Relative Hamming Distance: Evaluation of access to financial credit in Ecuadorian small and medium-sized enterprises

Luna Altamirano K.A.; Melean Romero R.A.; Espinoza Pillaga H.A.; Andrade Cordero C.F. · Revista de Ciencias Sociales (2026) · DOI: 10.31876/rcs.v32i3.46091

Resumen

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force behind a country's economy, particularly in Ecuador. However, these businesses often face limitations in their financial management, which restricts their access to bank loans. This research aims to evaluate the financial creditworthiness of Ecuadorian SMEs in manufacturing, based on an analysis of the requirements imposed by financial institutions for granting loans to these companies. Using Hamming's Relative Distance technique, a tool offered by fuzzy logic, this explanatory, quantitative study is designed. The first population consists of four groups of companies from the footwear, wooden furniture, jewelry, and textile sectors, with managers or owners serving as key informants. The second population comprises financial institutions, represented by 14 agents who are experts in credit evaluation and granting processes. The results demonstrate that the instrument allows for measurements that determine the correlation between requirements and factors for granting loans to the companies studied. It is evident that the wooden furniture company with a distance of 0.051 has the greatest chance of obtaining bank loan approval in Ecuador. Licencia de Creative Commons Atribución 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es