IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v64y2025i3d10.1007_s11187-024-00942-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Advisors for micro-entrepreneurs: is one as good as another in accessing alternative finance?

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Gaia Soana

    (University of Parma)

  • Doriana Cucinelli

    (University of Parma)

  • Beatrice Ronchini

    (University of Parma)

Abstract

Using a novel large database of Italian micro-entrepreneurs, we investigate how different sources of external business advice affect access to alternative finance. We distinguish three categories of external business advice: professional financial, professional non-financial, and non-professional. We also test whether financial knowledge of micro-entrepreneurs enhances their advice seeking for financial decision-making. We find that the use of alternative financial instruments increases when external business advisors are used, but some are more useful than others. Only professional financial advice is shown to increase the probability of accessing alternative finance by micro-enterprises, while non-professional and professional non-financial advice does not have the same effect. We also find that being more financially literate increases the probability that micro-entrepreneurs seek advice from highly professional sources, i.e., objective financial knowledge helps shape the quality of financial advice requested.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Gaia Soana & Doriana Cucinelli & Beatrice Ronchini, 2025. "Advisors for micro-entrepreneurs: is one as good as another in accessing alternative finance?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 989-1033, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:64:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-024-00942-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-024-00942-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-024-00942-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-024-00942-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    External business advice; alternative finance; micro-entrepreneurs; financial knowledge;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:64:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-024-00942-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.