Financial planning and access to financing in small and mediumsized companies in the Venezuelan manufacturing sector

Abstract

The relationship between the presence of financial planning and difficulties regarding access to financing in small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the Venezuelan manufacturing sector is studied. This is an explicative type research work, designed as non-experimental, crosssectional and correlational field work, applied to a sample of 67 SMEs. A questionnaire was applied and a review was made of the relevant literature, to establish the characteristics of the selected variables, according to the high-medium-low measurement for each of the selected indicators. The preliminary results make it possible to affirm that the financial planning variable demonstrates a medium presence in the companies, with medium and low levels of coordination among their components. Average access to financing is classified as low, marked by a medium-high access to credit from suppliers, medium access in reinvestment of profits and medium-low access to bank credit lines. There is also evidence of financing patterns compatible with the Pecking Order Theory. The conclusion is that there is a weak relationship between the characteristics of financial planning and the levels of access to financing, with the inference that the behavior of these variables is determined by a multiplicity of factors.

Keywords

• Small and medium-sized enterprises
• SMEs
• financial economics
• financial planning
• access to financing
• strategic planning