Research on financial services innovations

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic overview of the current state of research on innovations in financial services and identifies the areas that have received less attention, and hence offer opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach An extensive search identified 121 research papers that have studied innovations in financial services from January 1990 to March 2015. A thorough content analysis objectively organized and coded the studies based on various aspects including publication year, focus of study, methodology, unit of analysis, sample, data analysis method, and geographical region. Analysis of the resulting data presents an overview of the research and identifies areas for future research. Findings The findings indicate that research on innovations in financial services is diverse and has explored various topics. The findings summarize the research papers with regards to each of the aforementioned aspects and offer researchers directions for future research. Research limitations/implications The sample size of 121 articles is an adequate sample size for the purpose of the study and it is in line with similar studies on innovations in other areas. However, future research can expand the study to include more academic journals in addition to reviewing and synthesizing the qualitative aspects of studies and meta-analysis of the identified relationships. Originality/value The study is the first to present a holistic overview of the current state of research on innovations in financial services. The findings offer clear directions to researchers for future research and hence can be used to promote research in these areas.