Digital Finance and Women Entrepreneurship in Emerging Countries
摘要
Recent studies show that women entrepreneurs can boost economic growth. The reason is that women can offer different viewpoints and ideas to the market and promote innovation. In addition, women reinvest their income into their families and communities, benefiting the local economy. Therefore, empowering and supporting women entrepreneurs will promote gender equality and economic development. In developing countries, women are critical in driving economic progress, alleviating poverty, increasing financial inclusion, and empowering communities while delivering social impact. Nonetheless, women entrepreneurs face more challenges than men in obtaining finance and information, which makes it more challenging for them to participate in business, especially in developing countries. However, these barriers have been reduced since digital finance’s evolution. Digital finance tools such as digital wallets, mobile payments, Financial Technology, funding platforms, lending platforms, and others, help women entrepreneurs access financial services more easily, efficiently, and user-friendly. These offer more straightforward access to business funding, especially for individuals who find it difficult to access financing options from traditional institutions. Many studies show that digital finance benefits women entrepreneurs more than men in emerging countries. Other than that, Internet growth is inextricably linked to digital finance, which gives more benefits to entrepreneurship and globalization. This chapter will explain how digital finance can encourage women entrepreneurs to run their businesses, especially in emerging countries. The benefits of digital finance forms for women entrepreneurs will be further explained, which also include the relevance of new technologies, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and decentralized finance, to women entrepreneurs.