Impact of Cultural Beliefs on Entrepreneurs’ Intention to use Bank Loans

Many corporate finance authors argue that market-based systems should be preferred in countries with high risk tolerance, because high risk offers higher return. However, few authors have empirically examined the relationship between entrepreneurs’ culture and companies’ financial decisions. In addition, most of these authors have focused their studies on the national culture rather than the culture of the individual entrepreneurs. This study aims to analyze the effect of the entrepreneurs’ cultural beliefs on financial choices, more specifically on the bank indebtedness of the company. We use an adapted version of the theory of planned behavior Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) as a reference model whereby cultural factors such as secrecy and conservatism are used as independent variables. Using data collected from 71 companies in Benin and 50 in Mauritania, we find that secrecy and conservatism are negatively related to the entrepreneurs’ intention to use banking debt. We also found that this relationship was mediated by the attitude toward banking debt and perceived control. Finally, we found that the perceived social norm did not mediate the relationship between cultural factors and entrepreneurs’ intention to use bank indebtedness.