5 Conclusions
This study empirically explores the association between loan officers’ perceptions of SMEs’ AIQ and trust and the disposition to grant them credit. Additionally, it takes into account the possible effect of external audit in the proposed research model for credit granting decision-making. We use original data on bank loan officers’ perceptions of the above-mentioned variables, collected using an online questionnaire.
5.1 Discussion and implications
From a theoretical point of view, we reach three major findings. Firstly, we find that for audited SMEs, the perception that the accounting information is high quality directly affects loan officers’ willingness to grant them credit. In the opposite case, that is to say, for not-audited SMEs, AIQ does not play a direct role in the credit decision, although it is relevant in trust formation. This result gives a first idea of the importance of providing the professional judgement of an auditor about the quality of the financial statements when trying to access bank financing. Definitely, loan officers perceive that AIQ is better if the financial statements are audited, and in that case, they are more willing to grant credit to the SMEs. In other words, external audit helps overcoming information asymmetry problems and increases the probability that loan officers allow SMEs to get credit. This way, we agree with previous research that states that the audit report is crucial when credit institutions make decisions about the provision of funds (GómezGuillamón and Vidal 2008; Huguet and Gandía 2014). In this case, we demonstrate the relevance of the audit service asking directly to the loan officers, whose answers provide evidence that the quality of the accounting information exerts a positive effect on credit granting in the case that the financial statements are audited.
