Proposing a Framework to Strengthen Supply Chain Financing in Iran with a Focus on FinTech Capabilities
Keywords:
Financing, Supply Chain Financing, Supply Chain, FinTech, FinTech CapabilitiesAbstract
Financial technologies (FinTech) have attracted considerable attention in corporate financial management, particularly in supply chain financing, due to their innovative capabilities such as increasing transparency, reducing information asymmetry, improving cash flow, and enhancing supply chain resilience. The present study aims to identify and analyze the factors influencing the strengthening of supply chain financing in Iran, focusing on FinTech capabilities. This applied research employed a quantitative–expert-oriented methodology. In the first stage, 29 influencing factors were identified through a review of domestic and international literature and expert interviews in supply chain financing and FinTech. These factors were screened using an expert validation questionnaire and the fuzzy Delphi method, resulting in the selection of nine key factors for final ranking using the MARCOS (Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution) method. The ranking of the final factors was performed through a prioritization questionnaire and the MARCOS technique. Based on the MARCOS method scores, the factors of reducing information asymmetry, lowering financing costs, enhancing supply chain resilience, and improving financial information transparency were found to have the highest priority and impact on strengthening supply chain financing, respectively. Practical recommendations include increasing transparency and digital trust among supply chain members, improving operational efficiency and reducing credit risk, leveraging advanced financial and FinTech technologies to facilitate cash flow and enhance supply chain resilience, and designing operational and managerial strategies based on the identification of key factors to support effective decision-making in firms and financial institutions.
Downloads
References
[1] Z. Xu, B. Gong, L. Hu, and H. Gu, "Supply Chain Finance, FinTech and Corporate Risk-Taking: Evidence from Textual Analysis of China Public companies' Announcements," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol. 61, no. 8, pp. 2374-2400, 2025, doi: 10.1080/1540496X.2025.2454990.
[2] D. S. Rogers, R. Leuschner, and T. Y. Choi, Supply chain financing: Funding the supply chain and the organization. World Scientific, 2020.
[3] H. Song, S. Han, W. Liu, and A. Ganguly, "What role do FinTech companies play in supply chain finance? A signaling intermediary perspective," Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 1279-1294, 2023, doi: 10.1108/JBIM-12-2021-0587.
[4] P. E. N. G. Kuan-Jung, "The FinTech revolution and financial regulation: The case of online supply-chain financing," Asian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 109-132, 2017, doi: 10.1017/als.2016.65.
[5] H. H. Lee, S. A. Yang, and K. Kim, "The role of fintech in mitigating information friction in supply chain finance," 2019.
[6] J. Li, Z. He, and S. Wang, "A survey of supply chain operation and finance with Fintech: Research framework and managerial insights," International Journal of Production Economics, vol. 247, p. 108431, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2022.108431.
[7] G. Soni, S. Kumar, R. V. Mahto, S. K. Mangla, M. L. Mittal, and W. M. Lim, "A decision-making framework for Industry 4.0 technology implementation: The case of FinTech and sustainable supply chain finance for SMEs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 180, p. 121686, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121686.
[8] Y. Guan, N. Sun, S. J. Wu, and Y. Sun, "Supply Chain Finance, Fintech Development, and Financing Efficiency of SMEs in China," Administrative Sciences, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 86, 2025, doi: 10.3390/admsci15030086.
[9] I. Ali, R. Mohammed, A. Nautiyal, and B. Kumar Som, "Exploring the Impact of Recent Fintech Trends on Supply Chain Finance Efficiency and Resilience," 2024.
[10] S. Han, J. P. Ulhøi, and H. Song, "Digital trust in supply chain finance: The role of innovative fintech service provision," Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 1737-1762, 2024, doi: 10.1108/JEIM-07-2022-0238.
[11] Y. C. Kao, K. Y. Shen, S. T. Lee, and J. C. Shieh, "Selecting the fintech strategy for supply chain finance: A hybrid decision approach for banks," Mathematics, vol. 10, no. 14, p. 2393, 2022, doi: 10.3390/math10142393.
[12] A. Hadi Shayesteh, M. H. Maleki, S. A. Mirarab Baygi, and N. Yazdanian, "A Future Study of Project-based Organizations Active in Financial Services Industry," Industrial Management Journal, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 391-414, 2022.
[13] Q. Wan and J. Cui, "Dynamic evolutionary game analysis of how fintech in banking mitigates risks in agricultural supply chain finance," 2024.
[14] A. Najjarzadeh, "Banks' Imbalance on the Financing of Economic Enterprises," 2024, doi: 10.61838/efp.3.
[15] N. Kannan, "Impact and Implications Analysis of Fintech and International Trade & Supply Chain Finance," Dublin, National College of Ireland, 2019.
[16] F. Chen, "Application of Fintech in supply chain financial risk control," in 2022 International Conference on Computer Science, Information Engineering and Digital Economy (CSIEDE 2022), 2022, pp. 809-817, doi: 10.2991/978-94-6463-108-1_90.
[17] J. Dehghani, M. H. Maleki, M. R. Pourfakharan, and M. Safa, "Identifying and Evaluating Drivers affecting the Future of Sustainable Financing in the Maritime Transportation Industry," 2024.
[18] F. Liu, L. Xie, and W. Liu, "Impact of Fintech on supply chain resilience," International Review of Financial Analysis, vol. 103, p. 104241, 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104241.
[19] M. R. Hasanzadeh, M. H. Maleki, H. Jahangirnia, and R. Gholami Jamkarani, "Identifying and Prioritizing the Factors Affecting the Resilience of the Iranian Capital Market," Industrial Management Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 172-205, 2020.
[20] S. Z. Maryam and A. Ahmad, "Integrating and determining Fintech value chain financing: A perspective of Islamic financial institutions," Foresight, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 597-616, 2023, doi: 10.1108/FS-11-2021-0241.
[21] R. G. Ningrat and M. S. Nurzaman, "Developing fintech and Islamic finance products in agricultural value chain," Journal of Islamic Monetary Economics and Finance, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 491-516, 2019, doi: 10.21098/jimf.v5i3.1077.
[22] D. Safi Dastjerdi, K. Tayyebi, and N. Ilahi, "Uncertainty of Loan Interest Rate and Financing of Selected Small and Medium Enterprises Listed on the Stock Exchange," 2021.
[23] M. Ramsheh, M. H. Maleki, N. Sarlak, and M. Falahat Bangdeh, "Future Study of Fintech Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Financial Industry based on Scenario Planning in Iran," Business Intelligence Management Studies, vol. 12, no. 48, pp. 271-311, 2024.
[24] S. A. Razavi and S. Basirizadeh, "Developments in Iran's Banking System: Investigating Challenges and Providing Reform Strategies," 2024.
[25] A. R. Kookhdan, P. G. Ashtiani, M. H. Maleki, and M. Zanjirdar, "Identifying and Analyzing the Barriers to the Development of Iranian FinTechs in the Financial Industry," Management Strategies and Engineering Sciences, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 40-49, 2024, doi: 10.61838/msesj.6.2.5.
[26] M. H. Maleki, M. J. Zare Bahnamiri, and I. Dadashi, "A Framework for Identifying and Analyzing Drivers Affecting the Futures of Cryptocurrency Fin Techs in Iran with Fuzzy Delphi and Fuzzy Dematel," Fuzzy Optimization and Modeling Journal, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 37-50, 2022.
[27] X. Chen, C. Liu, and S. Li, "The role of supply chain finance in improving the competitive advantage of online retailing enterprises," Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, vol. 33, p. 100821, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.elerap.2018.100821.
Downloads
Published
Submitted
Revised
Accepted
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Reza Asadi Asadabad , Seyyed Abbas Borhani, Mojgan Safa, Hossein Badiei (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.