<![CDATA[ Purpose – The rapid growth of digital lending raises concerns about borrowing decision quality. This study examines how financial literacy, consumption-oriented lifestyle, and perceived financial value of education relate to prudent online borrowing decisions through self-control, focusing on platform legality, borrowing costs, and repayment capacity. Design/methodology/approach – Data from 133 employees across eight branches of an education services company were analyzed using PLS-SEM (SmartPLS 3.0). Analyses included discriminant validity, criterion contamination, common method bias, and PLSpredict assessments, alongside 5,000-resample bootstrapping with percentile confidence intervals for direct, indirect, and total effects. Finding/Results – Financial literacy and consumption-oriented lifestyle show significant positive direct and indirect relationships with prudent borrowing decisions through self-control (complementary partial mediation). The perceived financial value of education shows a small significant indirect effect (indirect-only mediation). The model explains 61.3% of the variance with satisfactory predictive performance, while self-control's moderating effect on the lifestyle relationship is unsupported. Originality/Value – This study advances digital consumer finance research by distinguishing borrowing propensity from borrowing decision quality and identifying self-control as a psychological mechanism linking financial knowledge, lifestyle orientations, and educational value perceptions to prudent borrowing. The findings provide insights for workplace financial education, consumer protection initiatives, and responsible digital lending practices.]]>
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