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Call for Papers: “Financial technology (fintech): The continuing revolution in financial services”

Submission deadline: April 30, 2022

 

Guest Editors

• Christopher P. Holland, Loughborough University, UK c.p.holland@lboro.ac.uk
• Rainer Alt, Leipzig University, Germany, rainer.alt@uni-leipzig.de
• Younghoon Chang, Beijing Institute of Technology, China, younghoonchang@bit.edu.cn

 

Theme

This call for papers focuses on financial technology (fintech) and its role in the continuing revolution in financial services. Fintech comprises the transformation of business processes, strategies and business models in the financial sector with digital technologies. Numerous start-up companies have launched novel services that are unrestrained by legacy systems and old business models, and have already disrupted financial markets (Goldstein, Jiang and Karolyi, 2019). Managerial roles and structures are being redefined and modified to exploit combined human and machine intelligence. New business models are emerging that could replace those of incumbents (i.e. banks, insurance companies, brokers) and today’s market leaders. These innovations are part of the broader phenomena of digital transformation and business innovation (Brynjolfsson & Mcafee, 2016). There is worldwide adoption of fintech though there are large regional variances in terms of the scale of adoption (Frost, 2020).

 

Digital technologies such as cloud-based computing, ubiquitous mobile, tracking and sensor devices, novel algorithms (Christian & Griffiths 2017), blockchain technology (Ali et al., 2020; Chang et al., 2020), an abundance of big data and the potential of smart AI or even super-intelligent machines (Bostrom, 2017; Tegmark, 2017) continue to create new possibilities and options for the design of financial services, which are in the early stages of a radical shift in the way that they function and operate. Among the examples that point towards more automation are cryptocurrencies with smart contracts for payments and trading or AI systems with adaptive algorithms that allow image and speech recognition, expert judgement, categorization of groups and forecasting in many areas (Fry, 2018). At the same time, the potentials create risks and raise regulatory issues. The special issue encourage theoretical and empirical research on how fintech is transforming and shaping financial services. All forms of empirical research are welcome, including case study research, surveys and technical models. Distinctive and novel theoretical approaches are also encouraged.

 

Central issues and topics

Possible topics of submissions include, but are not limited to:

1. Electronic markets and business models

• New, emergent digital platforms that shape market exchanges and coordination
• New business models in financial services that are disrupting the market
• Design and implementation of data-driven and algorithmic digital platforms
• Collaboration between fintech and established financial services companies
• Customer experience in fintech apps and new types of customer behavior

2. Financial technology (fintech) and implementation

• Barriers and enablers of fintech implementations
• Distributed ledger applications and decentralized finance (Defi)
• Novel applications of AI, e.g. chatbots in online customer search and robot-advisory
• Data sharing in financial service value chains
• The dark sides of fintech, e.g., privacy, security, technology dependency

3. Related topics

• Algorithmic bias in the design of automated decision-making systems
• Strategies to tackle the ethical issues of transparent and explainable AI in fintech systems
• Actions of regulators to monitor and advise on the ethical use of fintech
• Analysis of economic activity related to cryptocurrency payments and markets
• Novel use of fintech to support and facilitate new regulatory systems and techniques

 

Keywords

Financial technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data and digital platforms, business models, analytics, blockchain technology, privacy and ethics of AI.

 

Submission

Electronic Markets is a Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)-listed journal (IF 4.765 in 2020) in the area of information systems. We encourage original contributions with a broad range of methodological approaches, including conceptual, qualitative and quantitative research. Please also consider position papers and case studies for this special issue. All papers should fit the journal scope (for more information, see www.electronicmarkets.org/about-em/scope/) and will undergo a double-blind peer-review process. Submissions must be made via the journal’s submission system and comply with the journal's formatting standards. The preferred average article length is approximately 8,000 words, excluding references. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this special issue, you may either contact the guest editors or the Editorial Office.

 

Important deadline

* Submission Deadline: April 30, 2022

 

References

Ali, O., Ally, M., Clutterbuck, P., & Dwivedi, Y.K. (2020). The state of play of blockchain technology in the financial services sector: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 54, 102199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102199.

Alt, R., Beck, R., & Smits, M.T. (2018). FinTech and the transformation of the financial industry. Electronic Markets, 28(3), 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-018-0310-9.

Bostrom, N. (2017). Superintelligence - paths, dangers, strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brynjolfsson, E., & Mcafee, A. (2016). The second machine age: work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company.

Chang, V., Baudier, P., Zhang, H., Xu, Q., Zhang, J., & Arami, M. (2020). How blockchain can impact financial services – the overview, challenges and recommendations from expert interviewees. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 158, 120166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120166.

Frost, J. (2020). The economic forces driving fintech adoption across countries. In: King, M., & Nesbitt, R. (eds.), The technological revolution in financial services: how banks, fintechs, and customers win together, pp. 70–89. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3515326.

Fry, H. (2018). Hello world: how to be human in the age of the machine. Penguin Random House, UK.

Goldstein, I., Jiang, W., & Karolyi, G. A. (2019). To fintech and beyond. The Review of Financial Studies, 32(5), 1647–1661. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhz025.

Tegmark, M. (2017). Life 3.0. Being human in the age of artificial intelligence. Penguin Random House, UK.

 

Best regards,

Rainer Alt, Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, Ramona Coia

 

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Electronic Markets - The International Journal on Networked Business

Editors-in-Chief: Rainer Alt, Leipzig University and Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, FHS St.Gallen, University of Applied Sciences

Executive Editor: Ramona Coia, Leipzig University

 

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