Financial Stratification and Digital Transformation Under Market Disruption: Evidence from Thai SMEs

The increasing frequency of market disruptions in the contemporary global economy has exposed fundamental inequities in small and medium enterprise (SME) financing systems, creating urgent needs for understanding how financial constraints shape digital transformation capabilities during periods of economic uncertainty. Through thematic analysis of 33 semi-structured interviews conducted with 28 Thai SME owner-managers and 5 financial advisors between May and September 2024 in Thailand, this study examined how financial constraints shaped digital transformation trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three core financial themes were identified: (1) digital finance adoption patterns and investment challenges, (2) credit access disparities between asset-light and asset-rich firms, and (3) financial policy distortions favoring foreign investors. The analysis revealed how collateral requirements, personal credit dependency, and institutional lending biases created divergent digitalization pathways. Asset-light firms relied on high-cost personal credit (18% interest rates) while asset-rich firms secured rapid institutional financing within 48 hours. These findings challenge assumptions about universal SME financial vulnerability and highlight the need for targeted financial inclusion policies. This research opens future academic perspectives for examining fintech innovations in emerging markets, comparative studies across ASEAN countries, and longitudinal analysis of financing decision path dependencies in crisis contexts