Breaking down entrepreneurial barriers: exploring the nexus of entrepreneurial behavior, innovation, and bank credit access through the lens of the theory of planned behavior

Access to finance is a primary concern for enterprises, serving as a critical component of tangible resources within the Resource-based View (RBV) framework and driving entrepreneurial activities globally. Bank credit stands as the preferred source of debt financing for enterprises, yet information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers poses significant credit obstacles. To address these challenges, we leverage the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), contending that entrepreneurs’ personal attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms influence bank credit access. Additionally, we argue that innovation performance, an intangible resource within RBV, facilitates credit access by enhancing firms’ quality and creditworthiness from lenders’ perspectives. This paper aims to examine the relationships between TPB constructs, bank credit access, and innovation performance, as well as the mediating role of innovation performance, through an analysis of 1367 enterprises across diverse European countries. Our findings reveal that innovation performance fully and inconsistently mediates the relationships between personal attitude-credit access and subjective norm-credit access, as the direct impacts of personal attitude and subjective norm on bank finance are found to be insignificant and negative, respectively. These results underscore the pivotal role of innovation performance in linking entrepreneurial behaviors to credit access, contributing to the uniqueness of this research within the entrepreneurship literature. Moreover, our study emphasizes the need for training initiatives that foster innovative and entrepreneurial attitudes among firm executives, thereby facilitating easier credit access. As highlighted by our cross-cultural analyses, these implications extend beyond national borders, offering valuable insights for enhancing credit accessibility across diverse contexts.