Thomas Puschmann

The financial system is currently confronted with tremendous challenges from the global economy, trade, politics, demographics, and most recently from enormous technological advancements. These developments have the capacity to change the existing financial system fundamentally. This book addresses how technological developments and digitalization will impact the future of financial systems.

Decentralized Finance (‘DeFi’) has gained tremendous momentum over the past three years by using novel approaches to disintermediating financial institutions in the provision of financial services. However, empirical research in this field is still rare, and a more comprehensive understanding of the domain is a missing component in academic research. This paper develops a taxonomy based on a comprehensive literature analysis to systematically structure this emerging field. The taxonomy includes… Show more

Decentralized Finance (‘DeFi’) has gained tremendous momentum over the past three years by using novel approaches to disintermediating financial institutions in the provision of financial services. However, empirical research in this field is still rare, and a more comprehensive understanding of the domain is a missing component in academic research. This paper develops a taxonomy based on a comprehensive literature analysis to systematically structure this emerging field. The taxonomy includes three perspectives (strategy, organization, technology) and seven dimensions (blockchain, value proposition, token type, business process, price mechanism, protocol type, integration type) as well as thirty-six characteristics. The application of the taxonomy to 278 DeFi start-ups reveals that most of the DeFi start-ups focus on Ethereum (36.3%) and have a focus on analytics and automation (52%), while, surprisingly only a few incorporate decentralized governance approaches (3.3%), provide decentralized exchanges (14%) or integrate off-chain data. Show less

Digitalization and sustainability have been the core drivers of transformation of the financial industry in recent years. In this context, green fintech plays a major role, which, however, is still an unexplored field in business, information systems and finance research. This paper conducts a systematic literature analysis and develops a research agenda based on a framework, which is derived from clustering 74 academic research papers. The framework consists of the four clusters strategy… Show more

Digitalization and sustainability have been the core drivers of transformation of the financial industry in recent years. In this context, green fintech plays a major role, which, however, is still an unexplored field in business, information systems and finance research. This paper conducts a systematic literature analysis and develops a research agenda based on a framework, which is derived from clustering 74 academic research papers. The framework consists of the four clusters strategy, organization, technology, and potentials along nine dimensions. The research agenda reveals that green fintech is still a very premature field of research. The analysis shows that areas like customer- and government-related services, insurance-oriented approaches and SDGs which focus on life on land and life below water are still rare and that most of the approaches focus on blockchain technology, while other financial technologies like artificial intelligence are still underrepresented. Show less

Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are frequently the most relevant element of a company's total emissions since they account for more than eighty percent. However, they are difficult to calculate since many stakeholders in the value chain are involved and emission data are usually not shared among them. Sustainable finance could provide a link to this discussion by providing data, digital data infrastructures and evaluation instruments. However, the existing research today is either… Show more

Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are frequently the most relevant element of a company's total emissions since they account for more than eighty percent. However, they are difficult to calculate since many stakeholders in the value chain are involved and emission data are usually not shared among them. Sustainable finance could provide a link to this discussion by providing data, digital data infrastructures and evaluation instruments. However, the existing research today is either limited to analyzing the levels of scope 3 emissions or to calculating them based on different measurement methods. How to implement scope 3 emissions reporting by solving the data sharing challenge remains mainly unexplored. This paper aims to close this gap by developing an approach, which chooses sustainable finance as a connecting element that (1) combines different calculation methods, (2) integrates cross-value chain data from different stakeholders and (3) combines primary and secondary data in a single model. The approach was developed in a prototype that uses real world data from collaboration with the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance to evaluate its applicability. The findings of the prototype indicate that a digital data infrastructure can improve the calculation of scope 3 GHG emissions by improving data availability, accessibility and reliability and at the same time shows that the calculations are only as good as the data, which fuels this calculation. With this, the paper contributes to the theoretical and practical discussion about scope 3 GHG emission data. Show less

The financial system is currently being transformed by digitization and sustainability. However, existing research on the topic of sustainable digital finance, which bridges both areas, is still rare and a more comprehensive understanding of the domain is a missing component in existing research. Therefore, this paper develops a taxonomy based on a comprehensive literature analysis to structure this emerging field more precisely. The taxonomy includes a strategic, an organizational, a systems… Show more

The financial system is currently being transformed by digitization and sustainability. However, existing research on the topic of sustainable digital finance, which bridges both areas, is still rare and a more comprehensive understanding of the domain is a missing component in existing research. Therefore, this paper develops a taxonomy based on a comprehensive literature analysis to structure this emerging field more precisely. The taxonomy includes a strategic, an organizational, a systems and a sustainability benefits perspective. The application of the taxonomy to 126 startups reveals that their solutions primarily focus on applications in the energy, financial services and government sector and their major focus is only on five of the seventeen SDGs, which shows a clear preference for climate, energy, infrastructure, cities, and partnerships as the primary goals. Surprisingly, the startups focus merely on operational efficiency optimization like improved processes rather than disruptive innovations in product or customer-related areas. Show less

The financial services industry is currently undergoing a major transformation, with digitization and sustainability being the core drivers. While both concepts have been researched in recent years, their intersection, often conceived as “green FinTech,” remains under-determined. Therefore, this paper contributes to this important discussion about green FinTech by, first, synthesizing the relevant literature systematically. Second, it shows the results of an empirical, in-depth analysis of the… Show more

The financial services industry is currently undergoing a major transformation, with digitization and sustainability being the core drivers. While both concepts have been researched in recent years, their intersection, often conceived as “green FinTech,” remains under-determined. Therefore, this paper contributes to this important discussion about green FinTech by, first, synthesizing the relevant literature systematically. Second, it shows the results of an empirical, in-depth analysis of the Swiss FinTech landscape both in terms of green FinTech startups as well as the services offered by the incumbents. The research results show that literature in this new domain has only emerged recently, is mostly characterized by a specific focus on isolated aspects of green FinTech and does not provide a comprehensive perspective on the topic yet. In addition, the results from the literature and the market analysis indicate that green FinTech has an impact along the whole value chain of financial services covering customer-to-customer (c2c), business-to-customer (b2c), and business-to-business (b2b) services. Today the field is predominantly captured by startup companies in contrast to the incumbents whose solutions are still rare. Show less

The digital finance revolution, which is often termed the “FinTech Revolution”, is currently changing the financial services industry through innovative solutions, often developed by start- up and Big Tech companies. The financial sector is one of the key pillars of all economic trans- actions in general and sustainability specifically. As is so often the case: money is power. Inno- vative examples range from digital supply chain finance enabled agricultural and fashion value chains bridging… Show more

The digital finance revolution, which is often termed the “FinTech Revolution”, is currently changing the financial services industry through innovative solutions, often developed by start- up and Big Tech companies. The financial sector is one of the key pillars of all economic trans- actions in general and sustainability specifically. As is so often the case: money is power. Inno- vative examples range from digital supply chain finance enabled agricultural and fashion value chains bridging Western and African as well as Asian countries, digital currency fueled smart meters for schools in Africa, digital investment marketplaces for forest tokens to crowdfunding enabled entrepreneurship in Asia and South America. Digital innovation in financial services is changing the way how financial resources can be accessed, distributed, and managed.
This paper analyzes approaches from the emerging field of FinTech, InsurTech and blockchain at the intersection of sustainability. By reading through almost one-hundred and fifty papers from academia and practice as well as analyzing hundreds of start-ups in this field, the major building blocks were derived and a future research and innovation agenda was developed. The Appendix which is mentioned in this paper is downloadable online: www.sustainable-digital- finance.org. The results indicate that the topic is of great emerging interest. The areas of the focus are energy management, financial services, governments/NGOs, and transportation as well as some other relevant sectors that hold great potential and in which the combination of business and sustainability benefits is more obvious than ever enabled through innovative technology. Show less

Blockchain technology is predicted to reshape existing business models of the financial services industry. But although blockchain is often seen as a strategic technology, research focusing on its impact on business models is still rare. This research derives a hypotheses model that connects IT innovations with the three generic value disciplines of banks “operational excellence”, “customer intimacy” and “product leadership” as well as the four generic elements of business models “what”, “who”,… Show more

Blockchain technology is predicted to reshape existing business models of the financial services industry. But although blockchain is often seen as a strategic technology, research focusing on its impact on business models is still rare. This research derives a hypotheses model that connects IT innovations with the three generic value disciplines of banks “operational excellence”, “customer intimacy” and “product leadership” as well as the four generic elements of business models “what”, “who”, “how” and “value”. A business model acts as a mediator for IT innovation. To test the hypothesis model data provided from an international survey of 104 financial services institutions and start-up companies was applied. The results support the hypothesis that all three value disciplines might be impacted by blockchain technology in the future. The regression analysis reveals that especially banks’ operations could be significantly changed. With these results, this research contributes to the emerging literature on blockchain and business models and the strategic use of IT. Show less

The accelerating disruptive effect of information technologies (IT) on value chains and busi- ness models is abolishing existing speed limits across industries. In particular, it is forecasted to have one of the greatest impacts on the financial services sector, provoking consequences such as disintermediation, loss of earnings, and reorganization of the value chain with new actors. Banks currently face a situation similar to that of Kodak or Olivetti, for instance, many years ago. Digitization… Show more

The accelerating disruptive effect of information technologies (IT) on value chains and busi- ness models is abolishing existing speed limits across industries. In particular, it is forecasted to have one of the greatest impacts on the financial services sector, provoking consequences such as disintermediation, loss of earnings, and reorganization of the value chain with new actors. Banks currently face a situation similar to that of Kodak or Olivetti, for instance, many years ago. Digitization led to a fundamental transformation of their core products and value chains, which were already digital in nature.
As time-to-market for digital banking products becomes shorter and shorter, thousands of Financial Technology (FinTech) startups and other non-banks are rising to the occasion by developing new products, services, and business models for all areas of banking in pay- ments, investments, and financing along the entire value chain, touching all areas from front to back office, as client adoption of these new services accelerates. The lighting company Osram, for example, recently had to reduce its worldwide staff from 34,000 to 26,000 due to the unexpected speed of clients’ adoption of new LED technology. By contrast, a financial services company such as Wealthfront is still small, having reached almost USD 4.5 billion in managed assets. Such companies develop very quickly and establish new ecosystems with other non-banks and incumbents in the financial services industry.
Based on our previous research, we have developed theses and key questions for changes in the coming years that impact six areas comprising clients, operating models, revenue models, platforms, data and value chains. Show less

Dieses Buch bespricht eine Transformation im Bankensektor, die ähnlich tiefgreifend ist, wie einst die Industrialisierung in der Produktion physischer Güter. Sie führt nicht nur zur weiteren Automatisierung von Abläufen in Banken selbst, sondern auch zur Veränderung der Arbeitsteilung im gesamten Finanzsektor. Zur Strukturierung dieser Entwicklung unternimmt das vorliegende Buch erstmalig eine durchgängige modellorientierte Sicht auf Banken, welche die Ebenen Strategie, Organisation und… Show more

Dieses Buch bespricht eine Transformation im Bankensektor, die ähnlich tiefgreifend ist, wie einst die Industrialisierung in der Produktion physischer Güter. Sie führt nicht nur zur weiteren Automatisierung von Abläufen in Banken selbst, sondern auch zur Veränderung der Arbeitsteilung im gesamten Finanzsektor. Zur Strukturierung dieser Entwicklung unternimmt das vorliegende Buch erstmalig eine durchgängige modellorientierte Sicht auf Banken, welche die Ebenen Strategie, Organisation und Informationssystem umfasst. Anhand der vier Leitlinien Multidimensionalität, Serviceorientierung, Innovation und Vernetzung skizziert es die wesentlichen Eckpunkte für die Transformation bestehender Banken und liefert gleichzeitig Grundlagen für die jüngst entstandenen Fintech-Lösungen. Show less