Notice of RetractionThe SME financing gap: Theory and practice

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been considered one of the ‘driving forces’ of modern economies due to their multifaceted contributions in technological innovations, employment generation, export promotion, etc. They are now also recognised as a key source of dynamism and flexibility in advanced countries and developing economies. But the lack of finance in appropriate forms may be a serious barrier to the development of SMEs. This article introduces the concept of a “financing gap”, analyses obstacles to SME financing, seeks to determine how prevalent such a gap may be and tries to find the ways to resolving the problem in China, examines the role of government intervention in SME financing and recommends innovation measures for banks and enterprises to foster an improved flow of financing to SMEs.