FinTechs as service innovators: Understanding the service innovation stack

Fundamental internal and external changes coupled with digitalisation have enabled new market entrants, FinTechs, to innovate services, creating competitive solutions to incumbents' offering. The purpose of this article is to understand the service innovation approach of FinTech companies. The complexities of service innovation are explained with a theoretical concept of service innovation stack, which presents the multiple components needed for successful service innovation. The usefulness of this construct is observed with a longitudinal case study of 10 FinTech startup from Finland using interviews and other data. These are shown with a visual representation, which ties in the internal activities with the external ones and shows the interplay between them. With the representation of the service innovation stack, the service innovation within financial industry can be better understood and further developed. The authors further suggest that though the framework is based on cases from FinTech startups, it might be relevant also for the incumbents.