The social representation of fintech from the perspective of traditional financial sector professionals: evidence from Brazil

Abstract

AbstractThis study aims to reveal the social representation of fintech from the perspective of traditional financial sector professionals in Brazil—herein used as a proxy for emerging markets—to interpret and compare it with the scientific literature on the concept of fintech. To achieve this, we applied the social representations theory associated with the word evocation test, similarity analysis, and descending hierarchical classification. After analyzing the results, we perceived a partial misalignment between the existing literature on the concept of fintech and the perspective of traditional financial sector professionals concerning this construct. In contrast to the literature surveyed, the respondents lack perception regarding the potential of fintech to constitute disruptive technology for the traditional financial sector—radically transforming or even eliminating it. In addition, traditional financial sector professionals have little insight into the potential of fintech to financially include the low-income population, owing to their lower costs and greater ease of use. Finally, traditional financial sector professionals failed to appreciate the need to develop a legal and regulatory framework for the performance of fintech in emerging markets. This is a subject that has also been scantly addressed by academia.