Research On The Impact Of Digital Inclusive Finance On Credit Availability Of SMES

Since the reform and opening up,small and medium-sized enterprises(SMES)have made great contribution to the rapid development of our economy,and are the main force to realize the economic growth.Today,in the process of developing a high-quality economy,SMES are still a crucial basic force and the main group of innovation activities in the country.However,the vast majority of SMES have some obstacles during their growth,such as small enterprise scale,low information transparency and the exclusion of traditional financial institutions,which make it difficult for them to obtain sufficient credit funds to meet their business needs.Low credit availability will lead to the lack of market competitiveness and low operating efficiency of SMES.The emergence of digital inclusive finance brings new opportunities to solve the plight of SMES.This kind of financial services based on digital technology shows great universality,convenience and efficiency,which can make up for the limitations of SMES in the traditional financial environment.Therefore,it is of great value and significance to study the impact of digital inclusive finance on the credit availability of SMES.The research samples of the article are small and medium-sized enterprises on the GEM.In order to explore the relationship between digital financial inclusion and SMES credit availability and its influence mechanism,this paper starts from three aspects: theoretical analysis,current situation analysis and empirical analysis.Three chains are summarized: "Digital inclusive finance and credit availability of SMES","Digital inclusive finance,banking competition and credit availability of SMES",and "Digital inclusive finance,financial supervision and credit availability of SMES".The financial data of SMES from 2015 to 2020 were selected to match the provincial-level data of Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index,and the bidirectional fixed effect model,intermediary effect model and moderating effect model were used for empirical test.Furthermore,the heterogeneity of property rights and industry attributes of enterprises was further studied.The results show that,first,the development of digital inclusive finance can significantly improve the credit availability of SMES,and its sub-dimensions also show a significant positive impact;Second,digital inclusive finance will enhance the credit availability of SMES with the strengthening of financial regulation.Third,in addition to directly improving the availability of credit to SMES,digital inclusive finance can also enhance the availability of credit to SMES by promoting regional banking competition.Fourthly,in the analysis of the heterogeneity of property rights and industry attributes of enterprises,it is also found that digital inclusive finance has a significant positive effect on the credit availability of non-state-owned SMES and high-tech SMES.In order to help digital inclusive finance better serve SMES,this paper puts forward the following four suggestions: first,promote the digital transformation of financial institutions such as banks;Second,strengthen financial regulation to optimize the financial market environment and facilitate the innovative and safe development of digital inclusive finance;Third,build a sound social credit system and a "one-core,diversified" digital inclusive finance system;Fourth,improve the use of digital inclusive finance by state-owned and nonhigh-tech SMES.