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This paper aims to provide a broad overview of the corpus of studies on digital finance in relation to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups.

Bibliometric analysis was used, allowing to investigate the relevant literature (735 articles). In accordance with best practices, relevant articles were identified on the topic following the PRISMA 2020 framework that ensures reproducible and rigorous results. The search then proceeds with performance analysis, identifying key trends at the intersection of research fields, including distribution of articles by year, citations by year, most cited contributions and most cited and prolific authors. This is followed by analyses of co-citation, co-authorship and co-occurrence with a detailed description of the thematic clusters identified.

Performance analysis shows that scholarly output covers a 12-year period, starting in 2011, and demonstrates a growing interest in this topic. Co-occurrence analysis reveals a significant intellectual structure which allows numerous knowledge gaps to emerge, and these offer new opportunities to be addressed in future research.

This study uniquely focuses on the evolution of the research domain related to digital finance associated with SMEs and startups. It provides implications for practitioners and avenues that researchers can develop in the future to produce impactful studies.

In this study, a panel of 74,128 Italian SMEs was analyzed to verify whether any syndromes could be identified and defined through financial ratios. Defining relevant syndromes (i.e. the set of correlated signs and symptoms often associated with a particular disorder) can be of importance for assessing which specific intervention can solve a firm's difficulties.

To identify the main syndromes involved in company defaults, firstly, financial data on defaulted firms for each of the main economic sectors were examined through a cluster analysis; the results obtained for each sector were then compared to verify whether syndromes recur across sectors. Finally, the effects of each syndrome were compared with possible default causes, as described by previous literature.

Results show that a significant share of corporate insolvencies is characterized by a set of recurrent signs and symptoms so that the main syndromes can be identified. The results also show that these syndromes recur across sectors, even if specific values characterize each sector.

The approach adopted in this study sets a new direction for the analysis of default risk, as the study shows that certain key syndromes can be defined and described, and the study suggests that different problems can induce different risk patterns. Further analyses of other samples could confirm whether the same syndromes recur over countries and over time.

This is the first study aimed at identifying and describing the syndromes affecting SMEs, conducted by means of balance-sheet ratios.