Examining the effects of the quality of financial reports on SME trade credit: an innovative approach

Abstract

Following an innovative approach, the effects of finan-cial report quality on the use of trade credit in small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are examined. Thiseffect is considered in a direct and indirect way. Firstly,we analyze whether SMEs with low-quality informationare more likely to use trade credit as a financialresource. Secondly, we investigate whether the rela-tionship between trade credit and bank credit in SMEsis moderated by the quality of financial reports. For theempirical analysis, we use a sample of Spanish SMEsover the period 2004 to 2011, and apply a panel datamodel with fixed effects. The findings suggest thatfirms with low-quality financial reporting use moretrade credit. Furthermore, the influence of bank crediton trade credit is found to be partially moderated byaudit opinion.