to costly alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of lender organizational complexity on SME financing shortfalls. In particular, it examines the credit shortage effects associated with the SME's reliance on bank holding company (BHC) owned, as opposed to independent, lenders.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on agency–theoretic rationales, the authors posit that both hierarchical and horizontal complexity associated with present-day BHC structures will diminish an affiliated bank's ability and willingness to properly underwrite SME credit needs. Consequently, they hypothesize that SMEs whose commercial lenders are BHC affiliates are likely to experience greater credit shortages. This hypothesis was tested using exhaustive financial data from a large and nationally representative sample of US SMEs.

Findings

Greater SME reliance on loans from BHC lenders was found to be associated with a greater use of late trade–credit payments. The latter is an expensive form of financing and a generally accepted indicator of shortages in conventional (and cheaper) bank credit.

Originality/value

Despite the evolution toward more complex bank organizational forms, especially among community banks, the implications for SME lending are not yet fully understood. This paper's contribution is to offer a first examination of the impact of post-deregulation BHC structures on SME financing shortfalls.

中文翻译：

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小企业债务融资：贷方结构复杂性的影响

目的

中小型企业（SME）很大程度上依靠商业银行获取外部资本，而美国SME越来越受到银行信贷的限制，并诉诸于成本高昂的替代方案。本文的目的是调查贷方组织的复杂性对中小企业融资缺口的影响。尤其是，它研究了与中小企业依赖于拥有的银行控股公司（BHC）而不是独立的贷方有关的信贷短缺影响。

设计/方法/方法

基于代理理论的理论基础，作者认为，与当今的BHC结构相关的层次和水平复杂性将降低附属银行正确承销SME信贷需求的能力和意愿。因此，他们假设以商业放款人为BHC子公司的中小企业可能会面临更大的信贷短缺。使用来自美国中小型企业的具有全国代表性的大型样本的详尽财务数据对这一假设进行了检验。

发现

人们发现，中小企业对BHC贷方贷款的依赖程度更大，这与后期贸易信贷付款的更多使用有关。后者是一种昂贵的融资形式，也是公认的传统（且价格更低）银行信贷短缺的指标。

创意/价值

尽管已经朝着更复杂的银行组织形式（尤其是社区银行之间）发展，但对中小企业贷款的影响尚未完全理解。本文的贡献是，提供了对解除监管后的BHC结构对中小企业融资缺口的影响的初步研究。