Gendered Financial Literacy and Digital Marketing Adoption: Insights from Female Entrepreneurs in an Emerging Economy

In developing economies, women entrepreneurs play a vital role in advancing inclusive growth, yet their financial and digital capabilities often remain constrained by gendered barriers. This study investigates how financial literacy evolves into a gender-sensitive capability that drives digital marketing adoption and entrepreneurial sustainability among women-led SMEs in Indonesia. Guided by the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Technology Acceptance Model, the Knowledge-Based View, and Feminist Entrepreneurship Theory, this study employs a qualitative design involving 75 participants—45 women entrepreneurs and 30 supporting stakeholders. Using an iterative, spiral-oriented analytical approach, thematic insights were integrated with theoretical interpretation to uncover patterns of financial–digital capability development. Findings reveal that women’s financial literacy operates as both a cognitive and behavioral capability, fostering digital trust, informed decision-making, and business resilience. The study introduces the Gendered Financial Literacy Capability Model (G-FLCM), a novel inductively constructed framework that explicates how financial cognition is transformed into digital engagement and sustainable entrepreneurship. By articulating this gendered capability mechanism—absent from prior financial capability or feminist digital entrepreneurship models—the G-FLCM advances theoretical integration across behavioral, technological, and feminist perspectives while offering practical pathways for strengthening inclusive financial–digital ecosystems in emerging economies.