Phase 2 provides further analysis and evaluation of this literature, in order to respond to the three objectives outlined for this phase of the project: • Identify any business owner characteristic-related barriers to financing that are evident on the basis of existing data; • Identify data gaps that need to be filled in future data collection. [...] Data does not exist to demonstrate whether the Profile Groups face greater barriers than the general SME population when stratified according to the categories noted above; Significant gaps exist in the current research data pertaining to business owner characteristic-related barriers to financing in particular, and to SME financing in general; Additional research is needed to fill these gaps, and [...] The first section provides background and contextual information, including a summary of findings from Phase 1 and Phase 2 research, an analysis of gaps in the existing research that are relevant to an examination of the impact of business-owner profiles on access to SME financing, and an overview of SME financing. [...] The majority of the studies reviewed for this project focused on the SME sector as a whole, and were not designed in a way that would allow for disaggregation of data to examine barriers to financing by type of industry, stages or maturity of business. [...] Research on Financing for SMEs In terms of research on the SME sector as the whole, the following table summarizes some of the key aspects of studies examined which looked at financing issues for the SME sector.