Figure 1
The flowchart begins with the identification of the need for knowledge advancement. This leads to the development of a research question, search protocol, and criteria. Keyword selection includes terms such as Financial Technology, Fintech, Financial Inclusion, SMEs External Financing, Information Asymmetry, SMEs Credit Access, and Fintech in Developing Economies. The process then splits into two phases: Phase 1 involves accessing the information systems journals database through the litbaskets.io online database, resulting in 163 articles, of which 118 are excluded and 45 are included. Phase 2 considers other databases such as Elsevier, Emerald insight, Wiley Online, Google Scholar, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Routledge, resulting in 17,300 articles, of which 17,237 are excluded and 63 are included. The total number of articles selected from the two phases is 108. Duplicates are removed, leaving 76 selected articles. A thorough review of these articles was conducted, with particular focus on the introduction, discussion, and conclusion sections. This led to removal of 9 articles deemed less relevant, and 67 articles were considered suitable for the study. To enhance the review, the reference lists of these 67 articles were examined, facilitating both forward and backward searching, which uncovered an additional 21 articles. This effort makes the total count of selected articles 88, as the primary sources for in-depth review.The process concludes with a discussion and final conclusion.SLR protocol. Source: Adapted from Ajah (2024), Ajah et al. (2022)