Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Business Excellence

 

Special Issue on: "Innovation for Financial Services: Towards a Renewed Perspective?"

Guest Editors:
Dr. Anne-Laure Mention, Public research centre Henri Tudor, Luxembourg
Dr. Marko Torkkeli, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland

Innovation in financial services remains largely under-investigated despite its relevance per se, as well as its impact on the well functioning of the entire economy. Research is required to further understand the drivers for innovation in and for financial services, the tools that are required to support the innovation management process (from ideation stage to market introduction), and the influence of culture, trust and other organisational features on the ability of an organisation to foster innovation. The shift from a traditional intermediation model to new business ecosystems where financial firms must simultaenously cooperate and compete with telecommunications players is another critical research area in the financial sector and surrounding industries. Furthermore, the need for financial firms to comply with increasingly complex regulations and to adopt new technologies at an increased pace so as to offer state of the art facilities and services to their customers represent other challenges that deserve further attention. Customer acquisition, retention, centricity and the need to anticipate customers needs is also of prime interest for both academics and managers. The innovation process itself, its openness nature and the organisational prerequisites are also at the core of the current transformation of the industry. Financial education and literacy also deserve further attention as well as the effects and consequences of innovation, embracing both the dark side and the positive outcomes.

This special issue focuses on the multifaceted aspects of innovation in and for financial services. It adopts a broad perspective on innovation, encompassing investment products, services such as e- and mobile banking, process, organisational and marketing innovations. It particularly considers the various challenges related to innovation in and for financial services, the role of external factors such as regulation, the recent technological advances which have significantly impacted the way products and services are developed, bundled, distributed and marketed. It also aims at exploring practices related to innovation across the ecosystem of financial services, embracing financial firms, their customers, suppliers, competitors and the new types of organisations with which financial firms simultaneously cooperate and compete. Crowdfunding is of particular interest.

This special issue invites you to submit your papers and looks forward to receiving your quality contributions. The papers can be purely theoretical or theory-driven, empirical work, either qualitative or quantitative. Submissions from academics, consultants, managers and policy makers exploring innovation are strongly encouraged.

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:

• Tools for innovation and its management such as ideation and creativity techniques
• Defining and characterising innovation in financial services
• Managing innovation and change in financial services
• ICT-enabled innovations in financial services, including SaaS, cloud computing, e-archiving, outsourcing, data privacy, confidentiality and security management and mobile payments
• Relationships between innovation and performance in financial services
• National, regional, inter-regional innovation systems and policies targeting financial sector
• New business models for the financial sector and the emergence of new business ecosystems
• Open and collaborative innovation in financial services
• Challenges facing the financial systems
• Sustainability in finance and new financial instruments such as microfinance and impact investing
• Collaborative tools for innovation in the financial services sector, such as collaborative platforms
• Human capital related issues in financial services
• Process innovation, performance improvement, lean approaches in financial services
• Role of regulation in the innovation process
• Financing innovation: venture capital, business angel, loans, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, etc
• Role of intellectual property and informal protection mechanisms
• Role of trust for innovation in service firms
• Financial education and literacy

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Please send any questions to the Guest Editors:

Dr. Anne-Laure Mention
anne-laure.mention@tudor.lu

Dr. Marko Torkkeli
marko.torkkeli@lut.fi

Important Dates

Paper submission: 1 November, 2014

Reviewers' comments: 1 January, 2015

Revised paper submission: 15 February, 2015