How does digital finance shape sustainable development? A systematic review and the cube framework

Digital finance—encompassing mobile money, fintech applications, AI-driven credit, and blockchain-based services—has emerged as a transformative force in efforts to advance sustainable development. Yet, its relationship with sustainability outcomes remains theoretically fragmented and empirically uneven across disciplines, methods, and geographic contexts. This study presents a systematic review of 85 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2025, identified through a PRISMA- guided search of Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. As a central contribution, we develop and apply the Digital Finance and Sustainable Development Cube, a multidimensional framework that structures the field by linking financial technologies, sustainability dimensions, and levels of analysis. The Cube is used both as a conceptual lens and an analytical tool to systematically classify and compare studies, enabling a more integrated understanding of how digital finance shapes sustainability outcomes across contexts. Through integrated thematic, methodological, and theoretical analysis, we identify four dominant research clusters: (1) Financial Inclusion and Development, (2) Institutional and Regulatory Governance, (3) Green and Environmental Finance, and (4) Innovation, Resilience, and Systemic Change. Our findings reveal a central paradox: the same digital financial technologies that expand access and efficiency can simultaneously reinforce inequality, amplify financial vulnerability, and generate new forms of exclusion. Despite strong grounding in institutional and development perspectives, the literature remains heavily skewed toward quantitative, micro-level analyses, with limited attention to cross-level dynamics, environmental externalities, and issues such as gender equity and algorithmic fairness. We contribute to information systems research by synthesizing a fragmented field and advancing the Cube as a structured, multidimensional lens that reframes digital finance as a socio-technical system shaped by tensions between inclusion, innovation, and sustainability. We conclude by outlining a research agenda that calls for interdisciplinary, multi-method approaches centered on equity, accountability, and planetary boundaries in the design and governance of digital financial systems.