CONCEPTUALISING THE FINANCIAL ACCESSIBILITY OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN MALAYSIA

The purpose of this study is to focus on the SME access to finance and alternative financing options available in promoting the business growth and potentiality. The key influences of selecting capital structure decisions consist of five variables were profitability, firm size, growth opportunity and firm age and asset tangibility. The results concluded that the firm size possesses the most significant impact in the financial decision of capital structure towards firm performance among SME in Malaysia. Policymakers should focus on giving intensive support to SMEs and continue to discover the method for diverting the financial support from profitable firms to the firms who need more formal financing to grow their business potential, but yet are lacking financially accessible due to the concerns of creditworthiness, liquidity and asset structure. Hence, this study recommends non-collateral financing options such as microfinance, leasing and factoring are well fitted to SMEs, whereby the government initiatives to make better access to finance extensively in terms of financing. JEL: L10, L20, P12, D2