arbiter
JournalsPricingAccount

Digital Payments as a Conceptual Pathway Linking COVID-19 and Financial Inclusion: A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Abdelhalem Mahmoud Shahen & Mesbah Fathy Sharaf

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research2026https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer21040108article
AJG 1
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

This study offers an integrative and systematic examination of the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic, digital payment systems, and financial inclusion. To achieve this, it adopts a dual methodological approach that combines a PRISMA 2020-based systematic literature review with bibliometric analysis. The analysis covers a set of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2020 and 2025, using bibliometric mapping to explore the conceptual structure of the field, its main thematic clusters, and its temporal evolution. The findings indicate that COVID-19 acted as an external shock that accelerated the adoption of digital payment technologies. However, this acceleration did not automatically or uniformly lead to sustainable financial inclusion. Instead, digital payments emerge in the literature as an intermediate pathway linking the pandemic to financial inclusion outcomes under specific conditions. The strength and direction of this process depend on factors such as structural readiness, regulatory quality, digital infrastructure, levels of trust, and financial and digital literacy. Bibliometric results reveal strong conceptual convergence around three core themes—COVID-19, Digital Payments, and Financial Inclusion—forming a cohesive knowledge structure. Over time, the literature progresses from describing the crisis itself, to analyzing digital operational responses and finally to assessing longer-term inclusion and development outcomes. Overall, the study clarifies the interactive nature of the digital payments–financial inclusion nexus and proposes an integrative interpretive framework that can guide future research and support the design of more inclusive and resilient digital financial policies in post-crisis contexts.

Open paper page →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer21040108

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{abdelhalem2026,
  title        = {{Digital Payments as a Conceptual Pathway Linking COVID-19 and Financial Inclusion: A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis}},
  author       = {Abdelhalem Mahmoud Shahen & Mesbah Fathy Sharaf},
  journal      = {Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer21040108},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Digital Payments as a Conceptual Pathway Linking COVID-19 and Financial Inclusion: A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.