신용평가란 기업의 신용상태에 영향을 미치는 제반 경영적 사실을 조사하여 분석한 결과를 토대로 그 기업의 신용도에 관한 종합적인 판단을 내리는 것이라고 할 수 있다. 신용평가의 기본자료에는 재무적 요인과 비재무적 요인이 있다. 중소벤처기업 신용평가의 경우 재무적 요인 못지않게 비재무적 요인의 중요성이 계속 커지고 있으나 비재무적 요인의 경우 표준화, 시스템화가 이루어지지 않고 있으며 심사역의 개인적인 역량이나 경험에 많은 영향을 받고 있다. 신용평가에서 비재무적 요인의 역할이 중요하다는 연구결과에도 불구하고 중소벤처기업의 신용평가모형을 개발할 때 기업신용도를 평가하는 예측변수로 비재무적 요인을 사용하는 연구는 많지 않다. 본 연구는 국내 3개 대형은행의 기업대출 전문가를 대상으로 실증연구를 수행하여 중소벤처기업의 신용평가모형에 적용할 수 있는 비재무적 요인에 대하여 분석하였다. 우리는 비재무적 요인들에 대한 선행연구를 통하여 중요 요인들을 크게 경영자역량, 기업경쟁력, 거래신뢰성, 산업환경으로 분류하고 계층분석의사결정방법(Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP)을 이용하여 실증분석하였다. 연구결과 비재무적 요인의 중요도와 우선순위는 경영자역량이 가장 높았으며 그 다음으로 기업경쟁력, 거래신뢰성, 산업환경의 순서인 것으로 나타났다. 하위계층 요인의 중요도와 우선순위는 경영자의 전문성, 수익성, 경영자의 자금조달능력, 경영자의 리더십등 경영자 요인과 수익성이 가장 높았으며 그 다음으로는 시장성, 기술력, 업종의 경기민감도, 업력, 동업계세평, 불확실성, 산업평가등급의 순서로 나타났다. 비재무적 요인 중 가장 중요한 경영자역량의 강화를 위해서는 기업 스스로 경영전략 차원에서 경영자 역량강화 계획을 수립하고 실행해야 하며 경영자 본인도 교육훈련 프로그램에 적극 참여하는 등의 노력이 필요하다. 본 연구의 의의는 그동안 연구가 활성화되지 않았던 중소벤처기업의 신용평가모형에 적용할 수 있는 비재무적 요인에 대하여 종합적으로 분석하고 한국형 신용평가모형을 구축할 때 재무적 요인과 함께 고려하여야 할 비재무적 요인과 그 중요도를 제안한 점에 있다.
Credit evaluation is the process to make an overall judgment on company’s capacity to pay the principal and interest of loans. Basic elements of credit evaluation are financial and non-financial factors. Non-financial factors’ importance in SME and venture business credit evaluation has been growing but non-financial factors assessment is neither standardized nor systemized. Non-financial factors assessment has been strongly affected by loan officer’s personal experience or ability. In SME and venture business credit evaluation, combined use of financial and non-financial factors improves the prediction accuracy up to 13%. In addition, combined use of financial, non-financial and macro-economic factors improves predictive ability of default models 25%. Researchers suggest non-financial factors" importance in credit evaluation from 34% to 70%, and it has a strong influence on credit rating to upgrade or downgrade. Notwithstanding the study results about non-financial factors’ importance in credit evaluation, it is uncommon to use non-financial factors as a predictor of company credit worthiness when developing SME and venture business credit evaluation model because non-financial information is not easy to get. We surveyed three Korean major banks’ experts specialized in business lending based on AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) analysis, and analyzed non-financial factors in credit evaluation. In this study, preceding studies are referred and particularly some important ones among many non-financial factors are classified into four categories of CEO’s competence, company’s competitiveness, business credibility and industrial environment. According to the analysis, CEO’s competence is the most important non-financial factor followed by company’s competitiveness, business credibility and industrial environment. As for sub-criteria, CEO’s expertise, profitability, CEO’s debt capacity and CEO’s leadership are more important than other factors followed by marketability, technology level, business cycle sensitivity, age of company, reputation, uncertainty and industry rating. To develop CEO’s competence, the most significant non-financial factor, companies need to make and carry out CEO capability strengthening plan, and CEO has to actively participate in education and training program. Another characteristic factor is technology level. These days, importance of technology level is increasing, but in SME and venture business credit evaluation, commercialization and marketability are more important than technology itself. In other words, high technology without sales is useless. To enhance company’s competitiveness, CEO should not focus only on technology but have to build a business model to commercialize technology. In addition, government, academia and SME and venture business related organizations need to provide fund for research and development, support technology commercialization and provide business consulting to improve SME and venture business’ competitiveness. Few studies on SME and venture business credit evaluation have included non-financial factors as a predictor of company credit worthiness due to lack of available non-financial information about companies. We studied non-financial factors on SME and venture business credit evaluation. It is meaningful that our results show which non-financial factor is important and how much significant in credit evaluation comprehensively.