Workshop on ‘Emerging Production Networks of Fintech’
National University of Singapore, 10th & 11th December 2018
Fintech, a shorthand for ‘financial technology’, brings together firms and actors from the finance industry and technology and innovation clusters in changing the ways that capital raising, financial transactions and investment decisions are being made, often through the use
of big data, online platforms and mobile technologies. Given the infancy of this phenomenon, a pressing task would be to clarify the key actors, relationships and structures of this evolving industry (or sets of intersecting industries), map out key research dimensions for economic geography, and identify productive points of engagement for understanding the dynamics and evolution of global production networks (GPN) as the result of Fintech. In geography and related social sciences, much has been written about financialisation and the ways in which financial logics and practice have become influential in shaping the decision-making and economic behaviour of firms, states and consumers. Will Fintech reshape such direction of influence, as ICT innovations from outside the finance industry change the intermediary roles of finance firms with new products and new forms of service delivery? How will this change industry positions of incumbent and challenger firms as the line between finance firms and technology companies become increasingly blurred? What regulatory challenges are being posed by Fintech as it operates at the intersections of industries and production networks? Given the speed of industry development and emerging intellectual interest in Fintech, the workshop will provide valuable intellectual space for critical discussion on key research
topics, conceptual themes, methods, and intellectual and policy implications for understanding changing geographies of production and finance. The main objectives of the workshop are:
1) To explore the ways in which FinTech is reshaping existing production networks. (For example, through the introduction of new intermediary platforms, new ways of providing supply chain financing, or the creation of new markets.)
2) To examine the spatial dimensions of FinTech. (Such as in terms of agglomeration economies, the formation of knowledge networks, regional innovation systems and financial centre capacities.)
3) To consider the impacts of FinTech on labour and regulation, and how these might vary across different geographical contexts and markets.
To read more and find the full event agenda, please look here.
