Evaluating the Impact of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) Practices on Business Performance Among Agro-Based SMEs in Bangladesh: Mediating Role of FinTech Usability

Abstract

The research evaluates the impacts of sustainable supply chain management practices and FinTech implementation on business performance of agro-based SMEs in Bangladesh. This paper employs quantitative data from a structured survey of 318 SME business owners and the data have been analyzed using SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) on Python. Our research is grounded on two theoretical grounds; the TBL which appraises sustainability with pallets of environmental, social and economic elements and the TAM, focusing on adoption in light of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness towards FinTech tools. The results show that, within the business performance indicators, environmental sustainability (ES) and social sustainability (SS) have significant effects on business performance of agro-based SMEs, while economic sustainability (ECOS) does not. With regards to FinTech adoption, results reveal that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) has a negative impact on adoption, whereas FinTech efficiently mediates the relationship between sustainability practices and business performance. The research suggests that the introduction of FinTech enhance financial resiliency and market competitiveness, which implies the importance of FinTech as part of the sustainable business practice among SMEs. Theoretical contributions come from enriching the TBL and integrating TAM, as well as from developing the model that can help to understand the ways sustainability and digital finance can increasingly improve business performance. In terms of application, the government may focus more on financial literacy and the encouragement of renewable practices. On the other hand, SME owners could pursue both a sustainable orientation to stay competitive and the use of FinTech to enhance performance. Evidently, FinTech are urged to put significant effort focusing on building easygoing products as per local requirements of agro-based SMEs in Bangladesh.