BSc Management (Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship)
Year of entry: 2024
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Course unit details:
FinTech Revolution: The Digital Transformation of Financial Services
Unit code | BMAN32272 |
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Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 3 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 2 |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
The course covers various topics around the phenomenon of Fintech revolution including the digital transformation, innovation, and regulation in the banking and financial services industry. The course will cover various tools and technologies, stakeholders (Startups, incumbent banks, big tech firms, and regulators) and their interactions, the processes of digital innovation and transformation at organizational level, and regulatory implications of the fundamental changes in this industry. The course will mainly draw on the literatures in information systems, organizational theory and strategy disciplines. The course unit is being proposed for the 2nd or 3rd year undergraduate programmes because the students would already have gained a basic understanding of the foundational courses by then. The course unit is primarily proposed for BSc – ITMB, BSc – Management and BSc-International Management. The course unit can also be opened to BSc-IBFE and BSc-Accounting programmes should there be an interest.
Pre/co-requisites
Academic programmes that course is available to:
• Primarily BSc-ITMB, BSc-Management, BSc-International Management programmes as an elective
• Additionally can also be offered to BSc-Accounting and BSC-IBFE programmes should there be interest
Aims
The aim of this course is to provide students with a preliminary understanding of emerging trends in the FinTech space. In particular, the course will help students develop theoretical and practical understanding of how the banking and financial services industry is being digitally transformed by various digital and data-driven innovations. The module will cover some dynamics at the ecosystem level as well as some dynamics of organizations’ internal transformation and thereby examining the changing nature of work. Key focus will be on helping students envision various practical scenarios from which they can learn from and in which they can apply their theoretical, analytical, and practical skills. The course will also include discussion of relevant case studies of documenting journeys of various stakeholders (banks, FinTech startups, cryptocurrency exchanges, regulators) in the FinTech revolution, the challenges they face, and strategies they employ to address those challenges.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course unit, student should be able to:
• Understand the fundamental forces behind FinTech revolution.
• Understand the FinTech ecosystem, the key players in the ecosystem, and their business models.
• Understand the implications of variety of digital technologies and tools in facilitating transformative change and powering digital business strategy of various stakeholders.
• Discuss the role of regulators as a key stakeholder in the FinTech space. Appreciate the regulatory frameworks (e.g. Open Banking) and their implications for competition and innovation in FinTech landscape.
• Appreciate the changing nature of work for various financial and non-financial professions in the FinTech space.
• Develop an understanding and working knowledge of Decentralized Finance and NFTs.
• Develop an understanding and working knowledge of Central Bank Digital Currencies and Stable Coins.
• Demonstrate the ability to analyse case studies, offer their perspectives by taking into account the views of their team members, identify the black, white, or grey areas of the issues, and offer recommendations for the case study organizations.
• Improve teamwork and collaboration skills from group project.
Syllabus
Week 1
Lecture
Introduction: The Basics of Money, Banking, Digitization, and FinTech
• Gomber et al. (2018)
• Wang & Huang (2018)
Tutorial
Case study: Cutting through the Fog: Finding a Future with Fintech
Week 2
Lecture
FinTech Revolution: Digital Transformation of Financial Services (overview of various financial services), FinTech Ecosystem and Stakeholders (Incumbent Banks and other Traditional Firms, Startups and Challenger Banks, High Tech Firms, Regulators, Accelerators)
• Dhar & Stein (2017)
• Lee & Shin (2018)
• Muthukannan et al. (2020)
Tutorial
Case study: Fintech: Ecosystem, Business Models, Investment Decisions, and Challenges
Week 3
Lecture
Data Science, Financial Performance Analytics and Marketing Analytics
• Joshi et al. (2021)
Tutorial
Case study: Dark Side of Customer Analytics
Week 4
Lecture
Text Analytics in FinTech
• Jung et al. (2018)
• Ge et al. (2017)
Tutorial
Case study: YOB Bank: Application of Text Analytics in a Retail Bank
Week 5
Lecture
Incumbent Banks and Transformation of their Business Models: Innovation Labs, Open Innovation, Data-Driven Business Models
• Sia et al. (2016)
Tutorial
Case study: CIBC: Internalizing Open Innovation
Week 6
Lecture
FinTech and Changing Nature of Work: From Bankers to Coders?
• Marshall (2019)
Tutorial
Case study: Transferring Traditional Banking Skills to the Brave New World
Week 7
Lecture
Decentralize Finance Primitives
• Campbell et al. (2021)
Tutorial
Deep dive into Custody, Incentives, Supply adjustments and risks of digital assets: Campbell et al. (2021)
Week 8
Lecture
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
• Kaczynski & Kominers (2021)
Tutorial
Case study
• Bored Ape Yacht Club case study
Week 9
Lecture
Decentralized Finance (Decentralized Exchanges, Lending & Borrowing)
• Campbell et al. (2021)
Tutorial
Deep Dive into Decentralized Exchange: Uniswap (2022)
Week 10
Lecture
Central Bank Digital Currencies and Stable Coins
• Davoodalhosseini et al. (2020)
Tutor
Teaching and learning methods
Lecture Hours
22 hours (2 hours lecture per week, over 11 weeks, plus additional drop-in sessions)
Seminar/Tutorial/Workshop/Lab Hours
11 hours (1 hour tutorial session per week, over 11 weeks)
Total: 33 hours
Employability skills
- Other
- Students joining a retail organization, will still need to understand how the payments are being routed through the mobile wallets and how those data can be utilized in offering better products to the customers. Moreover, students joining firms in crypto space will need a deep understanding of how value is transferred in the decentralized ecosystem. This module will equip the students with preliminary understanding of the current state of the innovations in this space.
Assessment methods
Group Project Coursework and Peer Assessment (60%) - 2000 words group report, students might be asked to present their approach for feedback before writing full report
Individual Project Coursework (40%) 1000 words
Feedback methods
Written, verbally during class and via Blackboard.
Recommended reading
Reference books:
• Harvey, Campbell R., Ashwin Ramachandran, and Joey Santoro. DeFi and the Future of Finance. John Wiley & Sons, 2021.
• King, B. Breaking banks: The innovators, rogues, and strategists rebooting banking. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
• Schar, Fabian, and Aleksander Berentsen. Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptoassets: A Comprehensive Introduction. MIT press, 2020.
• Susanne Chishti, Tony Craddock, Robert Courtneidge, Markos Zachariadis (eds.) (2020). The Paytech Book : the Payment Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Fintech Visionaries, Chichester, West Sussex ; Wiley, 2020.
Case Studies:
• As indicated in the Syllabus above.
Journal articles:
• Alfaro, E., Bressan, M., Girardin, F., Murillo, J., Someh, I., & Wixom, B. (2019). BBVA’s Data Monetization Journey. MIS Quarterly Executive, 18(2).
• Davoodalhosseini, M., Rivadeneyra, F., & Zhu, Y. (2020). CBDC and monetary policy (No. 2020-4). Bank of Canada.
• Dhar, V., & Stein, R. M. (2017). FinTech platforms and strategy. Communications of the ACM, 60(10), 32-35.
• Dodgson, M., Gann, D., Wladawsky-Berger, I., Sultan, N., & George, G. (2015). Managing Digital Money. Academy of Management Journal, 58(2), 325–333.
• Faccia, A., Moşteanu, N. R., Cavaliere, L. P. L., & Mataruna-Dos-Santos, L. J. (2020, September). Electronic money laundering, the dark side of fintech: An overview of the most recent cases. In Proceedings of the 2020 12th International Conference on Information Management and Engineering (pp. 29-34).
• Ge, R., Feng, J., Gu, B., & Zhang, P. (2017). Predicting and Deterring Default with Social Media Information in Peer-to-Peer Lending. Journal of Management Information Systems, 34(2), 401–424.
• Gomber, P., Kauffman, R. J., Parker, C., & Weber, B. W. (2018). On the Fintech Revolution: Interpreting the Forces of Innovation, Disruption, and Transformation in Financial Services. Journal of Management Information Systems, 35(1), 220–265.
• Hachem, Kinda Cheryl, The Economics of Cryptocurrency. Darden Case No. UVA-GEM-0190, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3942633
• Joshi, M.P., Su, N., Austin, R.D., & Sundaram, A.K. (2021), Why So Many Data Science Projects Fail to Deliver, MIT Sloan Management Review, 62(3).
• Jung, D., Dorner, V., Glaser, F., & Morana, S. (2018). Robo-Advisory—Digitalization and Automation of Financial Advisory. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 60(1), 81–86.
• Kaczynski, S., & Duke Kominers, S. (2021). How NFTs Create Value. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 1–11.
• Lee, I., & Shin, Y. J. (2018). Fintech: Ecosystem, business models, investment decisions, and challenges. Business horizons, 61(1), 35-46.
• Marshall, C.(2019). Practical FinTech for Financial Professionals.
• Muthukannan, P., Tan, B., Gozman, D., & Johnson, L. (2020). The emergence of a fintech ecosystem: A case study of the Vizag Fintech Valley in India. Information & Management, 57(8), 103385.
• Sia, S. K., Soh, C., & Weill, P. (2016). How DBS Bank Pursued a Digital Business Strategy. MIS Quarterly Executive, 15(2).
• Schär, F. (2021). Decentralized finance: On blockchain-and smart contract-based financial markets. FRB of St. Louis Review.
• Uniswap (2022) docs.uniswap.or
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 22 |
Seminars | 11 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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Markos Zachariadis | Unit coordinator |
Aseem Pahuja | Unit coordinator |
Additional notes
Academic programmes that course is available to:
• Primarily BSc-ITMB, BSc-Management, BSc-International Management programmes as an elective
• Additionally can also be offered to BSc-Accounting and BSC-IBFE programmes should there be interest
For Academic Year 2024/25
Updated: March 2024
Approved by: March UG Committee