Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial literacy, access to finance and growth among small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the Midlands region of the UK. It assesses whether financial literacy assists SMEs to overcome information asymmetry, mitigate the need for collateral, optimises capital structure and improves access to finance. Design/methodology/approach -To gain a deeper insight into the complex relationship between financial literacy, access to finance and growth, qualitative research is carried out among SMEs that have operated for over five years or longer. Using the purposive sampling technique, 37 firms were selected based on size, location and characteristics, mainly from the City of Birmingham and the joining conurbations. Open-ended and a combination of dichotomous questions were used for the survey. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and thematically analyzed. Findings -Financial literacy is an interconnecting resource that mitigates information asymmetry and collateral deficit when evaluating loan applications, therefore financial literacy should be part of school curriculum. The analysis suggests enhanced financial literacy, reduces monitoring cost and serves to optimize firms' capital structure that positively impacts on SMEs growth. Financial management knowledge is recognized as the core resource that aids an effective decision making by owners of SMEs.Research limitations/implications -The limitation of this research is the small sample that limits its generalization. Its findings could be enhanced by a larger sample and by conducting comparative studies in other regions or economies. SMEs growth is seen as a strategic policy to stimulate enterprise but the finance gap tends to constrain that objective. The UK government's effort to improve access to finance and to mitigate excessive collateral demands by lenders has proved elusive. This empirical research provides evidence that financial literacy enhances access to finance and, in turn, promotes growth potentials. Practical implications -The results of this study advocate the provision of financial literacy at schools and target support for SMEs to acquire financial management skills in order to mitigate information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers. Social implications-Findings suggest that financial literacy mediates access to finance, enables enterprises to use optimal financial structure to mitigate business failure, creates employment and reduces public sector support for social benefits. Originality/value -This study is novel in that it examines financial literacy and its implications for access to finance and firm growth in the UK. The study is an effort to highlight the role of financial information in mitigating barriers to finance for SMEs.

Purpose: Against the background of growing concerns that development interventions can sometimes be a zero-sum game, this paper examines the unintended consequences of microfinance for women empowerment in Ghana.Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a participatory mixed-method approach including household questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews to investigate the dynamics of microfinance effects on women in communities of different vulnerability status in Ghana. Findings:The results of hierarchical regression, triadic closure and thematic analyses demonstrate that the economic benefits of microfinance for women is also directly associated with conflicts amongst spouses, girl child labour, polygyny and the neglect of perceived female-domestic responsibilities due to women's devotion to their enterprises. Originality/value:In the light of limited empirical evidence on potentially negative impacts of women empowerment interventions in Africa, this paper fills a critical gap in knowledge that will enable NGOs, policy makers and other stakeholders to design and implement more effective interventions that mitigate undesirable consequences.

PurposeEnergy and environment has gained traction within the field of entrepreneurship literature, but a comprehensive empirical study that examines the relationship between the cost of energy and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) innovation is an omission. Therefore, this novel study aims to examine the relationship between the cost of energy and SMEs innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by first examining the differential impact of the various generation sources on the price of electric energy. This research has enabled us to investigate and understand the transmission mechanism of increasing/decreasing electricity price on innovation decisions and activities of SMEs in SSA.Design/methodology/approachUsing quantitative approach, with the data from the World Bank Enterprise and Innovation Follow-up Surveys, the study utilises a Tobit model to test whether the generation mix (renewable and non-renewable generation sources) increases or decreases electricity prices and examine the impact of the cost of electric energy on SMEs innovation in SSA.FindingsThe findings of this study shows that the cost of electricity affects negatively on SMEs innovation decision and activities of SMEs in SSA. The impact of renewables on the price of electricity has a larger magnitude relative to that of non-renewables. This finding has implications for policy makers promoting renewable energy without a policy design to tackle the unintended price effect of promoting renewable energy.Originality/valueThis is the first study to introduce cost of energy into an innovation model and to empirically examine the role of cost of energy for innovation activities of SMEs in SSA. Further, it examines the sources of generation on electricity price in SSA. The study contributes towards the empirical literature, and the findings also have implication for policy makers regarding the unintended consequences of promoting the transition to low-carbon electricity generation sources on SMEs via the cost of doing business implication.

In recent years, there is increasing appetite for regulation of microfinance services after the 2008 financial crisis. Policy questions such as whether competitive microfinance institution (MFI) requires strong regulation to reduce, for example, credit risk or competition and regulation operate in the opposite direction, which each tends to dampen the effect of the other, are an empirical issue that this paper provides answers based on data on Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period 1995–2015, utilizing panel data approaches. Finding from the study indicates that low competition increases credit risk among MFIs in SSA, which regulation helps reduce such behaviour. The effect of regulation on credit risk is conditional on the level of competition, at the first percentile of competition (imply more competition); regulation does not reduce credit risk behaviour of MFIs but does at competition level above the 25th percentile (imply less competition). Regulation, on the other hand, does not affect operational risk at any level of competition. These findings have implications for policy formulation on the regulation and operations of MFIs in SSA. Our findings suggest that the MFI industry could be regulated efficiently if policymakers develop policies targeted at reducing credit risk exposures of MFIs than their exposure to operational risk.

This paper examines the impact of environmental tax on SME innovation and how SME financing constraint moderates this relationship. Given the paucity of research on the implications of financing constraints on SMEs' green innovative activities, the study adopts cross-country panel data to investigate the impact of environmental tax on SME's innovative activities across 24 OECD countries for the period 2000-2019. Results from our study indicate that an increase in environmental tax leads to a decrease in SME innovation. Further, we also find that financing constraint positively moderates the relationship between environmental tax and SME innovation. Our findings shed new light on the theoretical and practical implications of financing constraints on SMEs' green innovative activities. Managerial Relevance StatementThis paper aims to create awareness amongst managers of the implication of environmental tax on SMEs financing constraints, thereby requiring managerial decisions and strategies to avoid attracting environmental taxes to help them innovate. Thus, the results of this papers will assist SMEs managers in responding to the impact of environmental taxes by pursuing policies that mitigate the impact of environmental taxes. Besides, evidence of how SMEs' financing constraint moderates the relationship between environmental tax and SMEs' innovation has been provided in this paper to guide managers.