The impact of gender on SME characteristics and access to debt finance in South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1: Descriptive statistics (distribution of female and male respondents)

Variables	Male	Female
Questionnaires returned	199	117
Firm characteristics
Average number of employees	16	9
Have fixed asset as collateral	108	49
Manufacturing	68	25
Retail and wholesale	57	59
Services	74	33
Close corporation	116	49
Partnership	36	23
Sole proprietorship	47	45
Average age of firm	16	13
Entrepreneurial characteristics
Average age of owner	45	41
Experience	119	73
Degree/diploma	97	43
Membership of trade association	55	19
Credit
Need credit	155	91
Applied for bank loan	94	40
Did not apply for bank loan	61	51
Application successful	54	22
Application unsuccessful	40	19

Table 2: Mean and t-test results

Variable	All firms		Male-owned		Female-owned
	Mean	Standard error	Mean	Standard error	Mean	Standard error	t-statistic
Firm characteristics
Average number of people employed	13.895	0.342	16.146	0.349	9.243	0.241	5.74^a
Asset for collateral	0.597	0.08	0.688	0.369	0.427	0.269	3.48^c
Manufacturing	0.354	0.004	0.484	0.004	0.103	0.008	3.157^b
Retail and wholesale	0.129	0.007	0.080	0.008	0.222	0.016	–3.399^c
Services	0.281	0.004	0.442	0.005	0.547	0.007	4.393
Close corporation	0.177	0.005	0.184	0.009	0.149	0.018	2.899
Partnership	0.057	0.006	0.061	0.008	0.052	0.008	2.321
Sole proprietorship	0.394	0.008	0.401	0.04	0.543	0.07	4.277
Age of firm	14.174	0.175	14.653	0.341	12.231	0.09	3.201
Entrepreneurial characteristics
Membership of professional association	0.330	0.005	0.418	0.002	0.162	0.003	0.82^c
Degree	0.243	0.006	0.329	0.007	0.0216	0.013	4.07^b
Experience	0.644	0.125	0.679	0.003	0.616	0.018	3.69
Age of owner	47.288	0.174	47.459	0.185	45.267	0.236	4.22
Demand and availability of credit
Need for credit	0.825	0.025	0.767	0.377	0.721	0.024	5.275
Application for bank loan	0.632	0.005	0.771	0.007	0.308	0.002	3.514^b
Success of application (bank loan)	0.585	0.004	0.630	0.011	0.605	0.023	1.473
^aSignificant at 1% level. ^bSignificant at 5% level. ^cSignificant at 10% level.

Table 3: Multivariate differences in male-owned and female-owned SMEs (results of logistic regression)

Variable	Parameter estimate	Marginal effect	Standard error	t-statistic
Intercept	–0.680		0.388	–1.75^b
Firm characteristics
Average number of people employed	0.280	–0.031	0.087	3.22^b
Asset for collateral	0.140	–0.013	0.034	4.17^c
Manufacturing	0.860	0.008	0.247	3.50^b
Retail and wholesale	0.111	0.026	0.235	0.45^b
Services	–0.170	–0.005	0.187	–0.91
Close corporation	0.130	–0.018	0.127	1.03^c
Partnership	0.121	0.019	0.155	0.75
Sole proprietorship	0.090	0.013	0.089	0.97
Age of firm	0.010	–0.002	0.009	1.17
Entrepreneurial characteristics
Membership of professional association	0.041	–0.006	0.008	4.97^b
Degree	0.200	0.034	0.163	–1.20^c
Experience	0.057	0.042	0.022	2.59
Age of owner	0.820	0.057	0.311	2.65
Demand and availability of credit
Need credit	0.050	–0.065	0.117	0.45
Did not apply for bank loan	0.038	0.012	0.039	3.22^b
Denied bank loan	–0.066	–0.038	0.221	1.75
Notes: Female-owned = 1, male-owned = 0. ^aSignificant at 1% level. ^bSignificant at 5% level. ^cSignificant at 10% level.