Contextualizing Business Model Innovation in sociotechnical transitions. A systemic understanding of fintech disruption in the payment sector.

Abstract

Over the last decade, the financial sector is on the verge of an ongoing transformation. New players adopt technological novelties and introduce business model innovations (BMIs) disrupting the industry across the entire value chain. Transitions research on this topic is still lagging. This thesis combines the MLP framework with Business Model Innovation concepts to present the fintech disruption in the areas of cashless payments and blockchain. After that, the thesis uses the findings for explaining the role of BMIs in the unfolding of sociotechnical transitions. For the purposes of this research, qualitative data coming from literature, policy documents, business reports and outlooks were used to understand the changes that take place in the payments regime. The BMIs developed in response, are identified by studying thoroughly the websites of 136 fintech firms operating in the payment sector in the Netherlands. The findings indicate that the changes in all the five regime dimensions studied (technology, market, culture, industry, policy) trigger to some extend BMIs in the value proposition, the value network and the value capture. The findings also identify two opposing dynamics deriving from the BMIs agency. In the first, the BMIs aim to gain legitimacy and become competitive by fitting and conforming to the established regime institutional arrangements. In the second, the BMIs aim to gain a competitive edge by triggering changes in the established institutional arrangements. The thesis argues, that; a) by adjusting the technological innovations to fit better with the regime institutional environment; and b) by stretching the institutional environment to adjust it to the new technological advancement capacities these opposing forces, in a broader regime level, deploy some kind of “reversed synergy”, by both mitigating the various dimension sociotechnical misalignments.