The Impact of Intelligent Financial Technology Adoption on the Financial Performance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: The Mediating Role of Financial Innovation
Keywords:
Intelligent financial technology, financial performance, SMEs, financial innovation, technology adoption, thematic analysis, TehranAbstract
This study aimed to explain how the adoption of intelligent financial technologies affects the financial performance of small and medium-sized enterprises, with particular attention to the mediating role of financial innovation in Tehran-based SMEs. This qualitative study was conducted using an interpretive phenomenological design. The participants included 18 chief executive officers, financial managers, senior accountants, and digital transformation managers working in small and medium-sized enterprises located in Tehran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis with the assistance of NVivo software. Trustworthiness was enhanced through member checking, peer debriefing, recoding, prolonged engagement with the data, and maintaining an audit trail. Four main categories emerged from the data: strategic and technological readiness for intelligent FinTech adoption, digital reconfiguration of financial processes, financial innovation as a mediating mechanism, and performance outcomes and adoption-related risks. The findings indicated that the adoption of intelligent financial technologies does not automatically improve financial performance. Rather, its financial value is realized when firms transform technological adoption into financial innovation, including data-driven financing, digital payment mechanisms, real-time cash-flow management, alternative credit assessment, automated financial reporting, and predictive financial decision-making. Participants emphasized reduced financing costs, faster receivables collection, improved financial transparency, enhanced liquidity control, and greater financial flexibility as the most important performance-related outcomes. The results suggest that financial innovation functions as the key connecting mechanism between intelligent FinTech adoption and SME financial performance. Therefore, merely implementing FinTech tools is insufficient. SMEs need to develop organizational, data-related, human, and strategic capabilities that enable them to convert technological adoption into measurable financial value.
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