Search Results (335)

Governments worldwide are mandating e-invoicing and real-time VAT reporting, yet many cash-intensive service SMEs continue to under-report VAT, eroding fiscal revenues. This study investigates whether financial technology (FinTech) adoption can reduce this under-reporting among tourism SMEs in Greece—an economy with high seasonal spending and a persistent shadow economy. This is the first micro-level empirical study to examine how FinTech tools affect VAT compliance in this sector, offering novel insights into how technology interacts with behavioral factors to influence fiscal behavior. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model, deterrence theory, and behavioral tax compliance frameworks, we surveyed 214 hotels, guesthouses, and tour operators across Greece’s main tourism regions. A structured questionnaire measured five constructs: FinTech adoption, VAT compliance behavior, tax morale, perceived audit probability, and financial performance. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling and bootstrapped moderation–mediation analysis, we find that FinTech adoption significantly improves declared VAT, with compliance fully mediating its impact on financial outcomes. The effect is especially strong among businesses led by owners with high tax morale or strong perceptions of audit risk. These findings suggest that FinTech tools function both as efficiency enablers and behavioral nudges. The results support targeted policy actions such as subsidies for e-invoicing, tax compliance training, and transparent audit communication. By integrating technological and psychological dimensions, the study contributes new evidence to the digital fiscal governance literature and offers a practical framework for narrowing the VAT gap in tourism-driven economies. Full article

Background: Social and financial services are essential for the inclusion and well-being of people with disabilities (PWDs), who often rely on family caregivers to access these systems. In Saudi Arabia, where disability inclusion is a strategic goal under Vision 2030, understanding caregiver experiences is crucial to identifying service gaps and improving accessibility. Objectives: This study aimed to explore caregivers’ perspectives on awareness, perceived barriers, and accessibility of social and financial services for PWDs in Saudi Arabia. The analysis is grounded in Andersen’s Behavioural Model of Health Service Use and the WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 3353 caregivers of PWDs attending specialised day schools. The survey collected data on demographic characteristics, service awareness, utilisation, and perceived obstacles. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) identified latent constructs, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test relationships between awareness, barriers, and accessibility. Results: Findings reveal that over 70% of caregivers lacked awareness of available services, and only about 3% had accessed them. Key challenges included technological barriers, complex procedures, and non-functional or unclear service provider platforms. Both User Barriers and Service Barriers were negatively associated with Awareness and Accessibility. Awareness, in turn, significantly predicted perceived Accessibility. Caregiver demographics, such as age, education, gender, and geographic location, also influenced awareness and service use. Conclusions: There is a pressing need for targeted awareness campaigns, accessible digital service platforms, and simplified service processes tailored to diverse caregiver profiles. Inclusive communication, decentralised outreach, and policy reforms are necessary to enhance service access and promote the societal inclusion of PWDs in alignment with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. Full article

Against the backdrop of China’s fast-growing digital economy and its financial inclusion agenda, there is still little city-level evidence on whether the e-CNY pilot accelerates financial deepening at the grassroots. Using a balanced panel of 271 prefecture-and-above cities for 2016–2022, this study employs a staggered difference-in-differences (SDID) design augmented by the synthetic control method (SCM) to rigorously identify the policy effect of the e-CNY pilot. The results show that the pilot program significantly improves urban financial inclusion, contributing to more equitable access to financial services and supporting inclusive socio-economic development. Mechanism analysis suggests that the effect operates mainly through two channels, a merchant-coverage channel and a transaction-scale channel, with the former contributing the majority of the overall effect. Incorporating a migration-based mobility index shows that most studies’ focus on the merchant-coverage effect is amplified in cities under tight mobility restrictions but wanes where commercial networks are already saturated, whereas the transaction-scale channel is largely insensitive to mobility shocks. Heterogeneity tests further indicate stronger gains in non-provincial capital cities and in the eastern and central regions. Overall, the study uncovers a “penetration-inclusion” network logic and provides policy insights for advancing sustainable financial inclusion through optimized terminal deployment, merchant incentives, and diversified scenario design. Full article

The rapid growth of mobile financial services provides significant opportunities for enhancing digital financial inclusion among older adults. However, elderly consumers often lag in adoption and sustained usage due to psychological barriers (e.g., technology anxiety) and factors related to prior experience and comfort with technology (e.g., technology familiarity). This study investigates how technology anxiety and technology familiarity influence elderly consumers’ continuance intention toward mobile banking, while examining age as a moderator by comparing younger older adults (aged 60–69) and older adults (aged 70+). Using data from an online survey of 488 elderly mobile banking users in South Korea, we conducted hierarchical regression analyses. The results show that technology anxiety negatively affects continuance intention, whereas technology familiarity positively enhances sustained usage. Moreover, age significantly moderated these relationships: adults aged 70+ were notably more sensitive to both technology anxiety and familiarity, highlighting distinct age-related psychological differences. These findings underscore the importance of targeted digital literacy initiatives, age-friendly fintech interfaces, and personalized support strategies. This study contributes to the fintech literature by integrating psychological dimensions into traditional technology adoption frameworks and emphasizing age-specific differences. Practically, fintech providers and policymakers should adopt tailored strategies to effectively address elderly consumers’ unique psychological needs, promoting sustained adoption and narrowing the digital divide in financial technology engagement. Full article

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI are transformative yet double-edged technologies with evolving risks. While research emphasises trustworthy, fair, and responsible AI by focusing on its “what” and “why,” it overlooks practical “how.” To bridge this gap in financial services, an industry at the forefront of AI adoption, this study employs a qualitative approach grounded in existing Responsible AI and Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) frameworks. Through thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews conducted with professionals working in finance, we illuminate nine non-technical barriers that practitioners face, such as sustainability challenges, trade-off balancing, stakeholder management, and human interaction, noting that GenAI concerns now eclipse general AI issues. CDR practitioners adopt a more human-centric stance, emphasising consensus-building and “no margin for error.” Our findings offer actionable guidance for more responsible AI strategies and enrich academic debates on Responsible AI and AI-CDR symbiosis. Full article

This study explores the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty in mobile banking, emphasizing the moderating role of Technology Readiness. As mobile banking becomes increasingly central to financial service delivery, understanding the nuanced drivers of customer loyalty is essential for strategic growth. Drawing from the Technology Readiness Index, this study examines how four dimensions, optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity, moderate the satisfaction–loyalty linkage. Data were collected via a structured survey from 258 mobile banking users in the United States, analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results show that optimism and innovativeness positively moderate this relationship, while discomfort and insecurity act as negative moderators. Practically, this research introduces a segmented approach to mobile banking service design, underscoring the need for differentiated strategies that address varying levels of user readiness. Theoretically, this study addresses a gap in mobile banking literature by shifting the focus from adoption to sustained usage and satisfaction-based loyalty, enriching the discourse on customer behavior in digital finance. Full article

The digital economy has amplified the role of technological innovation in transforming financial services and business models. Patent data offer valuable insights into these dynamics, especially within the growing FinTech ecosystem. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of academic research that utilizes PATSTAT, a global database managed by the European Patent Office, focusing on its application in studies related to digital innovation, finance, and economic transformation. A systematic mapping of publications indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, Wiley, Emerald, and Springer Nature is carried out using Biblioshiny and Bibliometrix in RStudio 2025.05.0, complemented by graph-based visualizations via VOSviewer 1.6.20. The findings reveal a growing body of research that leverages PATSTAT to explore technological trajectories, intellectual property strategies, and innovation systems, particularly in areas such as blockchain technologies, AI-driven finance, digital payments, and smart contracts. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the strategic value of patent analytics in the FinTech landscape and offers a reference point for researchers and decision-makers aiming to understand emerging trends in financial technologies and the digital economy. Full article

Emerging digital technologies are transforming how consumers participate in financial markets, yet their benefits depend critically on the speed, reliability, and transparency of the underlying platforms. Online stock trading platforms must maintain high efficiency underload to ensure a good user experience. This paper presents performance analysis under various load conditions based on the containerized stock exchange system. A comprehensive data logging pipeline was implemented, capturing metrics such as API response times, database query times, and resource utilization. We analyze the collected data to identify performance patterns, using both statistical analysis and machine learning techniques. Preliminary analysis reveals correlations between application processing time and database load, as well as the impact of user behavior on system performance. Association rule mining is applied to uncover relationships among performance metrics, and multiple classification algorithms are evaluated for their ability to predict user activity class patterns from system metrics. The insights from this work can guide optimizations in similar distributed web applications to improve scalability and reliability under a heavy load. By framing performance not merely as a technical property but as a determinant of financial decision-making and well-being, the study contributes actionable insights for designers of consumer-facing fintech services seeking to meet sustainable development goals through trustworthy, resilient digital infrastructure. Full article

The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks have posed significant challenges for digital financial organisations, particularly in quantifying their multidimensional impacts. These challenges are largely attributed to the lack of a standardised cyber impact taxonomy, limited data availability, and the evolving nature of technological threats. As a result, organisations often struggle with ineffective security investment prioritisation, reactive incident response planning, and the inability to implement robust, risk-based controls. Hence, an efficient and comprehensive approach is needed to quantify the diverse impacts of cyber attacks in digital financial services. This paper presents a systematic review and examination of the state of the art in cyber impact quantification, with a particular focus on digital financial organisations. Based on a structured search strategy, 44 articles (out of 637) were selected for in-depth analysis. The review investigates the terminologies used to describe cyber impacts, categorises current quantification techniques (pre-attack and post-attack), and identifies the most commonly utilised internal and external data sources. Furthermore, it explores the application of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques in cyber security risk quantification. Our findings reveal a significant lack of standardised taxonomy for describing and quantifying the multidimensional impact of cyberattacks across physical, digital, economic, psychological, reputational, and societal dimensions. Lastly, open issues and future research directions are discussed. This work provides insights for researchers and professionals by consolidating and identifying quantification technique gaps in cyber security risk quantification. Full article

Background: Caregivers of children often encounter barriers when accessing pediatric healthcare services. These challenges highlight the need for digital innovations to improve accessibility and efficiency in pediatric outpatient care. Objectives: This study aimed to design, implement, and pilot evaluate the Smart Well Child Center application in conjunction with enhancements to the Pediatric Outpatient Department. Methods: This study employs a mixed-methods research approach. The application was developed following the system development life cycle (SDLC) process, and its performance was subsequently evaluated. Additionally, its effectiveness in real-world settings was assessed through a satisfaction survey completed by 85 child caregivers. The results were summarized using the mean and standard deviation, and satisfaction levels were compared using paired t-test and repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The findings reveal that caregivers face significant challenges, including financial burdens related to travel, prolonged wait times, and difficulties accessing healthcare services. In response, the application was designed to incorporate key functionalities. Within the pre-consultation self-assessment module, caregivers can complete evaluations and receive recommendations directly through the application. Furthermore, the service procedure flowchart was restructured to seamlessly integrate these digital innovations, thereby enhancing the overall healthcare experience. The evaluation results indicate that the application achieved high performance ratings across all assessed dimensions (4.06 ± 0.77). Additionally, caregivers reported a substantial increase in satisfaction levels both immediately after implementation (4.58 ± 0.57) and one month afterward (4.59 ± 0.33). Conclusions: Given these findings, it is recommended that the hospital fully adopt the Smart Well Child Center application to improve healthcare accessibility and reduce patient wait times. Future research should assess the long-term impact of the intervention on both caregiver outcomes and healthcare professional workflow, satisfaction, and system usability, to inform broader implementation strategies. Full article

This study uses national data to contribute to ongoing discussions regarding social media’s role in influencing investors in the digital economy. Grounded in social network theory, social media engagement was examined for its influence on FinTech usage, specifically cryptocurrency investments, mobile trading applications, and financial podcasts. Results showed a significant relationship between social media use for investment decisions and the embrace of FinTech. Individuals who actively engage with social media for this purpose had higher odds of investing in cryptocurrency and a higher likelihood of using both mobile trading applications and financial podcasts. However, these results were not consistent across all platforms amongst social media users. Our findings show that social media platforms enable peer influence and recommendations through networks that shape financial decisions and behaviors. FinTech firms can strategically harness social ties and the inherent information flows within social networks to broaden their reach and impact in the financial services landscape. Full article

Background: In elderly community services, information technology is reshaping the daily lives of older adults in unprecedented ways. It effectively addresses the issue of frailty in the community by strengthening support networks and dynamic risk management. Despite its vast potential, there remains a need to explore further enabling methods in the realm of elderly community services. Objectives: This study aims to provide a significant theoretical and practical foundation for information technology in this field by systematically analyzing the progress and trends of digital transformation facilitated by information technology. Materials and method: To map the advancements and emerging trends in this evolving field, this study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 461 relevant publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (2004–2024). The research employs bibliometric methods and utilizes tools such as CiteSpace and VOSViewer to analyze collaborations, keywords, and citations, as well as to perform data visualization. Results: The findings indicate that current research hotspots mainly focus on “community care”, “access to care”, “technology”, and “older adults”.Potential development trends include (1) further exploration of information technology in elderly care to provide more precise health management solutions; (2) systematically building community elderly service systems to offer more detailed elderly care services; (3) strengthening interdisciplinary information sharing and research collaboration to drive innovation in community elderly care models; and (4) introducing targeted policy and financial support to improve the specific implementation framework of information technology in elderly community services. Conclusions: This study provides empirical support for the development of relevant theories and practices. Furthermore, the research outcomes offer valuable insights into business opportunities for practitioners and provide important recommendations for formulating elderly service policies. Full article

In this work, we examine the correlation between financial inclusion and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors of sustainable development with the assistance of an exhaustive panel dataset of 103 emerging and developing economies spanning 2011 to 2022. The “Account Age” variable, standing for financial inclusion, is the share of adults owning accounts with formal financial institutions or with the providers of mobile money services, inclusive of both conventional and digital entry points. Methodologically, the article follows an econometric approach with panel data regressions, supplemented by Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) with instrumental variables in order to control endogeneity biases. ESG-specific instruments like climate resilience indicators and digital penetration measures are utilized for the purpose of robustness. As a companion approach, the paper follows machine learning techniques, applying a set of algorithms either for regression or for clustering for the purpose of detecting non-linearities and discerning ESG-inclusion typologies for the sample of countries. Results reflect that financial inclusion is, in the Environmental pillar, significantly associated with contemporary sustainability activity such as consumption of green energy, extent of protected area, and value added by agriculture, while reliance on traditional agriculture, measured by land use and value added by agriculture, decreases inclusion. For the Social pillar, expenditure on education, internet, sanitation, and gender equity are prominent inclusion facilitators, while engagement with the informal labor market exhibits a suppressing function. For the Governance pillar, anti-corruption activity and patent filing activity are inclusive, while diminishing regulatory quality, possibly by way of digital governance gaps, has a negative correlation. Policy implications are substantial: the research suggests that development dividends from a multi-dimensional approach can be had through enhancing financial inclusion. Policies that intersect financial access with upgrading the environment, social expenditure, and institutional reconstitution can simultaneously support sustainability targets. These are the most applicable lessons for the policy-makers and development professionals concerned with the attainment of the SDGs, specifically over the regions of the Global South, where the trinity of climate resilience, social fairness, and institutional renovation most significantly manifests. Full article

Blockchain technology is being increasingly deployed to store and process transactions and information in the global financial sector. Blockchain underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and facilitates decentralized finance (DeFi), representing a paradigm shift in the global financial landscape, offering alternative solutions to traditional banking, and fostering financial inclusion. In developing economies such as Morocco, where a significant portion of the population remains unbanked, these digital financial innovations present both opportunities and challenges. This study examines the potential role of cryptocurrencies and DeFi in enhancing financial inclusion in Morocco, where cryptocurrencies have been banned since 2017. However, the public continues to use cryptocurrencies, circumventing restrictions, and the Moroccan Central Bank is now preparing to introduce new regulations to legalize their use within the country. In this context, this article analyses the potential of cryptocurrencies to mitigate barriers such as high transaction costs, restricted access to financial services in rural areas, and limited financial literacy in the country. The study pursues a mixed-methods approach, which combines a quantitative survey with qualitative expert interviews and adapts the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to the Moroccan context. The findings reveal that while cryptocurrencies offer cost-efficient financial transactions and improved accessibility, their adoption may be constrained by regulatory uncertainty, security risks, and technological limitations. The novelty of the article thus lies in its focus on the key mechanisms that influence the adoption of cryptocurrencies and their potential impact in a specific national context. In so doing, the study highlights the need for a structured regulatory framework, investment in digital infrastructure, and targeted financial literacy initiatives to optimize the potential role of cryptocurrencies in progressing financial inclusion in Morocco. This underscores the need for integrated models and guidelines for policymakers, financial institutions, and technology providers to ensure the responsible introduction of cryptocurrencies in developing world environments. Full article

Amid the global drive to enhance public sector performance in the digital economy era, improving government spending efficiency has become a critical governance objective. This study investigates the impact of digital inclusive finance on government spending efficiency from a digital finance systems perspective using county-level panel data in China’s Yangtze River Delta for the period 2014–2022 and constructing the fixed-effects model and instrumental variable method to estimate the effect of digital inclusive finance and explore its underlying mechanisms. Heterogeneity across regions with varying economic development levels is analyzed, and fiscal pressure is examined as a potential mediating factor. The results indicate that (1) digital inclusive finance significantly enhances government spending efficiency, primarily through broad service coverage and deep usage of digital financial services such as mobile payments, digital credit, and insurance; (2) the positive effect is more pronounced in counties with lower government spending efficiency and economic development; and (3) fiscal pressure acts as a key transmission channel, with broader digital inclusive finance coverage helping to alleviate fiscal stress and improve government spending efficiency. These findings offer empirical insights into the role of digital finance in promoting effective and adaptive public financial governance. Full article