Business growth plan as a factor for SMEs to access a bank loan : A Comparison between Iran and Sweden

Abstract: Most of the scholars argue that the big challenge for the SMEs in order to grow is access to finance. They consider financing as the most crucial need of a growing company. Based on the previous researches, companies need to move from the internal financing to the external financing through growth. In this situation, one way for SMEs is, to take advantage of a bank loan; however, many researchers argue that accessing a bank loan is not easy for SMEs. On the other hand, in the last decade since the number of SMEs increased in many countries, tendency of the banks, regarding cooperation with SMEs; gets increased as well. Although, many of the SMEs are still not satisfied with the lending process. Thus, this study investigates if some factors can have an effect on the lending process. Since, the factors which affect the lending process are various, the purpose of this study is, to examine how having an appropriate business growth plan could be helpful in order to have access to a bank loan. There is a lack of literature regarding observation of this process in developing countries and comparing the lending process in developing countries with developed countries, this paper will examine the lending process and influence of business growth plan in one developed country (Sweden), and one developing country (Iran) and compare all the systems with each other. In order to achieve the required information, multiple case study was chosen. The main result of this study is that a business growth plan has a different effect on the lending process in each country, since it is seen as a positive sign in Iran while it has both an advantage and disadvantage in Sweden.