Digital Financial Services Adoption among Entrepreneurs: Evidence for FinTech Education, Innovation, and Local Enterprise Competitiveness (International Review of Management and Marketing)

Summary

• The mixed-method study analyzed digital financial services gateways using survey data from 300 entrepreneurs and qualitative interviews with 50 participants in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur, Philippines.p.1
• Survey respondents were predominantly female (173 or 57.7%), married (161 or 53.7%), and college graduates (196 or 65.3%).p.1
• Sole proprietorships comprised 204 or 68.0% of business entities, with wholesale and retail trade representing the largest activity group at 100 or 33.3%.p.1
• GCash was the top digital financial services gateway with 163 respondents, while money transfer was the most utilized feature at 143 respondents.p.1
• A substantial portion of respondents (161) reported receiving no formal digital financial services training.p.1

Key insights

1. 1. GCash emerged as the leading digital financial gateway among entrepreneurs with 163 users.p.1
2. 2. Direct cash remained the dominant payment method for major payables, including utilities for 232 respondents.p.6
3. 3. A majority of micro-enterprises reported business assets of 500,000 and below, representing 177 or 66.5% of valid responses.p.4
4. 4. Educational attainment showed a statistically significant correlation with respondents' perceived implementation of digital financial services (P = 0.031).p.7
5. 5. Age was significantly correlated with the underlying reasons for adopting digital financial services (P = 0.015).p.7
6. 6. TETCO was the most subscribed internet service provider among surveyed entrepreneurs, with 123 respondents.p.6
7. 7. Most digital financial service users were relatively recent adopters, with 100 respondents (41.3%) using them for 1-3 years.p.4