Authors: Efstathios Karpouzis, Nikolaos Daskalakis, Dimitrios Giakoulas

Title: An Integrated Approach on SMEs Financial Literacy

Abstract

In this paper we examine the financial literacy of small and medium enterprises in Greece. We apply a two-stage methodology to suggest an integrated approach in measuring financial literacy in an integrated context using the specifically designed OECD/INFE (2020) questionnaire, exclusively with live interviews or teleconferences, and qualitative focus-group analysis methodology, where we create groups of stakeholders to discuss SMEs financial literacy. We approach this field in a “preliminary results” context, mainly because of the very small dataset of SMEs respondents we use. Results show that the economic education level of small and medium entrepreneurs is 60.23%, slightly lower than the corresponding percentage obtained from the international study in the general adult population conducted by the OECD in 2020. This result shows that there is enough room for improvement in all dimensions that shape financial literacy. Although this study provides useful conclusions for the small and medium-sized enterprises financial literacy, there are significant limitations, which were discussed with the group of shareholders, and the expansion of the present study to a larger population is a key priority to analyze a larger sample of companies covering all areas of entrepreneurship.