Even with continuous financial reforms and rapid changes in digital technologies, the financing gap is still a persistent issue for MSMEs in emerging economies. This traditional review combines conceptual, theoretical and empirical approaches to financial inclusion, with attention to the Indian MSME segment. Combining Information Asymmetry theory, Institutional theory, financing behaviour, and firm-level capability views, this review interrogates the mechanism of managing credit access. This work includes major debates and properly evaluates the efficacy of these digital infrastructures, such as India Stack and Account Aggregator Framework. A vital insight from this work is that while these digital infrastructures have transformed MSMEs' access to finance through cash flow-based underwriting, macro inclusion measures and metrics still mask the firm-level characteristics. Granular-level analysis is vital for capturing the diverse characteristics of firms, resolving the doubtful issues of the inclusion-stability nexus and strengthening the need for a firm-level analysis for financial inclusion studies.
Raghav Devmurari (Tue,) studied this question.