VIETNAM-NETHERLANDS PROGRAM FOR MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS Networks and Bank Financing: The Study of SMEs in Vietnam A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS By DANG NGUYEN KHANG Academic Supervisor: DR. DINH CONG KHAI HCM, December, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACTS Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) play crucial roles in the economy. They generate over 60% employment in many countries and are the key factor for the economic growth. SMEs, however, face constraints to access external finance, which negatively impacts on their business performance and growth.
Therefore, a research on SMEs’ ability to access to external finance poses a significant important issue for academic scholars and policy makers. In such emerging countries as Vietnam, bank financing tends to be the most importance financial resources for SMEs. However, the bank employs credit rationing because of asymmetric information between banks and SMEs. Networks may be the most effective channels for SMEs to overcome information asymmetries, thus enabling them to gain access to external financial resources.
The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of supporting networks and network diversity on banking financial accessibility of SMEs in Vietnam. Particularly, four types of networks including networking with government officials, bank officials, business associations and network diversity will be examined in depth. Longitudinal data set of more than 1500 manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam from 2007 to 2011, random effect estimator and Stata program will be employed in this research. Key words: Networks, Bank financing, SMEs i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENT Foremost, I would like to gratefully and sincerely thank my supervisor, Dr.
Dinh Cong Khai, for his valuable guidance, insightful comments and supports in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. Besides, I would also like to thank Dr. Truong Dang Thuy and Dr. Pham Khanh Nam, who gave me assistance and guidance through my thesis process.
Another special thank goes to all the lecturers for their wonderful knowledge, and program administrator and technical staffs at the Vietnam – Netherlands Program for their help during the time I studied in the program. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friend for their support and encouragement not only through my thesis process but also throughout my life. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CONTENTS ABSTRACTS. ii LIST OF TABLES.
vi LIST OF FIGURES. Scope of the research. The structure of the research. SMEs and Networks.
Overview of SMEs. Credit rationing theory by Stiglitz and Weiss (1981). Strength of weak ties theory by Granovetter (1973). 13 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Resources Dependency Theory (RDT) by Pfeffer and Salancik (2003). Variables and measurement. Estimating fixed effects. Estimating Random effects.
Pool OLS, Fixed effects or Random effects. Choosing Pool OLS and Fixed effects by F-test. Choosing the Pool OLS and Random effects by LM-test. Choosing Fixed effect and Random effects by Hausman test.
Network over time. Networking with government officials and bank loan. Networking with bank officials and bank loan. 41 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Networking with business associations and bank loan. Network diversity and bank loan. Selection estimator results. F-test: Choosing between FE and Pool OLS.
LM-test : Choosing between RE and Pool OLS. Hausman test : Choosing between FE and RE. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATION. Limitation and Future research.
54 APPENDIX A: CHOOSING APPROPRIABLE ESTIMATOR. 59 APPENDIX B: ESTIMATION RESULTS. 61 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Classification of SMEs in Vietnam .2: Share of SMEs in total Enterprises .3: The Ownership structure of SMEs .1: Variables and measurement .2: Size of SMEs in the sample .1: Description of the sample .2: Correlation matrix between variables of the sample .3: Network over time (mean value) .4: Level changed of network over time (%) .6: LM-test results .7: Hausman-test results.1: Fixed Effects result .2: LM-test result .3: Hausman-test result .1: The estimated result. 61 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Process of choosing the appropriate estimator .1: Networking with government and bank loan rate.2: Networking with bank and bank loan rate .3: Networking with business associations and bank loan rate .4: Network diversity and bank loan rate.
43 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS FE Fixed effect GDP Gross Domestic Product Pool OLS Ordinary Least Squares RDT Resources Dependency Theory RE Random effect SMEs Small and medium size enterprises ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. INTRODUCTION Firstly, this section presents problem statements in which the author will explain the significance of networks and bank financing topic. Based on the problem of this topic, research objective and research questions will be formed in the second part. Subsequently, the scope of this research and methodology of solving topic problems are depicted.
Finally, the structure of the research is presented. Problem Statements Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) play crucial roles not only in developing economies but also in developed economies. In many countries they generate over 60% employment (Beck, 2007) and are the key factor for economic growth (Ganbold, 2008). SMEs, however, face constraints to access external finance resources because of high uncertainty (Beck & Demirguc-Kunt, 2006).
Pissarides (1999) argues that lack of financial resources is one of the three-most central obstacles which obstructs business performance and growth of small entrepreneurs all over the world. Therefore, research on the ability to access external financial resource for SMEs raise a significant issue for academic scholars and policy makers over the world (Berger & Udell, 2006). In emerging countries like Vietnam, the capital market, angel investors and venture capital are incipient, so bank financing seems to be significantly formal external financial sources for SMEs (N. In addition, according to CIEM (2012), formal credit is the most importance financial source for SMEs investments.
Formal-credit accounts for 46.3% of total SMEs’ financial investment. However, over 39% of firms have limited 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com accessibility or are rationed to bank financing (CIEM, 2012). Nguyen, Le , and Freeman (2006) explain that banks face uncertainty and risks when they lend SMEs because of asymmetric information between them and SMEs. Stiglitz and Weiss (1981) argue that credit rationing is mostly rooted from asymmetric information.
In addition, emerging countries usually and currently lack of formal information institutions (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2006). To survive and grow SMEs must, therefore, find solutions to overcome information asymmetries between banks and SMEs. Granovetter (1973) points out that network can solve asymmetric information, moreover, increase firms’ reputation and approach external resources. In Vietnam, most previous studies about the effects of networks on accessibility of bank financing issue use cross-section data, which limits the validity of implied causes of networks and bank financing relationship (N.
Le, Venkatesh, & Nguyen, 2006). In the expectations of reducing the limit of cross-section data, this research uses longitudinal data sets from 2007 to 2011 to investigate the effects of networks on bank financing. Baltagi (2008) argues that panel data provides many advantages such as minimizing the heterogeneity among individuals; providing more information, less collinearity, more degree of freedom and more efficiency than cross section and time-series data. Moreover, panel data is widely recognized for its ability to control variables, which cannot detect in pure cross section and time-series, and is more efficient in research dynamics of adjustment.
This study focuses on investigating the role of supporting networks with the ability to access bank financing of SMEs in Vietnam. Particularly, three types of networks, which embrace networks with government officials, bank officials, and business associations, will be 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com closely examined. Another primary objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of network diversity on bank financing of SMEs. This research is inspired by two studies about networks and bank financing of N.
Le, Venkatesh, & Nguyen (2006) and N. However, compared with two these articles, this research have some differences which are expected to create additional values. Firstly, this study uses updated panel data, enabling it to fill the limitation of cross- section data which were used in the two previous researches. Secondly, in the way of measuring networks, the two previous researches use qualitative measurement while this study uses quantitative measurement which is more detailed and accurate.
Finally, this study investigates two different networks including networking with bank officials and network diversity, which may have significant effects on bank financing but are not considered in the two former studies. Research objectives This study aims to examine the effects of networks on bank financing accessibility of SMEs, which facilitate SMEs to develop policies to access the bank financing based on their networks. Research questions This paper attempts to answer following research questions: 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com + Main question Do networks affect bank financing accessibility of SMEs? + Specific questions Does networking with government officials affect bank financing accessibility of SMEs? Does networking with bank officials affect bank financing accessibility of SMEs? Does networking with business associations affect bank financing accessibility of SMEs? Does network diversity affect bank financing accessibility of SMEs? 1. Scope of the research This research investigates impacts of networks on bank financing accessibility of manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam from 2007 to 2011.
Manufacturing SMEs is the main focus of this research because of two reasons. Firstly, manufacturing sector plays important roles in the economy; therefore, understanding more about this sector is significant. Secondly, data of manufacturing SMEs is available. According to Naudé and Szirmai (2012), the manufacturing sector holds a crucial role in economic development.
Especially in developing countries, it is a trigger for economic growth and catch-up. Manufacturing sector provides a country with opportunities to gain 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com benefits from economics of sale, aborting and approaching technology, providing jobs at different skill levels. In Vietnam, according to GSO (2012), the manufacturing sector accounted for over 19% of whole GDP, and occupied over 87% GDP of the industry sector in 2011. In addition, it used 13.8% employed population, and was ranked second after Agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (48.
Additionally, nearly 90% of manufacturing enterprises are SMEs (Hakkala & Kokko, 2007). Data of manufacturing SMEs is available in Vietnam. According to CIEM (2012), SMEs are central in the development process in Vietnam. They have important contributions in economic growth and employment.
However, these enterprises face many constraints. For the purpose of providing deeper insights into SMEs sector and assisting policy research, CIEM surveyed more than 2.500 manufacturing SMEs in 10 different provinces from 2007 to 2011. These data are publicized and are available in CIEM website. Methodology This research adopts the quantitative method.
Based on network theory and some empirical studies, the author builds up the bank loan rate-networks relationship model to measure the effects of specific types of networks on SMEs’s bank loan accessibility. In addition, selected panel data of more than 1500 SMEs from 2007 to 2011, random effect estimator, and Stata program would be employed. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The structure of the research This thesis includes five sections, and the four remain sections are structured as bellow: Section two, literatures review, clarifies some key concepts.
Moreover, the overview of SMEs in Vietnam will be presented, and some related theories and empirical studies are reviewed. This section ends by building up four hypotheses and a conceptual framework. Section three presents methodology to reach this thesis’ objectives. It includes: conducting models, process of collecting data and choosing the appropriate estimator to run the regression.