Financial Services Organization Research Articles

Anti-Poverty Medicine Through Medical-Financial Partnerships: A New Approach to Child Poverty.

Poverty threatens child health. In the United States, financial strain, which encompasses income and asset poverty, is common with many complex etiologies. Even relatively successful antipoverty programs and policies fall short of serving all families in need, endangering health. We describe a new approach to address this pervasive health problem: antipoverty medicine. Historically, medicine has viewed poverty as a social problem outside of its scope. Increasingly, health care has addressed poverty's downstream effects, such as food and housing insecurity. However, strong evidence now shows that poverty affects biology, and thus, merits treatment as a medical problem. A new approach uses Medical-Financial Partnerships (MFPs), in which healthcare systems and financial service organizations collaborate to improve health by reducing family financial strain. MFPs help families grow assets by increasing savings, decreasing debt, and improving credit and economic opportunity while building a solid foundation for lifelong financial, physical, and mental health. We review evidence-based approaches to poverty alleviation, including conditional and unconditional cash transfers, savings vehicles, debt relief, credit repair, financial coaching, and employment assistance. We describe current national MFPs and highlight different applications of these evidence-based clinical financial interventions. Current MFP models reveal implementation opportunities and challenges, including time and space constraints, time-sensitive processes, lack of familiarity among patients and communities served, and sustainability in traditional medical settings. We conclude that pediatric health care practices can intervene upon poverty and should consider embracing antipoverty medicine as an essential part of the future of pediatric care.

Buried Treasure: Contradictions in the Perception and Reality of Women's Leadership.

The impact of gender on assessments of leadership performance and leadership potential was examined through two clusters of leadership behaviors, one set related to traditional constructions of leadership labeled directing others and another associated with contemporary constructions of leadership labeled engaging others. Based on data collected from a sample of 91 senior leaders in one US financial services organization over a 3-year period prior to Covid-19, the results showed a negative relationship between directing others behaviors and leadership potential ratings for females and a positive relationship between these variables for males. A negative relationship between engaging others behaviors and performance assessments was also found for females. This study highlights the continuing bias in leadership assessments of women and explores the contradictions between the perception and the reality of women's leadership.

A General Profile of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Banking Sector

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the global financial services industry. The new digitalization model is powered by artificial intelligence technology, and AI has the potential to disrupt and refine the existing financial services industry. The increasing amount of data in banking has revealed the need for fast and reliable service. Banks are financial service organizations that have used AI effectively in recent years. This paper reveals the general profile of artificial intelligence adoption by banks. Based on the evidence from all 17 banks operating in the Afyonkarahisar province of Turkey, it is concluded that AI technologies are applied in almost every area of the banking sector to improve the overall service offered. Moreover, the use of AI is evaluated as a potential that provides ease of use and reduces costs. As for the operations in future, the participants think AI will provide high levels of benefit to banks in their financial services in the incoming years. Given no similar study, this study appears to provide an original contribution to the literature regarding the use of AI in banking services within the Turkish context.

Exploring a Convergence Technique on Ideation Artifacts in Crowdsourcing

Convergence is a collaborative activity in which members of group focus on what they consider the most promising or important contributions resulting from an ideation activity. Convergence is critical in helping a group focus their efforts on issues that are worthy of further attention. In the current study, we further research in this area by exploring and characterizing the effects of a particular convergence intervention, the FastFocus technique, in the context of a crowdsourcing project. We conducted an exploratory case study of artifacts generated by a crowd of managers addressing a real problem identification and clarification task in a large financial services organization. Using an online crowdsourcing tool, a professional facilitator led participants during preset periods through a convergence activity that focused on the brainstorming contributions that had been generated prior. To better understand the effects of the convergence technique on the group’s ideas, we compared the raw problem statements to the final output of the convergence activities in terms of the number of unique ideas present, as well as the ambiguity of the ideas. Using the FastFocus convergence technique reduced the number of concepts by 76%. Ambiguity was reduced from 45% in the set of problem statements to 3% in the converged set of problem statements. We demonstrate with these findings that the outcomes of group convergence processes in real settings can be measured, enabling future research which seeks to evaluate and understand convergence in groups. Aspects of brainstorming instructions were also identified that may make it possible to reduce the ambiguity of problem statements.

Relationships among employee acting, customer-perceived service quality, emotional well-being and value co-creation

PurposeHinged on the transformative service paradigm, this study investigates the relationships among employee acting, customer-perceived service quality, customer emotional well-being, and their value co-creation. Feelings of gratitude among customers may moderate the effect of perceived service quality on their emotional well-being (i.e., positive and negative affects).Design/methodology/approachA pair study using a structural equation model was conducted to gather data from a financial service organization in a rural area.FindingsThe results show how customers perceive service quality positively impacts their emotional well-being immediately after receiving a financial service, which in turn affects their value co-creation. Hence, feelings of gratitude moderate the effect of perceived service quality on customer positive affect.Originality/valueThis study responds to calls for more studies on how service interactions influence customer well-being in the financial services context. This study is among the few that examine moderation effects of customer feelings of gratitude on their emotional well-being to explain why a positive emotion might sway their short-term well-being.

Engaging Through Purpose: The Mediating Role of Person–Organizational Purpose Fit in the Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Purpose and Work Engagement

Drawing from self-determination theory and person-organization fit theory, the present study contributes to the literature on organizational purpose by examining the relationship between perceived organizational purpose and work engagement and the mediating role of person-organizational purpose (P-OP) fit herein. Based on data from a cross-sectional quantitative study among 517 knowledge workers from five financial service organizations, we tested two possible psychological mechanisms underlying the direct and indirect relationships between perceived organizational purpose and work engagement. The results of our structural equation modelling confirmed the hypothesized indirect effect model in which perceived organizational purpose was positively associated with work engagement, both directly and indirectly via P-OP fit. These findings show that organizational purpose has the capacity to directly and indirectly foster work engagement. The study suggests avenues for future research in OB, strategic HRM, and marketing.

Fintech Applications in Banking and Financial Services Industry in India

Financial Technologies have transformed banking and financial services operations worldwide over the last decade. It has simplified the customer's and banking authorities' lives significantly. The paper reviews briefly the most commonly used financial technologies (Fintech) – Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Big Data and its applications in Banking and Financial services industry (BFSI). Fintech applications such as - Fraud detection and prevention, Portfolio management (Robo-advisors), Loan underwriting, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Digital Payments, Insuretech and Regtech etc. have been explored in the paper in the context of BFSI. It also studies the impact, opportunities and challenges of financial technologies for BFSI. Further, the paper studies udy the experiences of leading Indian Banks and Financial Services organizations in respect of adoption of financial technologies. The study presents the experiences of Fintech adaptations by three leading Indian Banks – ICICI, HDFC and SBI. The study highlights that the revolution Fintech set in motion has had a profound impact on traditional banking and financial service sectors in terms of operations. Originally used for backend services, it is currently applied in many additional applications such as online payments, mobile payments, fund management, and stock trading. The study concludes that Fintech has changed the financial ecosystem and transformed the basic process of payment methods via the use of digital technology.

Pathways to improving financial inclusion through mobile money: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate and explain pathways through which mobile money can improve financial inclusion.Design/methodology/approachThe study used 294 survey responses from mobile money users in Ghana. The data were analysed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).FindingsThe findings reveal four pathways for improving financial inclusion through mobile money. In addition, the study identified three distinct user topologies as well as their associated pathways through which mobile money can be used to improve financial inclusion.Practical implicationsManagers and financial service organisations need to design products and services to align with different pathways and user topologies to improve financial inclusion through mobile money. Moreover, they need to take into account people’s diverse social and economic backgrounds.Originality/valueThe study makes theoretical and empirical contributions by unpacking pathways through which mobile money can improve financial inclusion. In addition, this study reveals three distinct user topologies, being ease-of-use, behavioural intention and coverage-price-service driven and associated pathways through which mobile money can improve financial inclusion. These pathways and user topologies are important to tailor mobile money services and financial inclusion policies. Lastly, this study is arguably the first to utilise the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in fsQCA to extend the mobile money literature.

Leveraging machine learning in the global fight against money laundering and terrorism financing: An affordances perspective

Financial services organisations facilitate the movement of money worldwide, and keep records of their clients’ identity and financial behaviour. As such, they have been enlisted by governments worldwide to assist with the detection and prevention of money laundering, which is a key tool in the fight to reduce crime and create sustainable economic development, corresponding to Goal 16 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this paper, we investigate how the technical and contextual affordances of machine learning algorithms may enable these organisations to accomplish that task. We find that, due to the unavailability of high-quality, large training datasets regarding money laundering methods, there is limited scope for using supervised machine learning. Conversely, it is possible to use reinforced machine learning and, to an extent, unsupervised learning, although only to model unusual financial behaviour, not actual money laundering.

Understanding manager resistance to blockchain systems

Blockchain technology has received much attention in the media and there is an increasing interest amongst organizations within financial services due to the potential benefits. As blockchain-based systems are a nascent technology, the requirements of the technology need to be understood, to allow blockchain systems to be successfully integrated within financial service organizations. There are gaps in academic research in understanding how managers evaluate the value of a blockchain-based system. This study develops a model to explain manager resistance to implementing blockchain-based systems in financial services organizations. This research advances the theoretical understanding of managers’ perspectives on blockchain-based systems and models their resistance to blockchain technology.

Leading for Innovation: A Case Study of Financial Services Organization in Sri Lanka

Leadership is a crucial determinant of Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) of employees in an organization. Many researchers have found the linkage of the leadership and IWB in various industries, yet very little attention has been paid on the financial services sector, particularly in Sri Lanka [1]. Hence, this study intends to examine how leadership affects employees’ IWB in the financial services sector in Sri Lanka. It is a qualitative study, which adopted a case study approach. The study used a purposive sample of 10 innovative employees in the organization, based on the recommendation of the management and in-depth face to face interviews were carried out with those employees. A thematic analysis was employed for data analysis. The findings of the study were the characteristics of transformational leadership predominantly made impact on promoting IWB among the employees in the chosen financial services organization. Further, IWB of the employees are encouraged if the leader provides more autonomy, resources, constructive feedback, recognition to the employees and the leader being a role model for the employees. The implications of the study suggests insights to the organizational leadership to foster IWB among the employees.

The Ambiguity of Novelty and Strategic Agenda Setting: Evidence from the Emergence of FinTech

Where organizational decision-makers focus their attention is a central premise in the behavioural theory of the firm and is particularly important as organizations adapt to technological changes in dynamic environments. Structuring attention toward specific aspects of the environment is a key means through which organizations shift their strategic agendas. However, research has often overlooked the fact that new technologies, at their onset, are often ambiguous, making it difficult for organizations to determine appropriate structures. Adaptation, in this way, is partly dependent on cues from environment to draw organizational attention. Novelty, as a characteristic of an issue, is theorized as a critical but complicated factor in reshaping the strategic agendas of organizations. Novel issues are more likely to draw the attention of decision-makers and shift strategic agendas yet also lack legitimacy due to their novelty, which may impede a strategic shift. In examining 15 years of data for 36 incumbent financial services organizations, I find that organizations respond to the ambiguity of FinTech differently. Louder voices for novel issues draws in the attention of organizations to shift agendas; however, the technological experience of top managers dampens this effect when FinTech is considered as a technology. When FinTech is considered as a market-oriented issue targeting a business unit, it is the legitimation of FinTech that matters most in shifting strategic agendas. Topic modeling and mixed-effects models are empirically used to both identify the ambiguity of FinTech and support these findings.

Differentiating Financial Service Brands Through the Multilayered Service Strategy (MSS): Some Insights from the Resource Based View of the Firm

The paper examines how financial service organizations operating in the Nigerian banking industry can be effectively managed to achieve brand differentiation. A service brand model was reviewed, critiqued and a Multilayered Service Strategy (MSS) model of service brand differentiation grounded on Barney’s concept of Resource-Based View (RBV) was put forward. Sixteen leading edge corporate marketing and communication practitioners with experience in service branding were engaged to examine the effectiveness of the model through in-depth interviews. The analysis of data indicates that effective differentiation of a service brand cannot be achieved through a single business or organizational factor. Rather, corporate communication managers/directors should be encouraged to develop the habit of deploying or incorporating valuable, rare, inimitable and un-substitutable resources in corporate advertising materials and other corporate communication texts. These resources provide the foundation for engendering an effectively differentiated service brand, and also endow service organizations with a superior competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Customer incivility, rapport and tipping: the moderating role of agreeableness

PurposeAlthough studies have emphasized the need to explore the negative consequences of customer incivility, scant attention has been paid to positive factors that can mitigate its negative effects on employees’ service performance. The purpose of this study is to extend research on customer incivility and its association with rapport and tipping through the prism of conservation of resources theory. It also examines the role of agreeableness as a personal resource in coping with instances of incivility.Design/methodology/approachA total of 502 Israeli restaurant servers took part in this study.FindingsAgreeableness significantly moderated the relationship between customer incivility and rapport: agreeable hospitality employees who served customers manifesting low/medium incivility reported better rapport than disagreeable hospitality employees. However, this effect was not significant for high incivility. Further, agreeable hospitality employees who served customers with low/medium incivility reported higher tips than disagreeable hospitality employees. Surprisingly, the findings also suggested that when employees served customers exhibiting high incivility, the tips were lower for servers high on agreeableness than for servers low on agreeableness.Originality/valueThis study broadens the frontiers of research on customer incivility and provides insights into the critical financial and emotional costs hospitality employees and service organizations incur when encountering incivility. The findings also contribute to the scant research on the potential moderators that may enable employees to handle customer interactions more constructively in the case of incivility within the hospitality industry. Agreeableness appeared to alleviate the negative effects of customer incivility on rapport and tipping but only seemed to be an effective resource up to a certain level of customer incivility.

The role of organisational motivation and coordination in continuous improvement implementations: an empirical research of process improvement project success

The paper aims to elicit the understanding of process improvement (PI) project success by researching the effects of organisational – motivation and coordination in continuous improvement (CI) implementations in the financial services sector. The data analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) comes from a sample of 198 survey respondents in financial service organisations that have implemented CI. This research shows that a strong organisational motivation is driving the embeddedness of PI methodology in, and alignment with the CI implementation of, the organisation and thus affecting PI project success. In addition, central coordination is found to affect the alignment of the organisation to the CI implementation activities and objectives and affects PI project success. These findings show how the organisational level constructs of organisational – motivation and coordination affect PI project success following the mediating constructs of alignment, embeddedness, and routinisation specifically in the context of financial services. Thus, the work provides a better understanding of how organisational level drivers affect the organisational context of PI projects and consequently affect PI project success. There is little empirical research on determinants of PI project success. Our work explains how factors in the organisational context in which PI projects take place are affecting project outcome.

“Reinventing the wheel over and over again”. Organizational learning, memory and forgetting in doing diversity work

PurposeOne of the urgent questions in the field of diversity is the knowledge about effective diversity practices. This paper aims to advance our knowledge on organizational change toward diversity by combining concepts from diversity studies and organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachBy employing a social practice approach to organizational learning, the author will be able to go beyond individual learning experiences of diversity practices but see how members negotiate the diversity knowledge and how they integrate their new knowledge in their day-to-day organizational norms and practices. The analysis draws on data collected during a longitudinal case study in a financial service organization in the Netherlands.FindingsThis study showed how collective learning practices took place but were insufficiently anchored in a collective memory. Change agents have the task to build “new” memory on diversity policies and gender inequality as well as to use organizational memory to enable diversity policies and practices to be implemented. The inability to create a community of practice impeded the change agenda.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could expand our knowledge on collective memory of knowledge on diversity further and focus on the way employees make use of this memory while doing diversity.Practical implicationsThe current literature often tends to analyze the effectiveness of diversity practices as linear processes, which is insufficient to capture the complexity of a change process characterized with layers of negotiated and politicized forms of access to resources. The author would argue for more future work on nonlinear and process-based perspectives on organizational change.Originality/valueThe contribution is to the literature on diversity practices by showing how the lack of collective memory to “store” individual learning in the organization has proven to be a major problem in the management of diversity.

Organizational tensions arising from mandatory data exchange between the private and public sector: The case of financial services

This paper examines the organizational tensions arising from mandatory data exchange initiatives between private and public organizations. The focus is the UK financial services sector, which is required to monitor and report on customer identities and transactions under the country's Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorist Finance (AML/CTF) regulations. The transferred data are generated from existing organizational activities, systems, processes and working patterns; we examine how government demands for such data affect commercial priorities, customer relationships and working patterns in the sector. We adopt an exploratory approach to investigate this phenomenon, consisting of 16 in-depth interviews, analysis of documents and two case studies. Three contributions are made. First, we use remediation theory to show that existing organizational arrangements are reconfigured at multiple analytical levels, creating tensions between the organizations’ commercial and compliance roles. Second, we establish the information flow as an appropriate unit of analysis in the study of data exchange mechanisms and reveal the flows that characterise AML/CTF compliance for financial services organizations. Finally, we adopt a ‘set theoretic’ perspective on multi-level organizational research, to argue that the multi-level effects of this regulation can be examined in parallel.

EFEKTIVITAS SISTEM INFORMASI AKUNTANSI PADA PERUSAHAAN JASA KEUANGAN DI JAKARTA

The development of accounting information systems in the financial sector is an important topic, especially the development of financial information technology. This study aims to analyze the effect of user competence, organizational culture and top management support on the effectiveness of accounting information systems in financial sector companies. This research method uses survey techniques with a population of financial service organizations. From 30 data collected, multiple regression analysis is used to process the data. Based on the results of tests conducted note that user competency and top management support affect the effectiveness of accounting information systems while organizational culture does not affect the effectiveness of accounting information systems

Machine Learning Architecture to Financial Service Organizations

Machine Learning Architecture to Financial Service Organizations

Banking on Blockchain: An Evaluation of Innovation Decision Making

Blockchain technology has received significant attention following the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008. In particular, the financial services industry has sought to capitalize on the underlying technology, known as distributed ledger technology, to generate new products, services, and innovative business models. In this article, through an in-depth investigation of the technology innovation evaluation process, we utilize a grounded theory approach to study 12 financial service organizations. This article is unique in that it explores the technology evaluation process concurrently as decision makers reacted to the potential uses, as opposed to a retrospective view after a technology innovation had been adopted. Evidence suggests that, organizations applied a specific process to determine the value of blockchain that consisted of understand, organize, and test, which collectively helped create the proof-of-value model. Surprisingly, we find that financial service organizations tend to view blockchain innovation as a lower priority due to the lack of a clear path to value. Additionally, financial service organizations consistently leverage industry consortiums to link to external knowledge and help with the decision-making process. Our findings have direct implications to both innovation researchers as well as practitioners seeking to evaluate blockchain technology.