The University of California San Diego has received a grant of more than $1 million from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support a national research project examining how entrepreneurs access financing during the earliest stages of the small business lending process.
Led by Sally Sadoff, professor of economics and strategy at the UC San Diego Rady School of Management, the multi-year study will consider whether entrepreneurs seeking business loans receive consistent and timely responses when they reach out to financial institutions.
While gaps in loan receipt for minority and female entrepreneurs are well documented, potential barriers to receiving loans in the loan application process are less well understood. The research project aims to evaluate barriers to access with the goal of providing new insights into how small business owners connect with lenders and identify opportunities to strengthen equitable access to capital for entrepreneurs across the United States.