Research on financial innovations: an interdisciplinary review

PurposeThe financial industry offers a unique setting to study innovations. Financial innovations have fueled the growth of economies, markets and societies. The financial industry has successfully become the breeding ground for innovative services, processes, business models and technologies. This study seeks to provide a holistic view of the literature on financial innovations, synthesize the research findings and offer future directions for research in light of three market developments that are disrupting the industry and opening up a new era for the financial services industry. Disruptions from within and outside the industry offer new generations of radically innovative services. Moreover, new generations of consumers differ from previous generations in their needs and wants and look for innovative ways to handle their financial needs. Finally, significant developments related to financial innovations have emerged in Asia and developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThis study systematically reviews the academic research literature on financial innovations in two phases. The first phase provides a quantitative review of 546 journal articles published between 1990 and 2018. In the second phase, the study synthesizes the extant research on financial innovations and maps them in five research areas: firms' introduction and adoption of FIs, financial innovation development, the outcomes of financial innovations, regulations and intellectual property, and consumers.FindingsThe analysis found that disciplines differ with regard to the employed research methodologies, the units of analysis, sources of data and the innovations they examined. A positive trend in the number of published articles during this period is observed. However, studies have primarily focused on the USA and Europe and less so on other parts of the world. The literature synthesis further identifies research gaps in the available research that highlight future research opportunities in light of the three market disruptions. The financial services industry is on the brink of a new era due to disruptions from within and outside the industry and the entrance of new generations of consumers. Moreover, the financial industry has successfully become the breeding ground for innovative services, processes and business models. Therefore, financial innovations offer promising opportunities for bridging the gap between research on product and service innovations.Research limitations/implicationsThe work provides a holistic and systematic overview of extant research on financial innovations and highlights future research opportunities in light of the three disruptive market developments. It helps researchers take advantage of the opportunities in studying financial innovations while maintaining industry relevance.Originality/valueThe study is the first to review and synthesize the academic research literature on financial innovations across marketing, finance and innovation disciplines. In addition, the study highlights three primary disruptive forces in the financial industry and identifies future research directions in light of these disruptive forces.

Nanodot–doped peptide hydrogel for antibacterial phototherapy and would healing

Bacterial infection of the wounds delays the healing process, increases the risk of becoming chronic trauma associated with pain and complications, and offers a breeding ground for drug-resistant bacteria. A...

Uncertainty in World Politics: New “Normality” or New “Abnormality”

In the conditions of turbulent transformations of the world order, life itself, with its contradictions, difficulties and surprises, extremely actualizes the problems associated with unforeseen risks and challenges to world development. The coronavirus pandemic has created a new “normality” or, more precisely, a new “abnormality” in which countries find themselves regardless of their geopolitical status and place in the international hierarchy. The global coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the already growing uncertainty in global political processes. Uncertainty and the associated strategic instability is a breeding ground for preserving acutely problematic nodes of global politics and delaying the search for constructive solutions that bring them closer to a mutually acceptable model of the coming world order. The phenomenon of apolarity is becoming more and more complicated and has been linked in recent years with the growing weight and influence of new geopolitical players and centers of power — China, India, Latin America states. The international positions of Russia have significantly strengthened, which has acquired a full-fledged role in global politics. In the context of the current geopolitical confrontations and competitive rivalry, the experience of understanding uncertainty in the scientific and expert communities of Russia acquires special practical and political significance.

Text as a Dialogue: The Role of Paratexts and Intertexts in Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon

The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the vibrancy and multidimensionality of Hemingway’s work lies in its dialogic nature. In the light of the above-mentioned, referring both to Kristeva’s notion of intertextuality and Genette’s concept of paratext, the paper constitutes an attempt to bring into focus a dynamic network of interactions, which manifest themselves at the level of the text’s structure and meaning. Correspondingly, an outgoing dialogue between Spanish and American culture, between the factual and the fictional, between the articulated and the unsaid, should be viewed as breeding ground for the reader’s role in the negotiation and co-creation of meaning. As a result Death in the Afternoon becomes something more than just a manual on how to look at the bull fight. With its internal diversification, the text becomes a chance of meeting, a carnivalistic space opened for an ongoing dialogue and interaction between the elements both internal and external to the text, inviting the reader to immerse fully into a constant and always relevant conversation between writing styles, forms of artistic expression and culture.

The Heavens and Hells of Scottish Literature: An Interview with Alasdair Gray

On the occasion of the publication of the Contemporary Scottish Urban Literature CJES Special Issue, this interview to Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, one of the last he gave, aims to celebrate Gray’s work and to emphasise his role as a crucial influence for the contemporary Scottish writers whose work features in this special issue. In a very personal manner, Gray strings together reflections on contemporary politics, discusses the role of the local and the national in his work and addresses questions on the construction of his male characters in a discourse which ultimately highlights the determining role of Gray’s socio-political and cultural environment plays his art. Moreover, Gray talks about the artists he was exposed to as a kid and the manner in which these were influential. Considering its wide scope, this interview may serve as a guide to better understand Gray’s work, the reasons why he merges fantasy and reality in his novels and short stories, and the socio-political breeding ground of his socialist and civic nationalist political agenda.

« Conspuez l’espion ! C’est l’Allemand qu’il nous faut ! » : Fausses nouvelles et fabrique de l’espion dans l’Ouest de la France durant la Première Guerre mondiale

During the war, the accumulation of tensions, anguish and collective traumas form a "breeding ground" most conducive to the birth and proliferation of false news, rumors and legends. The first of them, spy mania, explodes in the first hours of the conflict. The home front becomes the scene of a veritable jingoistic outburst, leading many civilians to relentlessly hunt down this "enemy from within" demonized by propaganda focusing on German barbarism. In Brittany, this psychosis was cleverly prepared by pre-war publications denouncing the presence on the coast of a "vanguard of the German army". In this context, rumors and fantastic gossip abound and create suspicion towards anything that seems strange. These elements of false news, sometimes relayed by newspapers, are mainly spread orally, through wounded soldiers on leave or even refugees. They generally pass through the main communication crossroads, especially train stations. Thus, fed with rumors and legends, the population of the home front is actively involved in the hunt for spies, often degenerating into vengeful and irrational popular violence all the more embarrassing for the authorities that, as in this case, these spies are simply imaginary.

Norms, Procedures and Practices of Transnational Criminal Law in 18th and Early 19th-Century Europe

Karl Härter explores the 18th and 19th century ‘breeding ground’ of many of the transnational criminal procedures dealt with later in this volume. His focus is on early modern Europe and the ius commune, where, as he illustrates, acceptance of jurisdictional claims to enforce domestic law over conduct that occurred extra-territorially was driven by a shared interest in acting against certain kinds of criminals with loose connections to particular states.