Sustaining small and medium-sized enterprises through financial awareness, access to digital finance in South Africa

  • Received December 24, 2022;
    Accepted January 30, 2023;
    Published March 28, 2023
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/imfi.20(1).2023.27
  • Article Info
    Volume 20 2023, Issue #1, pp. 317-327
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have several critical challenges that threaten their capacity to survive and thrive. However, access and awareness to digital platform is fundamental to moderate the financial costs and develop financial productivity and sustain SMEs financially. Considering this, the purpose of this study is to get empirical information on the level of management awareness and usage of digital platforms in SMEs in South Africa. The methodological framework included a quantitative research strategy and positivist paradigm. Purposive sampling was utilized to collect data from 321 out of 700 SMEs owners, and the Cochran formula was used to explain the sample size. There were 321 surveys sent out, and 304 were filled out and returned (95% response rate). Descriptive analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and regression analyses from the Statistical Package for Social Sciences were used. The results of Pearson’s correlation coefficient establish a statistically significant relationship between access to digital finances and SME Sustainability (r = 0.334), as well as a statistically significant relationship between financial awareness and SME Sustainability (r = 0.549). The findings alert SMEs managers of the need to improve their digital platforms awareness in order to meet current financial demands and make better informed financial choices to improve company success. The results explain the advantages of trading using many digital platforms available in the country to improve the performance of their enterprises.

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    • Table 1. Analysis of responses to survey questions
    • Table 2. Correlation between financial awareness and SME sustainability
    • Table 3. Linear regression
    • Table 4. Correlation between access to digital finances and SME sustainability
    • Table 5. Linear regression
    • Conceptualization
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Data curation
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Formal Analysis
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Methodology
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi
    • Project administration
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Resources
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Software
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Supervision
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi
    • Validation
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Visualization
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Writing – original draft
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi, Ka Muzombo Kandolo
    • Writing – review & editing
      Thabiso Sthembiso Msomi
    • Investigation
      Ka Muzombo Kandolo