Assessing the Role of FinTech in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) framework should be defined as a set of interdependent actors and factors coordinated in such a way as to enable productive entrepreneurship. Recent developments in technologies and the spread of financial methodologies have focused on entrepreneurship sets, particularly when paired with the spatial affordances within EEs. Firms should benefit from an EE, supported by “FinTech”, (defined as the use of digital technologies to solve setting problems and reduce costs in the financial services sector of entrepreneurship) so that technical knowledge can flow into the finance sector of businesses. Understanding the link between EE attributes and the financial-technological components of FinTech is important for ensuring the most favourable conditions for developing finance and entrepreneurship, which can lead to economic growth in a particular territory. On this basis, Fahimeh Khatami (postdoc researcher at Bocconi’s Department of Management and Technology), together with Enrico Cagno (Politecnico di Milano), Luboš Smrčka (Prague University of Economics and Management) and Zoltan Rozsa (Alexander Dubcek University of Trencin, Slovakia) have recently published a paper in the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal in which they propose a research question: Do FinTech attributes have significant positive associations with EE elements at the country level?

The proposed framework for EE in the study may differ from another EE framework. The reason for this difference is the lack of equivalence of the EE frameworks in contextual studies, qualitative data, or measures. Hence, the components of “formal institutions” and “entrepreneurship culture” had main roles in the progression of EE in 2011–2014, while the effective components in the development of EE in 2017–2021 are assumed to be “networks”, “demand”, and “intermediate services”. This fact revealed that the enhancement of EE in recent years transferred from formal and cultural components to technological networks and services in European countries. In addition, the overall status of FinTech in all European countries accelerated from 2011 to 2021. Hence, the technological dimension of FinTech can be defined as a driving power of economic growth in the study area and should be considered in economic programs and revising EE structures.

The practical and managerial implications of the current research depend on the effects of FinTech on the EE elements, which can be assumed to be “networks”, “demand”, and “intermediate services”. These technological aspects of the EE frameworks could be added to policies and protocols for European policymakers, company decision-makers, and stakeholders. In recent years, scholars have addressed EE as an interaction of interrelated factors in entrepreneurial firms. The study suggests that the effective financial and technological factors of FinTech can be considered as six independent variables: financial institution accounts, received financial wages, saved money at a financial institution, making a digital technology payment, making a technological utility payment, and innovative technology. In this regard, national policy-makers can practically appraise the growth of EE elements based on the growing variations of the aforementioned variables.

Fahimeh Khatami, Enrico Cagno, Luboš Smrčka, Zoltan Rozsa, “Assessing the Role of FinTech in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems at the International Level”, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-024-00949-7