Fintech Innovation in Social Service Provision: A Bibliometric Review

The employment of fintech as a product and service distribution mechanism in various sectors has been widely adopted for the provision of seamless services. The adoption of fintech by both individuals and organisations avails more convenience in product and service provision. The combination of fintech and social protection service provision has been receiving increased attention, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic era. This paper sought to investigate and show the importance of fintech in social protection research. The study aims to show the evolutionary idea of fintech in social protection to elucidate how much research has been done and elucidate the emerging areas surrounding fintech in social protection. A review of the literature that links social protection provision and fintech was conducted to establish whether more research is needed in integrating fintech with social protection provision. This study employed a bibliometric review to explore linkages that exist between financial technology (fintech) and social protection provision to establish whether the area needs further research. Data were sourced from the SCOPUS database using the Boolean search approach with the use of keywords and filters. Search results were processed and analysed in both SCOPUS and VOSviewer for visual and network positioning. The findings of the study show that fintech and social protection have received increased attention, as shown by the number of publications since 2018. Details of the most influential authors, documents, countries, and sources were documented. The results indicate the following emerging research themes: (1) the adoption of fintech in social protection service provision; (2) blockchain technology research on social protection, (3) fintech in health care service provision combined with health insurance; and (4) fintech as a cushion against the impacts of climate change.