Wenxing Wang, Jeroen van Wijngaarden, Martina BuljacâSamardĹžiÄ, Joris van de Klundert
Many Global Health initiatives aim to disseminate best practices to developing countries to improve access and quality of care. However, current concepts of successful innovation are primarily based on studies conducted in developed, Western countries. Little is known about the structural factors influencing the uptake of these innovations in non-Western developing countries. This gap motivated our study on the introduction of âbest international practices in health service deliveryâ in China. We conducted semi-structured online interviews with 20 participants, consisting of 10 Chinese, 9 Dutch, and 1 German, to advance scientific understanding of this topic. Four themes of structural factors that influence the adoption and adaption of health service delivery innovations originating from abroad in China emerged. These four themes include: Alignment with governmental policies and regulations, Leadership engagement on multiple levels, Alignment between internal stakeholders, and Matching incentives with both organizational and personal interests. While adoption is always top-down, adaption often follows a bottom-up approach in the Chinese context. Resource scarcity in primary care institutions adds extra difficulties to bottom-up innovations. Health professionalsâ motivations to adopt and adapt foreign innovations are primarily controlled (externally) instead of autonomous (internally), which can diminish sustainability. Reducing workload and increasing salaries can facilitate resolving motivation challenges. Our findings indicate that differences exist in the adoption and adaptation of foreign innovations in developing countries with tight government control and a centralized health system such as China, compared to developed countries with decentralized health systems.
Increasing environmental harm, social inequalities and economic insecurity have rendered the youth involvement in impact investment essential to sustainable development. The chapter reviews the motivators of youth-led impact investment, a financial investment approach that incorporates financial returns with quantifiable social and environmental good. It sheds light on the impact of Environmental, Social and Governance values among Millennials and Generation Z whose investment priorities are based on ethics, accountability and long-term welfare of the society. Decentralized finance and digital micro-investment platforms have opened up capital markets to more people regardless of income or location. Gen Z is transforming the creation of wealth by creating transparent, inclusive and purposeful financial systems. Nevertheless, the challenge of insufficient financial literacy, access to capital and institutional backing continues to exist, especially in the Global South. The chapter supports the idea of inclusive financial systems to make the youth more empowered and promote intergenerational justice and sustainability.
This chapter explores how youth-led Fintech is reshaping pathways to planetary sustainability by combining digital innovation with regenerative economic principles. It examines the theoretical foundations linking Fintech, environmental goals, and youth agency, highlighting how mobile banking, blockchain-based transparency, and AI-driven analytics mobilise green finance and expand inclusion. Drawing on global case studies across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the chapter demonstrates how young innovators use digital tools to advance clean energy access, carbon accountability, ethical consumption, and circular-economy financing. It also discusses challenges including digital divides, regulatory gaps, greenwashing, and data risks and offers policy directions to strengthen youth-inclusive, accountable, and scalable sustainable Fintech ecosystems.
ABSTRACT This study critically examines how financial technology (fintech) may facilitate digital and financial inclusion for ethnic minority and Indigenous women engaged in environmentally oriented livelihood and enterprise practices within historically marginalized communities. The study adopts a contextâsensitive and intersectional perspective, recognizing that digital inclusion and entrepreneurship are culturally embedded rather than universally transferable models of development. Using a conceptual review approach guided by the PRISMA framework, 43 studies published between 2019 and 2025 were systematically analyzed to explore how fintech tools such as mobile money, crowdfunding, peerâtoâpeer lending, and blockchainâenabled systems interact with local socioâeconomic realities, community trust structures, and production systems that demonstrate environmental or sustainabilityârelated objectives in particular local settings. The findings suggest that fintech can support expanded economic participation and market access and facilitate environmentally oriented enterprise development where such an orientation is locally demonstrated, provided that digital financial systems are adapted to local cultural contexts, institutional conditions, and communityâbased practices. Meaningful inclusion depends on culturally grounded forms of digital engagement, participatory governance, and the interpretive translation of entrepreneurial and financial systems. The study contributes to sustainable development scholarship by integrating perspectives from inclusive development, intersectionality, digital inclusion, and decolonial approaches to entrepreneurship and finance. Policy implications emphasize the need for genderâresponsive, culturally situated, and communityâembedded fintech ecosystems. The review further emphasizes that successful fintech interventions require not only technological accessibility but also broader processes of âworldview translationâ through which digital financial systems become socially intelligible and culturally legitimate within local community contexts.
This study explores the impact of digital payment adoption and blockchain-based supply chains on the integration of street vendors from Delhi-NCR into global e-commerce. The goal is to examine the potential of digital technologies in supporting business transition and socioeconomic improvement for informal-sector vendors. A mixed-method research design was employed, involving purposive sampling of 250 street vendors engaged in digital payment ecosystems. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine hypothesized relationships between digital adoption, business transition, and socioeconomic outcomes. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) addressed multicollinearity, and non-linear predictive relationships were analysed using Random Forest modelling. The findings reveal that digital adoption has a significant impact on business transition ( β = 0.64, p < 0.001), which, in turn, has a strong impact on socioeconomic upliftment ( β = 0.58, p < 0.001). Digital adoption also has a direct impact on socioeconomic outcomes that is positive but smaller ( β = 0.21, p = 0.033), suggesting partial mediation. Measurement reliability, validity, and predictive relevance were confirmed through structural model assessments. Digital payments have a limited direct impact on international trade, although they enable vendor inclusion and business transformation. By contrast, blockchain-based supply chain factors greatly enhance the efficiency of logistics, transparency, and supply chain-related performance. The study finds no direct income effects of digital technologies; instead, empowerment operates through entrepreneurial transition. The findings illustrate the need to go beyond financial inclusion and technological infrastructure to ensure the dynamic participation of the informal sector in global markets.
George Nana Agyekum Donkor, John Kwaku Darko Okrah, Dimy Doresca
This chapter discusses the overview of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) development, conventional approaches to financing SMEs, challenges of SME financing, and the changing landscape of SME financing in Africa. SMEs generate about 90 per cent of economic activity in Africa, but their structure and informality exclude them from formal value chains, markets, and access to bank credit. They benefit from conventional finance like government credit programmes and factoring that complement formal finance like commercial bank credit, microfinance, venture capital (VC), and specialised stock markets. However, persistent challenges limit funding for small businesses because of structural and institutional barriers, information asymmetry and transparency gaps, low managerial capacity, high transaction and screening costs, and the government crowding-out effect. Innovative models like digital finance, impact investing, fintech, crowdfunding, cryptocurrency, blended finance, supply-chain finance (SCF), and development finance institutions (DFIs) are also helping SMEs bypass credit market shortfalls to access capital. This chapter provides relevant recommendations for governments, policymakers, and key stakeholders.
Medical tourism, often branded as health tourism, involves people traveling beyond regional limits to get advanced healthcare treatments, which is generally determined based on medical payments, availability of specialized treatment, in addition to obtainability of innovative technical support. The implementation of digital advancements such as telemedicine, health informatics, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain technology has resulted in a dramatic shift in the health sector. The technological innovations are transforming healthcare delivery, thereby encouraging rural women entrepreneurs to play a significant part in a nationâs health service milieu. To improve service delivery and outreach, women entrepreneurs are using digital platforms such as AI-based diagnostic tools, blockchain for data confidentiality and authenticity, and e-marketing technologies. The study focuses on how women-led businesses are establishing themselves as important facilitators, filling the disparity between overseas clients and healthcare professionals. The observations evaluate the socioeconomic implications of digital adoption, specifically in terms of employment generation, incorporating gender equality, and improved health care accessibility in less developed rural areas, using a blended research approach that combines descriptive and empirical study observations and findings. The most significant challenges and potential advantages confronting rural women in this growing industry are thoroughly investigated, and practical solutions for promoting the sustainability and scalability of such firms are identified. The chapter also highlights rural women entrepreneursâ contributions to improving Indiaâs more equitable, technologically equipped, and globally successful health care travel environment.