Moderating role of social capital on the effect of financial behavior on financial inclusion

  • Received February 28, 2021;
    Accepted June 14, 2021;
    Published September 28, 2021
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.19(3).2021.41
  • Article Info
    Volume 19 2021, Issue #3, pp. 502-512
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

The need for improved institutional interventions aimed at increasing access to financial services by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been emphasized. Complimenting these efforts, this study proposes that building social networks capable of informing requisite financial behaviors would facilitate the financial inclusion of SMEs co-existing in business clusters. This study aimed to empirically test the moderating influence of collective action, bonding, trust, and bridging on the effect of financial behavior on financial inclusion. Using a sample of 311 owners/managers of small and medium scale businesses in sub-urban clusters in South-Eastern Nigeria, the hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. Results show a positive main effect of financial behavior on financial inclusion
(βf = 0.162; t (304) = 1.503; p < 0.05). Also, collective action (βfca = 0.201; t (304) = 6.906; p < 0.05) and bridging (βfbr = 0.201; t (304) = 6.906; p < 0.05) had positive moderating effects, bonding (βfb = 0.032; t (304) = 1.423; p > 0.05) and trust (βft = 0.014; t (304) = 0.9609; p > 0.05) were statistically insignificant. For policy implications, social virtues such as bridging and collective action are more veritable tools for financial inclusion than the personal virtues of trust and bonding and should be factored into economic and social intervention being deployed by institutions interested in meeting the banking/financial needs of businesses.

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    • Figures 1. Simple slope for the statistically significant moderating role of collective action
    • Figures 2. Simple slope for the statistically significant moderating role of bridging
    • Table 1. Means, Cronbach’s alpha, and zero-order correlations
    • Table 2. Results on the main and moderating effects
    • Conceptualization
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Henry Okwo
    • Data curation
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Henry Okwo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe
    • Formal Analysis
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Henry Okwo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe
    • Investigation
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Henry Okwo
    • Project administration
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Henry Okwo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe
    • Methodology
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Henry Okwo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe
    • Software
      Chike Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Henry Okwo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe
    • Supervision
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo
    • Writing – original draft
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Henry Okwo
    • Writing – review & editing
      Chike Onodugo, Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe
    • Validation
      Ifeoma Onodugo, Anastasia Ogbo
    • Funding acquisition
      Anastasia Ogbo, Charles Ogbaekirigwe