Exploring characteristics and transformational capabilities of InsurTech innovations to understand insurance value creation in a digital world

Recent developments in the insurance industry embrace various “Insurance Technology” (InsurTech) innovations. To date, there is a lack of structured assessments of InsurTech. Prior research on FinTech fails (1) to clarify how InsurTech can be characterized and what capabilities are employed, and hence, (2) to reveal implications for value creation on firm and industry level. We address this by inductively building a model of InsurTech innovation adopting the grounded theory method. Our empirical data includes 208 InsurTech innovations from a market analysis based on Twitter data and a multiple-case study. The resulting model comprises 52 characteristics and 14 transformational capabilities and is integrated with extant value networks and intermediation literature. The former explains how InsurTech affects firm-level value creation and suggests that disruptive potentials emerge from aligning the transformational capabilities along three interdependent activities. The latter explains the entrance of digital intermediaries and their roles in the personal insurance market.     

The development of a mobile money service: an exploratory actor-network study

Mobile money has received ample academic and practitioner attention as a means to improve access to financial services in developing countries. However, there is a paucity of empirical studies examining mobile money development from a socio-technical stance. Based on an exploratory cross-sectional field study conducted at three sites in the Upper East region of Ghana, this paper attempts to understand the dynamics of the development and diffusion of a mobile money service from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective. Data from semi-structured interviews with the principal stakeholders (supplemented by documentary evidence) were analyzed using grounded theory coding techniques and the emergent themes interpreted through the lens of the “moments of translation” (Callon, M. (1999). Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In M. Biagioli (Ed.), The science studies reader (pp. 67–83). London: Routledge) framework of ANT. The study found that a mobile network operator has built a nascent network of composite social and material stakeholders to offer mobile money services despite significant challenges. Although the actor-network is still evolving and mobile money has yet to reach critical mass, there is evidence of growing uptake. This paper highlights the value of ANT as a lens for exploring the diffusion of innovations in information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) research.     

Soft computing model based financial aware spatiotemporal social network analysis and visualization for smart cities

The era of intelligence is the development of human science and technology at a higher level, bringing a new layout for the financial market. Then, how to realize the good layout of the financial market in the era of intelligence is an important problem facing all the countries in the world. We in the financial industry as the origin and change as the clue, analyzes the physical outlets as the representative of the financial institutions, banking as standard electronic banking and mobile phone to the bank as the representative of the mobile financial development of three major formats. On this basis, we analyze the current mobile phone terminal model of mobile banking three shortcomings, and propose the new mobile financial formats. This new format is tentatively known as “smart financial format”, it has the equipment personality, wearable, low carbon environmental protection, offline interaction, security, privacy and intelligence, efficiency, and other five major characteristics. In the future, the financial format is likely to be achieved by mobile financial formats to the upgrading of intelligent financial formats, to meet the needs of customers wider and deeper levels. The artificial intelligence method has its advantages in dealing with the problems of the economic system. Therefore, the introduction of artificial intelligence methods into the economic control will become a trend. The proposed model is validated through the public databases to verify the effectiveness.     

Sharing,Saving, and Living Well on Less: Supporting Social Connectedness to Mitigate Financial Hardship

This article contends that problems such as poverty and economic disadvantage are equally social in their nature as they are economic. As such, a social frame of reference is helpful in design. Using a qualitative approach, the authors studied the ways that 13 Australian households living on a low income manage, organize, and interact in their everyday financial activities and what this means for designers of technology that might assist them with this. The article highlights the highly social nature of many practices concerned with managing and saving money. Implications are provided for how these practices may be supported through fostering social connections and how informal and sharing economies may be leveraged to provide value to those experiencing financial hardship. An argument is made that classifying an otherwise heterogeneous population based on income alone is reductive. In response, the authors propose a rationale for amending the “low income” demographic classifier, incorporating a broader measure they tentatively term Social–financial Connectedness, which captures the importance of social connections in overall financial well-being and identifies people’s capacity to live well and share, irrespective of their financial circumstances.     

Model Checking for Combined Logics with an Application to Mobile Systems

In this paper, we develop model checking procedures for three ways of combining (temporal) logics: temporalization, independent combination, and join. We prove that they are terminating, sound, and complete, we analyze their computational complexity, and we report on experiments with implementations. We take a close look at mobile systems and show how the proposed combined model checking framework can be successfully applied to the specification and verification of their properties.     

Research on Fintech development issues based on embedded cloud computing and big data analysis

Financial technology will be widespread attention. It is growing rapidly. As a result of its continued development, new regulations have already been introduced in this field. The word "fintech" is one such word. Financial technology will be used in the field for various activities. Usually, these procedures are performed by the company or organization that provides information technology-based service that is requested by using an application. Various other important issues, such as network attack security restrictions and privacy threat accounts, should not be left unattended. It integrates various state-of-the-art technologies such as mobile, embedded systems, mobile networks, mobile computing, cloud, big data, data analysis technology, and embedded cloud computing, including FinTech development. It is important to Embedded Finance (EF) for its seamless integration and finance of its customers' business services, just as ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft have integrated very successful payments. Refers to the provision of services. Embedded finance is a financial service on the terms of the customer, from anywhere, anytime. There is no longer a need to visit banks that have access to their money. In some cases, embedded finance (in more specifically embedded banks) eliminates traditional banks.     

The coevolution of IT innovation and copyright institutions: The development of the mobile music business in Japan and Korea

In order to understand how IT impacts at the industry level, this paper adopts a theory of the coevolution of technological innovations and copyright institutions and applies it to examine how the mobile music business in Japan and Korea has developed. In Japan, mobile music business is controlled by incumbent recording companies and is complementary to offline CD sales. In Korea, however, the online music business (including mobile and fixed-internet) is dominated by mobile carriers and has replaced offline businesses, which has caused disruptive changes in the music industry structure. This paper suggests that diverging national copyright institutions give rise to the contrasting industrial changes, which in turn emphasizes how political processes drive the interactions between technologies and institutions.     

Affordances,experimentation and actualization of FinTech: A blockchain implementation study

Blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, is an emerging financial technology (FinTech) that is poised to have strategic impacts on organizations. Because it is a new phenomenon, there are few studies on blockchain, and those studies have focused mainly on the technology’s potential impacts, whereas how to effectively implement it in an organization remains unknown. Our study intends to fill that gap. Using affordance-actualization (A-A) theory as the theoretical lens, we conducted a case study of blockchain implementation in an organization that has effectively implemented it. We identify three affordances of blockchain in the organization and a process model whereby these affordances are actualized. The process model extends A-A theory by adding an experimentation phase where blockchain’s use cases within the organization are identified, developed and tested through conceptual adaptation and constraint mitigation. Our study makes important theoretical contributions to the literature on A-A theory, blockchain, information technology (IT) implementation, and strategic information systems (SIS). Our study can also help IT practitioners to implement blockchain effectively and extract value from their investment.     

Monetary Practices of Traditional Rural Communities in Ethiopia: Implications for New Financial Technology Design

With the development of ubiquitous technologies that support the digitization of money, research is needed on how individuals’ private life practices are affected by new technological financial systems and how cash-based practices can inform their design. In this article, we report the cash-based monetary practices of one Ethiopian rural community and identify their implications for the design of new financial technology. Particularly, we focus on addressing the question, What characteristic features should go into the design of mobile money application(s) to embody a rural Ethiopian community’s money practices in social (marriage and death) and religious contexts? Primary data on everyday practices of the community were collected. Analysis of our data reveals that new financial technology design should support lived experiences such as embedded social meaning, segregated and aggregate money control, restricted money use, identity extension and hiding, refusal and acceptance of donations, disclosed and secret money practices, and assigning aesthetics to money. The article concludes by discussing possible ways of mapping these concepts into financial system design, thus contributing toward the development of cashless transactions and a cashless society.     

Role of users’ status quo on continuance intentions

Accelerated technological innovations have led to shorter product life cycles. Yet, consumers often decide not to discard the incumbent technology in favor of a new technology. To explain this decision-making process, a rich research stream has investigated subconscious motivations. However, there is little understanding of the role of conscious motivations and, more importantly, their interplay with subconscious motivations in their decisions. Using the value appreciation perspective, we controlled for the predictors of the second version of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) and leverage prospect theory to enrich our understanding of users’ continuance intentions. We conceptualize status quo preference with two new constructs—namely, the value of status quo and users’ commitment to status quo—and integrate them with other known predictors of continuance intentions (related to an incumbent system)—i.e., trust and habit. We empirically test our model in two studies. Study 1 was conducted among 2,096 users of smartphones in Hong Kong. Study 2 reports longitudinal data, across three waves of data collection over a period of six months, from 240 analysts introduced to a new technology to support their work in a large financial services organization. The findings support our model and suggest that (1) users’ status quo preferences significantly determine continuance intentions; and (2) trust and habit have an effect on users’ status quo preferences. These findings advance knowledge on continuance intentions by integrating the effects of users’ conscious and subconscious intentions to continue using the incumbent technology.     

Technology-driven information sharing and conditional financial development in Africa

ABSTRACT

Information technology is increasingly facilitating mechanisms by which information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers in the financial sector can be reduced in order to enhance financial access for human and economic development in developing countries. We examine conditional financial development from ICT-driven information sharing in 53 African countries for the period 2004–2011, using contemporary and non-contemporary quantile regressions. ICT is measured with mobile phone penetration and internet penetration, whereas information-sharing offices are public credit registries and private credit bureaus. The following findings are established. First, there are positive effects with positive thresholds from ICT-driven information sharing on financial depth (money supply and liquid liabilities) and financial activity (at banking and financial system levels). Second, for financial intermediation efficiency, the positive effects from mobile-driven information sharing are apparent exclusively in certain levels of financial efficiency. Third, with regard to financial size, mobile-driven information sharing is positive with a negative threshold, whereas internet-driven information sharing is positive exclusively among countries in the bottom half of financial size. Positive thresholds are defined as decreasing negative or increasing positive estimated effects from information-sharing offices and vice versa for negative thresholds. Policy implications are discussed.     

Resuscitating privacy-preserving mobile payment with customer in complete control

Credit/debit card payment transactions do not protect the privacy of the customer. Once the card is handed over to the merchant for payment processing, customers are “no longer in control” on how their card details and money are handled. This leads to card fraud, identity theft, and customer profiling. Therefore, for those customers who value their privacy and security of their payment transactions, this paper proposes a choice—an alternate mobile payment model called “Pre-Paid Mobile HTTPS-based Payment model”. In our proposed payment model, the customer obtains the merchant’s bank account information and then instructs his/her bank to transfer the money to the merchant’s bank account. We utilize near field communication (NFC) protocol to obtain the merchant’s bank account information into the customer’s NFC-enabled smartphone. We also use partially blind signature scheme to hide the customers’ identity from the bank. As a result, our payment model provides the customer with complete control on his/her payments and privacy protection from both the bank and the merchant. We emulated our proposed mobile payment model using Android SDK 2.1 platform and analyzed its execution time.     

Intelligent FinTech Data Mining by Advanced Deep Learning Approaches

Computational Economics - With the progress of financial technology (FinTech), real-time information from FinTech is huge and complicated. For various fields of research, identifying intrinsic...     

Predicting the determinants of the NFC-enabled mobile credit card acceptance: A neural networks approach

The main aim of this study is to determine the factors influencing the adoption of Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile credit card, an innovation in contactless payment for the future generation. Constructs from psychological science, trust-based and behavioral control theories were incorporated into the parsimonious TAM. Using empirical data and Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial Neural Networks approach together with multi group analysis, the effects of social influence, personal innovativeness in information technology, trust, perceived financial cost, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were examined. The significance of indirect effects was examined using the bias-corrected percentile with two-tailed significance through bootstrapping. Gender, age, experience and usage were introduced as the moderator variables with industry being the control variable in the research model. The scarcity in studies regarding the moderating effects of these variables warranted the needs to further investigate their impacts. The mediating effect of perceived usefulness was examined using the Baron–Kenny’s technique. The findings of this study have provided invaluable theoretical, methodological and managerial implications and will contribute to the decision making process by CEOs, managers, manufacturers and policy makers from the mobile manufacturing industry, businesses and financial institutions, mobile commerce, mobile telecommunication providers, mobile marketers, private or government practitioners and etc.     

How does the application of an IT service innovation affect firm performance? A theoretical framework and empirical analysis on e-commerce

Understanding the effects of IT-related innovations on firm performance is crucial for businesses. Extant research has investigated the implications of IT innovations and provided some important findings, but the varied theoretical approaches have produced results that are often ambiguous: thus there is a need to examine the process further. We attempted to provide a systematic, theoretically informed framework for understanding the conditions that may enhance (or hinder) the potential of IT innovations in a sample of firms. Our model included business and IT resources, both internal and external, that may influence the performance of firms which have applied a pervasive IT service innovation: e-commerce. Our empirical test of the model used a research design that takes into account time-lag effects. The model explained more than half of the variance in the performance of IT innovators and offered several explanations for why some firms succeeded in implementing IT service innovations while others did not. Several theoretical and managerial implications result from these findings.     

The impact of big data analytics on firms’ high value business performance

Big Data Analytics (BDA) is an emerging phenomenon with the reported potential to transform how firms manage and enhance high value businesses performance. The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of BDA on operations management in the manufacturing sector, which is an acknowledged infrequently researched context. Using an interpretive qualitative approach, this empirical study leverages a comparative case study of three manufacturing companies with varying levels of BDA usage (experimental, moderate and heavy). The information technology (IT) business value literature and a resource based view informed the development of our research propositions and the conceptual framework that illuminated the relationships between BDA capability and organizational readiness and design. Our findings indicate that BDA capability (in terms of data sourcing, access, integration, and delivery, analytical capabilities, and people’s expertise) along with organizational readiness and design factors (such as BDA strategy, top management support, financial resources, and employee engagement) facilitated better utilization of BDA in manufacturing decision making, and thus enhanced high value business performance. Our results also highlight important managerial implications related to the impact of BDA on empowerment of employees, and how BDA can be integrated into organizations to augment rather than replace management capabilities. Our research will be of benefit to academics and practitioners in further aiding our understanding of BDA utilization in transforming operations and production management. It adds to the body of limited empirically based knowledge by highlighting the real business value resulting from applying BDA in manufacturing firms and thus encouraging beneficial economic societal changes.     

Analyzing conflict and its management within ICT4D partnerships: an institutional logics perspective

ABSTRACT

Promotion and presence of partnerships have been growing within information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). Yet – despite limited analytical literature on this topic – it is clear that the reality of ICT4D partnerships often undershoots the potential, with frequent reports of failure, particularly arising from conflict between partners. This paper addresses calls for more and better-conceptualized research into ICT4D partnerships, with a specific focus on understanding the roots and management of conflict in such partnerships. We use qualitative field data from a Malaysian IT “impact sourcing” public–private partnership case study, viewed through the lens of institutional logics and conflict management strategies. Analysis of three vignettes from the negotiation of the initiative shows one partner always used a competitive approach to conflict management. This led issues to remain unresolved and led the partnership arrangement to steadily loosen. The outcome was always domination of private logic over public logic. As a result, and lacking an overt advocate, welfare goals of the partnership were somewhat sidelined. Our paper contributes by showing (a) how institutional logics helps explain the outcome of ICT4D partnerships, and (b) how the conflict management strategies framework helps explain the practice of conflicting institutional logics in such partnerships.     

An analysis of the relationship between quality and user acceptance in smartphone apps

This study investigates consumer intentions within the smartphone app environment. More specifically, it studies the factors influencing the intention to use banking apps based on the smartphone by employing the information system success model and a revised technology acceptance model. The study examines how quality factors and attitudes toward mobile apps-based banking influence the intention to use banking apps, and whether trust influences the relationship between quality factors and intention to use. In it, we collect data from 520 users and estimate the structural model. The results indicate that attitudes to mobile apps-based banking, as well as information and service quality, affect consumers’ intention to use banking apps. We further confirm that three particular quality factors, moderated by trust, affect the intention to use these apps. This study helps to explain consumers’ mobile apps-based banking behaviours, by combining the information system success model with a technology acceptance model.