What drives small and medium enterprises to establish and terminate banking relationships?

Purpose - This paper investigates the factors crucial for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in establishing business relationships with banks in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach - To investigate how SMEs select banking relationships using criteria, such as decision factors, decision-makers, and decision processes, a comprehensive literature review was used to classify SMEs' decision factors for bank selection. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 200 SMEs, randomly selected from the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority database in Pakistan. Probit/Tobit model is estimated to explain the behavior of SMEs. Findings - The results reveal that SMEs consider a bank's Reputation, Price, and Location essential while establishing bank relationships. SMEs tend to terminate relationships with banks when the Price and Location of the bank are considered essential factors in the relationship with the banks. Price and Location are necessary for SMEs to reduce banking relationships. The SMEs also tend to reduce if they get attractive offers, or the SMEs are recommended to make a banking relationship. This study also provides intuitions for bank policymakers to design policies to retain SME customers and attract new business relationships. Practical implications - The research emphasizes the importance of competitive and transparent pricing strategies in designing products for SMEs. Banks must prioritize their Reputation and credibility to attract and retain relationships with SMEs. Originality/value - The study attempts to provide evidence on the SME-Bank relationship focusing on the factors that are crucial for SMEs to decide while establishing business relationships with banks. Also, most of the related literature focuses on developed countries; this research adds to the literature on SMEs' behavior, particularly in a developing country's context.