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The main purpose of the paper is to identify the most important directions of research to date and to indicate new, emerging areas of research concerned with application of financial technology (FinTech) solutions in microfinance companies.

This paper systematically reviews the literature on FinTech in microfinance, highlighting its role in enhancing operational efficiency, customer experience and financial inclusion through technologies like blockchain and AI. Despite these advancements, significant gaps remain in understanding the key drivers of FinTech as a digital innovation, most important direction of research to date and emerging areas for future research in microfinance literature. This paper has attempted to systematise the results of the research carried out so far, based on the publications indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, using selected multidimensional statistical methods.

The findings identify key themes, gaps and future research directions, shedding light on the strategic implications of digital technology in microfinance. This comprehensive analysis significantly advances the understanding of how FinTech enhances microfinance management operations and objectives, contributing to both academic discourse and practical applications.

The research’s novelty lies in its focussed exploration of digital innovation within microfinance, an area that remains relatively underexplored. No similar paper was found during the literature review.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the research and cognitive gap by comparative analyzing of the cluster supply chain (CSC) and supply chains not belonging to the clusters to examine the relational embeddedness as the differentiator of supply chains operating in the clusters.

The conceptual model was tested with data collected from 475 industrial companies cooperating with their partners within supply chains, including 135 CSC. To identify the livraisons between different indicators, the correspondence analysis was applied.

The division of enterprises participating in this study into groups allows for the determination of relatively clear boundaries between enterprises belonging to the cluster and those that do not declare such affiliation. The obtained results confirmed that the relational embeddedness is the differentiator of the CSC collaboration.

The main limitations are referred to as the static character of the data.

The paper contains implications for cluster facilitators, as well as for cluster policy decision makers, to better design support for cluster organizations.

This research is a contribution to the literature on inter-organizational structures, such as clusters and supply chains, and in particular, contributes to the creation of the scientific ground of SCS theory. The research allowed to better understand the nature of collaboration taking into consideration the fact of the relational embeddedness of the companies operating within supply chains located in clusters. It proves the existence of a new type of inter-organizational form that is CSC.

There are many studies explaining the innovation activity determinants. Nowadays, the digitalization of sales, the influence of social media, user-driven innovation (UDI) activity might be considered as one of the crucial sources for the development of new products within the research and development activity. Undertaken research is therefore aimed at determining whether the marketing orientation, i.e. the purchasing behavior of customers, affects the innovation activity of R&D departments that work under the usage of UDI concept.

57 R&D departments operating in Poland participated in the study. Correspondence analysis based on the Burt matrix and Cramer's V correlation coefficients was used for the analysis.

The analysis shows that R&D departments in Poland using marketing research and examining consumer purchasing behavior, positively assess the effects of using the UDI concept in R&D departments. They implement it to create or improve products or services offered on the market, especially in the field of customization, while using information from national research and development units in Poland. The motivation for these activities is mainly to increase the assortment level.

The conducted study covers only R&D departments in Poland, thus it is worth extending the generalization of the results. In terms of future research directions, it's worth to analyze the data from R&D departments in other countries. The results of such studies could be used for comparative analyses. The main limitation of the research is that the research sample was 57 R&D departments of enterprises operating in Poland. Therefore, the research results can't be generalized to all the R&D departments in Poland.

The findings could help researchers and practitioners improve their understanding of the determinants of innovation activity, especially its relationship to marketing orientation and UDI practices.

The research regarding marketing orientation of enterprises and its influence on innovation activity is extremely important due to the general change of the conditions for the functioning of enterprises and building their competitive advantage. Knowledge in this area is still insufficient and research gaps are still being exposed. The article presents the correlation between the marketing orientation and customer behavior within the UDI activity and effects of innovation activity of R&D departments being under investigation.