QR-Based Micro-Payments and Small Business Resilience: A Digital Path to Achieving SDG 8 and SDG 9

Abstract

QR-based micro-payments have become a revolutionary digital infrastructure to small business in the developing and emerging economies, allowing small-cost interoperable and immediate transactions. This paper analyses the role of the adoption of QR-based payment in increasing the resilience of small businesses and supporting Sustainable Development Goal 8 on decent work and economic growth and SDG 9 on industry, innovation, and infrastructure. The study assesses the effects on revenue stability, operational continuity, and access to the market by a mixed-method approach involving the use of survey data collected on micro and small enterprises, transaction-level analysis as well as regression-based resilience modeling. There is empirical evidence that firms that implemented QR payments grew their transaction volume by 18-26% and their monthly income steadiness by 12-19% and their cash-managed risks by 21% relative to cash-related companies. The formal financial integration was also enhanced by the use of digital payment, with 34 per cent of companies accessing microcredit or digital savings products one year after adoption. Infrastructurally speaking, QR systems reduced the barriers to going into digital business, raised the standards of interoperability between payment platforms, and facilitated local service innovation. The article also results in the strongest gains in resilience between women-owned enterprises and informal enterprises that conduct their operations in high volatility market conditions. Altogether, the results indicate that QR-based micro-payments can offer a digital channel of scale to enhance resistance of small businesses, fasten financial inclusion, and promote sustainable economic performance in accordance with the priorities of global development.