The Impact of the Use of Independent Auditing on Credit Accessibility: The Case of Vietnamese SMEs
Vietnamese small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) are deemed the “backbone” of the economy; they are a key driver for the achievement of sustainable economic development. Access to finance, however, has been consistently identified as a major problem facing many Vietnamese SMEs. That has caused serious setbacks in the sustainable development of Vietnamese SMEs, and has adversely affected their profitability. This raises the question of whether independent auditing of financial statements can be influential in the credit allocation process. The current study developed a model of the influence of independent auditing on credit accessibility by employing a qualitative method to identify the impact of independent auditing on credit accessibility in Vietnamese SMEs. The results of this study reveal that the use of external auditing is one of the key criteria to accessing credit in Vietnamese SMEs.
