SMEs often have severe difficulties raising money. Considering the bank-dominated characteristic of economies in Asia, banks are the main source of financing. In order to prevent the accumulation of non-performing loans in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, it is crucial for...

This paper tests whether local financial development matters for SMEs' growth performance. We develop a theoretical model framework based on banks' and firms' profit-maximizing behavior that critically hinges upon credit default risk ratio. We argue that an expansion of branch network would...

Due to the asymmetry of information between borrowers that are small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and lenders (banks), many banks are considering this sector as a risky sector. It is crucial for banks to be able to distinguish healthy from risky companies in order to reduce their...

In recent years, the Vietnamese economy has shown signs of financial distress, and especially small banks have experienced serious liquidity and solvency problems. Based on the new policy of the State Bank of Vietnam, in order to ensure safe and effective banking operations, the Basel II accord...

In 2017, global investment in renewables and energy efficiency declined by 3% and there is a risk that it will slow further; clearly fossil fuels still dominate energy investment. This could threaten the expansion of green energy needed to provide energy security and meet climate and clean air...

The credit risk database (CRD) makes it possible to mitigate the problem of information asymmetry between SMEs and financial institutions and contributes to improving SMEs' access to finance by collecting a large number of financial statements through the mechanism of SME finances and...

Within a patriarchal society, women are placed in a precarious societal positioning that leads to a prevalence of gender inequality in education, financial literacy, and access to finance. In the context of Asia, where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most Asian...

Hong Kong, China's housing market witnessed dramatic appreciations recently, with the price index for private domestic housing units being 3 times higher than 10 years ago. This trend is supported by both internal and external factors, as illustrated in this paper. By providing a theoretical...

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a key role in the economy of many countries. They are usually thought to be in charge of increasing social welfare. At the same time, their relatively low performance poses several problems, including slowing down economic growth. This effect is especially...

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationship between ownership identity and the performance of firms in terms of profitability and solvency. Using cross-sectional data covering over 25,000 firms worldwide and by employing various empirical methods, we find robust...