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Strategic coupling between finance, technology and the state: Cultivating a Fintech ecosystem for incumbent finance

Author

Listed:
  • Reijer Hendrikse

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research, Department of Geography, Belgium)

  • Michiel van Meeteren

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research, Department of Geography, Belgium; Loughborough University, Geography and Environment, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, UK)

  • David Bassens

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research, Department of Geography, Belgium)

Abstract

The rise of Fintech challenges established financial centres and incumbent financial institutions to rethink their strategies to remain obligatory passage points in the age of digitizing finance. To appreciate these changes, it is important to maintain theoretical interchange between developments in financial geography and economic geography, its parent discipline. In this paper, we argue that the ways in which evolutionary economic geography impacts strategic coupling in global financial networks are crucial to grasp tomorrow’s geographies of Fintech. Through an in-depth examination of Brussels, we analyse the potential of Fintech opening a window of locational opportunity in financial services. Belgium has put together a strategy to seize this window by leveraging its politically neutral image and Brussels’ existing niche in financial collaboration and infrastructural plumbing. The latter status is exemplified by the presence of global players SWIFT and Euroclear. We analyse how Belgian entrepreneurs and politicians assess Brussels’ locational resources, and strategically couple big financial institutions with small tech startups in order to cultivate a Fintech ecosystem in the service of incumbent finance, constituting a Fin-Tech-State triangle. As such, we document and analyse how the coalescence of finance and technology offers new opportunities for second-tier financial centres, while highlighting the difficulties in reaping these in practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Reijer Hendrikse & Michiel van Meeteren & David Bassens, 2020. "Strategic coupling between finance, technology and the state: Cultivating a Fintech ecosystem for incumbent finance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1516-1538, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:52:y:2020:i:8:p:1516-1538
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19887967
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Yingying Zhang-Zhang & Sylvia Rohlfer & Jay Rajasekera, 2020. "An Eco-Systematic View of Cross-Sector Fintech: The Case of Alibaba and Tencent," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-25, October.
    2. van Meeteren, Michiel & Trincado-Munoz, Francisco & Rubin, Tzameret H. & Vorley, Tim, 2022. "Rethinking the digital transformation in knowledge-intensive services: A technology space analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    3. Eric Knight & Dariusz Wójcik, 2020. "FinTech, economy and space: Introduction to the special issue," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1490-1497, November.
    4. Sánchez, Marisa A., 2022. "A multi-level perspective on financial technology transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    5. Jonathan Beaverstock & Adam Leaver & Daniel Tischer, 2023. "How financial products organize spatial networks: Analyzing collateralized debt obligations and collateralized loan obligations as “networked productsâ€," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 969-996, June.

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