SME-bank relationship: organisation-to-organisation or person-to-person? A view from Japan

Zakaria Boulanouar (), Lobna Essid, Abderazak Bakhouche and Azilawati Banchit

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2023, vol. 24, issue 3/4, 526-555

Abstract: Research on the SME-bank relationship has focused on the relationship between two organisations - the bank and the firm. This study argues why it needs to be looked at between two people - the loan officer and the SME owner/manager. Among the research questions developed were the reasons for the existence of such a relationship and the form(s) it takes. Interviews with loan officers at a representative sample of Japanese banks were used to collect data. The analysis revealed the existence of such a relationship; however, due to the job rotation system prevailing in Japan, it is between the SME manager/owner and the bank. Banks build such a relationship to compensate for the lack of information about SMEs and refer to it as one of 'trust' and 'mutual support'. Without adequate alternatives that are relevant to SMEs' peculiarities, fintech has the potential to rob banks of this crucial instrument for accurately assessing SMEs' creditworthiness.

Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises; SME; relationship-banking; loan officer; SME-owner/manager; Japan. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=132343 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijbpma:v:24:y:2023:i:3/4:p:526-555

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Business Performance Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().