Impact of entrepreneurial characteristics on credit accessibility: case study of small businesses in West Sumatera – Indonesia

Currently, the studies on entrepreneurial characteristics do not distinguish the business scales, while different scales of businesses, i.e. small, medium to large scales have their own characteristics. The purpose of this research was to determine whether business performance mediates the impact of entrepreneurial characteristics on accessing credit at small-scale business. In this study, a total of 221 questionnaires was distributed to the respondents of small enterprises entrepreneurs in West Sumatera Province, Indonesia using the method of the purposive random sampling. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from small enterprises that had obtained bank loan. For data analysis, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used. Based on the study results, the entrepreneurial characteristics positively affect the business performance, which then positively affects the chances of access to the credit. Ultimately, it was proven that entrepreneurial characteristics affect the access to credit. The research finding highlights the important of the role of business performance in mediating the effect of entrepreneurial characteristics on credit access. Therefore, it is recommended that there should be a strategy to strengthen the entrepreneurial characteristics to improve the small business performance. In addition, the entrepreneurs are recommended to develop and maintain a strong entrepreneurial characteristics.