13 April 2015

Call for papers: "Innovation for Financial Services: Moving Beyond the Aesthetics"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Services, Economics and Management.

Sustainable innovation requires a collaborative attitude towards designing and implementing an overarching innovation strategy. However, this is only one element that contributes to the financial service company’s capability to innovate. The organisational context and culture of the company plays an influential role because the established structures and processes can either act as drivers or inhibitors to innovation. In order to produce radical innovations that reshape the sector’s landscape, change the way business is being done and secure continuous value creation for all stakeholders, it is critical to align the right structures and processes, as well as provide leadership, so as the innovative mindset and strategic planning is embedded within the company as a whole.
 
Innovation in financial services is very different than innovation in a physical product environment. Most innovations can and will be copied by competitors so looking for innovations catering solely for monetisation purposes is not the best tactic. It is a structural approach, requiring an interdisciplinary, ongoing and incremental process, encapsulating key elements such as skills development, multidisciplinary teams and collaboration. All these foster the company’s organisational readiness, leading to the effective use and adoption of tools such as social network platforms. The role of social networks, new entrants, and digital currencies in the context of innovation for financial services are all seen as particularly interesting evolutions. The growing appetite and search for potential game changers can simultaneously present challenges and opportunities for the financial services sector.
 
This special issue focuses on the multifaceted aspects of innovation in and for financial services. It adopts a broad perspective on innovation, encompassing investment products, services such as e- and mobile banking, process, organisational and marketing innovations. It particularly considers the various challenges related to innovation in and for financial services, the role of external factors such as regulation, the recent technological advances which have significantly impacted the way products and services are developed, distributed and marketed. It also aims to explore practices related to innovation across the ecosystem of financial services, embracing not just financial firms but their customers, suppliers, competitors and the new types of organisations with which financial firms simultaneously cooperate and compete. Crowdfunding is also of particular interest to this special issue.
 
This special issue invites you to submit your papers and looks forward to receiving your quality contributions. The papers can be purely theoretical or theory-driven, empirical work, either qualitative or quantitative. Submissions from academics, consultants, managers and policy makers exploring innovation are strongly encouraged.
 
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Developing innovative consumer-centric services
  • Frameworks dealing with fraud and associated challenges
  • Business model innovation and ecosystems
  • Characterising innovation in financial services
  • Managing innovation and change in financial services
  • Crowdfunding and innovative platforms for borrowing and lending
  • Leveraging mobile technology and social media in financial services
  • IT/ICT-enabled innovations in financial services
  • Relationships between innovation and performance in financial services
  • National, regional, inter-regional innovation systems and policies targeting financial sector
  • Cooperation with universities and research and technology organisations
  • Open and collaborative innovation in financial services
  • Challenges facing the financial systems
  • Sustainability in finance and new financial instruments
  • Collaborative tools for innovation in the financial services sector
  • Human capital related issues in financial services
  • Process innovation, performance improvement, lean approaches in financial services
  • Role of regulation in the innovation process
  • Financing innovation: variety of sources
  • Role of intellectual property and informal protection mechanisms
  • Framework conditions for innovation
  • Role of intangible resources for innovation in service firms

Important Dates
Paper submission: 31 July, 2015
Reviewers' comments: 30 September, 2015
Revised paper submission: 31 October, 2015

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