Institutional Transferability of Export Finance for Innovative Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This review examines the institutional transferability of export-financing mechanisms for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across different economic and regulatory environments. It synthesises 55 studies published between 2000 and 2025, conducts a detailed audit of 13 evidence-rich sources, identifies four finance-to-export pathways, and develops an Institutional Transferability Score (ITS) to assess the feasibility of adapting financial instruments across institutional contexts. The analysis examines venture capital, public research and development support, bank credit, export credit and insurance, trade finance, FinTech, crowdfunding, and complementary business support mechanisms. The study distinguishes direct evidence of export outcomes from findings concerning intermediate mechanisms, including innovation, investment, financing access, institutional quality, and firm capabilities. The Institutional Transferability Score evaluates eight financing configurations across five dimensions: regulatory portability, market infrastructure, digital and data feasibility, firm absorptive readiness, and public substitutability. Contextual indicators from the 2024 World Bank Enterprise Surveys for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan complement the assessment. The findings indicate that the effectiveness and transferability of financing arrangements depend on institutional compatibility and the availability of complementary capabilities rather than the formal replication of financial instruments alone. The study offers a transparent analytical framework for evaluating and adapting export-financing mechanisms in emerging economies, with particular attention to Central Asia. This open-access deposit includes the full research manuscript and supplementary materials documenting the review protocol, evidence coding, quantitative results, transferability assessment, and sensitivity analyses.