<![CDATA[This paper empirically explores the relationship between the characteristics of the business and the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the growth of the business in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), with behavior-based financial technology innovation as the mediator. The theories of financial technology, the Resource Based View, and the Theory of Planned Behavior are incorporated uniquely with the theory of Behavior-Based Financial Technology Innovation for SMEs, and the significance of behavioral innovation in the development of the SMEs is shown to be substantial. A quantitative approach is used to design the research, and the Structural Equation Model is used to analyze the data with the assistance of the WarpPLS software. A total of 595 SMEs operating in the province of North Sumatra are taken as the sample, and the survey results are collected from the owners. A total of thirteen hypotheses are formed and validated to detect the direct and indirect relationship between the characteristics of the business, namely size and years, the characteristics of the entrepreneur, namely education and experience, the innovation variable, and the SMEs' growth. The results show that the ages of the firm, education, and the experience of the entrepreneur have a significant effect on the growth of the SMEs. Additionally, the variable also proves to be positively significant to the overall effect. Finally, the variable acted as the mediating agent between the size of the firm, the ages of the firm, and the experience of the entrepreneur and the overall effect, and as the non-mediating agent between the education level and the overall effect. The findings have significant implication to the use of behavioral financial technology as the SBPs' strategy to ensure behavioral and sustainable growth.]]>
