FinTech, an Emerging Industry : An Explorative Study of Business Model Innovation on FinTech Companies in Sweden

Sammanfattning: In recent years, the financial and economic decisions have changed which has created and utilized new methods and techniques that have led to new and different products, processes, and services. However, the changing methods and techniques have led to the movement of digital technology and enabling financial services within the financial industry. The changes have resulted in the phenomenon of FinTech that has derived from financial services. In order for companies to be competitive in the industry and create value for their customers, they need to use a business model as a conceptual tool to help improve their performance. High dynamics in technological solutions within the financial industry provides the base for business model innovation. Whilst there is little empirical insight about business model and business model innovation within the qualitative field, this study aims to explore how FinTech companies are developing their business models to enable business model innovation in Sweden, as well as what is influencing business model innovation. An explorative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted to explore how FinTech companies’ business models are built. The empirical findings were supplemented with data from the company’s websites and financial reports. This study’s findings show four key factors within the FinTech companies' business models: Technological innovations, digitization, value propositions, and human resources. All companies have developed innovative technology and software solutions and created new technical systems. Hence, all companies are innovative by creating new processes and methods through their technical development and resulting in different innovations such as API-systems and self-built algorithms. Further, business model innovation within this study has been influenced and driven by exceptional events as the market changes and problems occur within the company that forces innovations to be created for companies to overcome these obstacles. In addition, market pressure has influenced business model innovations by e.g. competitors and customers changing the market demand and making the companies adjust continuously.