A Study of Effect of Financial Access on the Growth of SMEs with Special Reference to Sports Industry in India

SMEs form a large part of private sector in many developed and developing countries, there is substantial evidence that small firms face larger growth constraints and have less access to formal sources of external finance, potentially explaining the lack of SMEs’ contribution to growth. Financial and institutional development helps alleviate SMEs’ growth constraints and increase their access to external finance and thus levels the playing field between firms of different sizes. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) plays a crucial role in any developing economy. Although there is an increase in the SMEs but there are also numerous challenges associated with the growth. This research paper explores the Effect of Financial Access on the Growth of SMEs and specific challenges encountered by the SME's in financing and developing. In this study convenience sampling was adopted with the data sample size of 80 SME's, the data was collected with the help of structured questionnaire. The data is analyzed through frequency analysis with graphs & tables and Chi-Square Test of association. This study shows that SMEs are still facing some challenges in raising funds from Commercial Banks due to some difficulties in unavailability of funds like; Quantum of loan, disbursement of funds and delay in delivery of loan. The results revealed that the improvement of financial access has great effect on the growth of SMEs.