Picks in the News

Alternative Data Transforming SME Finance

Access to finance remains one of the major challenges to SMEs growth, survival and productivity both in developed and developing countries. In the world’s developing markets about half of the estimated 400 million SMEs still report a credit gap ranging from US$2.1 to US$2.6 trillion.

The reason behind SMEs’ limited access to finance lies on a double problem: on the one hand, many SMEs do not have access to credit due to documentation requirements to obtain a loan or high cost of interest rates, among others. On the other, many banks consider some SMEs as high-risk clients or high-cost clients to acquire.

Digitizing SME finance can be an opportunity to address both the demand and supply side problems. This report on "Alternative Data Transforming SME Finance" issued by the SME Finance Forum and the World Bank Group focuses on digital data for SME lending as a way to expand access to SME finance, including new uses of both traditional data (bank, accounting, transactional, and sales data) as well as alternative data (online ranking and social media, mobile, and individual data, such as psychometric testing). The publication also includes some key policy theme areas that should be considered and further discussed at the stakeholder level in order to enhance SME access to finance:

• Data privacy and consumer protection issues
• Opt-in as opposed to opt-out models
• Credit information sharing
• Cyber security and data
• Pricing transparency
• Balancing integrity, innovation and a competitive marketplace

To learn more and download the report, please click here.

‘Gender, Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development’ - an online course launched by UNIDO and UN Women

 

UNIDO (INSME Member) and UN Women have launched ‘Gender, Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development’, a new online training course that is part of the e-learning course I Know Gender.

By completing the 'Gender, Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development' module participants will be able to:

 

explain how women and men are differently affected by industrial policies;

contribute from a gender perspective to shared prosperity, economic competitiveness, and safeguarding the environment.

To access the module, it is necessary to first complete the three I Know Gender core modules, which explain basic gender concepts and international frameworks for gender equality. The course can be completed in one and a half hours.

More information about the module and the e-learning course is available at this page. To register please click here.

ISPIM Innovation Research Skills Special Interest Group launched

ISPIM (INSME Member) has launched the Innovation Research Skills Special Interest Group (SIG) addressing academics who wish to improve their innovation skills or anyone else interested in academic research. The objective is the enhancement of research skills within the ISPIM Community in order to enable ISPIM Scholars to execute and publish more impactful and rigorous research in the field of innovation management.

The SIG will promote traditional research methods as well as explore the potential, application and development of less common used methods and will run on a multi-year basis focusing around ISPIM events and overlapping with other activities such as the PhD Lab and the Community.

For detailed information please contact this e-mail address.

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