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This paper analyses the evolution of the financial inclusion and its main determinants in seven Latin American countries.

The database used is the Global Findex from the World Bank for the latest data released that includes the years 2011 and 2014. The variables used are formal financial accounts, formal savings and formal credit as proxies of financial inclusion for the years of study. Moreover, the use of debit and credit cards is considered. The methodologies applied are the mean difference tests, in order to contrast the hypotheses of the inclusion evolution and binary probit regressions models.

The results of the analysis show that there is a positive evolution in the use of financial instruments in the countries of the sample, especially in the use of formal accounts. On the other hand, considering the characteristics of the individuals, age, level of education and income positively affect their financial inclusion.

There are no similar works for the region of study that allow us to evaluate the evolution of financial inclusion considering the variables selected in the literature. It is possible to clearly fulfil the proposed objective, highlighting the importance of implementing financial inclusion policies in view of the low percentage of use of the instruments in the analyzed countries.

Este trabajo analiza la evolución de la inclusión financiera y los principales determinantes que la afectan en siete países de América Latina.

Se utiliza la base de datos Global Findex del Banco Mundial, considerando los últimos datos relevados para los años 2011 yrs 2014. Se usa las variables cuentas financieras formales, ahorro formal y crédito formal como proxies de la inclusión financiera en los años de estudio, como así también la tenencia de tarjetas de débito y crédito. Se aplican test de diferencias de medias a fin de contrastar las hipótesis propuestas de evolución de la inclusión y se estiman modelos de regresión binaria probit.

Los resultados del análisis muestran que existe una evolución positiva en el grado de inclusión financiera. Se identifica un mayor uso de los instrumentos financieros en los países de la muestra, siendo la tenencia de cuentas en instituciones financieras formales la variable más significativa. Por otro lado, considerando las características de los individuos, se encuentra que la edad de las personas, el nivel de educación y de ingresos afectan positivamente a la inclusión financiera de los individuos.

No existen trabajos similares para la región de estudio analizada que nos permitan evaluar la evolución de la inclusión financiera considerando las variables proxies seleccionadas de la literatura. Se logra cumplir el objetivo planteado, destacando la importancia de implementar políticas de inclusión financiera ante el bajo porcentaje de uso de los instrumentos en los países de la muestra.

The last great financial crisis which arose in the middle of 2007 in the USA produced contagion effects over others economies. The purpose of this paper is focused on analyzing the evolution of a set of economic variables of 17 European countries since 1991 until 2013. Sovereign bond spreads are also considered to compare the incidence of the financial crisis over the economies considering macroeconomics fundamentals and fixed bonds.

Self-organizing maps (SOMs) are used to achieve the purpose of the research. With this methodology, it is possible to analyze the evolution of the macroeconomic fundamentals of each country, obtaining particular and general conclusions according to the position of each country in the SOM. Moreover, the countries are compared between them and with its respective sovereign bond spreads level for each year of analysis.

The impact of the crisis is different between the countries was analyzed. Belonging to the European Monetary Union is an interesting characteristic of some of the most affect economies.

This research presents wide implications for the economies to control the most vulnerable economic variables in front of financial crisis to prevent the contagion effect. The inclusion of more economic variables and countries could enhance the study.

This research analyzes the relationship between macroeconomic variables and sovereign bond spreads using an infrequent methodology. The results obtained are valuable because they highlight how the present crisis has differently affected the European countries.

The purpose of this paper is to organize and present the literature related to firm’s capital structure across the years and find the most relevant publications and authors in the research area. Moreover, the authors pretend to fill the gap in the literature by studying different works and their compatibility with the main theories.

The systematic literature review is conducted by using the Scopus database. The methodology applied is through a concise searching considering keywords, the most cited papers, the latest publications and theories that explain small and medium enterprises (SMEs) capital structure.

Some key aspects about the capital structure of firms and SMEs are identified, such as documents per year, type of publications, the most used languages, the top journals, the most cited papers, the most productive and influential authors and the latest published papers.

The information presented is only informative from the Scopus database. Hence, this work only gives a general orientation of the most relevant research and its tendency of this database. More exhaustive works could be done using different keywords and analyzing other firms’ characteristics.

This kind of study is effective in evaluating the scientific production and to find the most important contributions of the subject. Furthermore, this information is useful for researchers’ studies on SME capital structure to underline the research direction and to be acquainted with the literature tendency.

There are not similar works that delve into the literature respect to SME capital structure and compare the main theories in relation to empirical works. Therefore, a synthesized evolution of previous works related to the capital structure of firms and SMEs is presented.

This study aims to focus on exploring the role of fear of missing out (FOMO) in the technology adoption context, whereby the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) segment was studied to explore the factors responsible for the development of behavioural intentions (BI) to use unified payments interface (UPI), a disruptive technological phenomenon in the mobile payment systems field.

A mixed-method research approach involving both qualitative and quantitative methods was used. Initially, qualitative data obtained through interviews with UPI’s BOP users were subjected to thematic analysis, leading to the identification of eight factors and the construction of a conceptual model. Subsequently, 354 responses were gathered, and empirical analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling in AMOS 23.0.

Eight factors, including personal and social benefits, perceived security risk, socio-cultural influences, governmental influence, usability, psychological inertia, perceived value (PV) and FOMO, were discovered. The quantitative examination confirmed the validity of the conceptual model in the BOP context, explaining 51% of the variance in BI. FOMO and PV emerged as robust indicators of UPI adoption, with PV significantly regulating the impact of FOMO.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore what drives BOP users in an emerging economy to adopt UPI. The conceptual model it presents contributes to the advancement of technology adoption literature by incorporating FOMO alongside newly identified BOP-specific factors.

This study proposes a theoretical model to explain user intention to continue engaging with Social Commerce (SC) from a habit perspective. The research uses social impact theory, user personal traits, and SC quality to explain how user habits are formed in SC, leading to continued usage.

The study collected data from 868 Indonesian respondents using a cross-sectional field design. SEM analysis confirmed the proposed theoretical model, calculating direct, indirect, and moderating effects.

The results showed that the social aspect is the dominant construct influencing users’ habit of using SC. Further, the outcome indicates that habit significantly predicts Continuity usage. Profoundly, subjective norms are the most significant predictors of habit, followed by self-efficacy, content quality, and herd behavior. Meanwhile, Trust and Social Support only indirectly affect Habit through self-efficacy and content quality, respectively, as mediators. Additionally, the moderating effect analysis revealed that age and gender play a role in habit formation.

This study specifically explores the factors affecting the development of habits in SC usage, leading to repeated behaviors. This area has not been thoroughly examined in previous research. Therefore, this study seeks to address this gap by investigating how habits are formed through social interactions on SC platforms. Understanding habit formation provides an alternative way of comprehending the continued use of SC, as it is considered a significant factor that leads to continued intention.