Women entrepreneurship in the developing country: The effects of financial and digital literacy on SMEs’ growth

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of financial and digital literacy on growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) managed by women in Indonesia. Data were collected through questionnaires of women entrepreneurs in Palembang, Indonesia. For the purpose of comparison, data of men entrepreneurs were also collected. The variables employed are latent variables such as financial literacy, digital literacy, SME’s growth which are derived from a series of questions to indicate each variable. A total of 240 women and 240 men were analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results reveal that both financial and digital literacy had positive and significant effects on return on assets. On the other hand, only digital literacy had positive and significant effects on growth. The findings further evidence that women had a lower level of digital knowledge compared to men. Furthermore, the results show that in the short term, financial literacy and digital literacy are important to understand and implement. But in the long run, digital literacy plays an important role because it impacts business growth. This is in line with an increasingly fierce market competition where the market is also shifting from traditional markets to modern markets. Not only the market, but consumers are also shifting from traditional consumers to digital consumers.