Adoption of Shariah compliant peer-to-business financing platforms by smes: A conceptual strategic framework for fintechs in Bahrain

Abstract

FinTechs (Financial Technology Firms) are affecting the financial industry, especially that there are many customers moving away from traditional banks and going to FinTech solutions to fulfil their financial needs. These FinTechs provide financial products and services using different technologies covering various financial areas including lending/ financing. For instance, Peer-to-Business (P2B) financing platforms are one of FinTech solutions which has been growing rapidly in the past few years making many governments setting regulations to cater this trend.Bahrain is one of the countries that has issued number of regulations for FinTech activities including for Shariah Compliant P2B financing platforms. These types of platforms shall provide Islamic financing solutions for SMEs. However, as a new financial solution in the market it is expected to face some challenges in term SMEs adoption. Therefore, this research aims at building a conceptual framework for the strategic framework for FinTechs in Bahrain. The framework is built based on different sources of academic literature in domain space of Islamic Finance and FinTech (Islamic FinTech), in addition to theories like Technology Acceptance Model and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. The framework variables will be examined through mixed research method approach covering case study, semi-structured interviews, and an online survey. The research outcome shall be a strategic framework for FinTechs in Bahrain to ensure the adoption of SMEs to these platforms.