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The Appleization of finance: Charting incumbent finance's embrace of FinTech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

Reijer Hendrikse ,
David Bassens  and
Michiel van Meeteren
Reijer Hendrikse*
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
David Bassens
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Michiel van Meeteren
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
*
Corresponding author: Reijer Hendrikse, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research, Department of Geography, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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The rise of financial technology (FinTech) engenders novel business models through integrating financial services and information and communication technologies (ICT). Digital currencies and payments, data mining, and other FinTech applications threaten to radically overhaul the financial sector. This article argues that, while we are becoming aware of how technology giants such as Apple Inc. are making inroads into financial services, we need to become more sensitive to how financial incumbents mimick ICT firms while aiming to neutralize the FinTech challenge. Practices from Silicon Valley are spilling over into ‘traditional’ finance through a process we dub Appleization. We illustrate how incumbents aim to remain indispensable amidst rapid digitization. Mimicking tech strategies, financial incumbents resort to transforming legacy ICT systems into integrated platforms, cultivating entrepreneurial ecosystems where startups are ‘free’ to compete whilst effectively being locked into the incumbent's orbit. We illustrate this by comparing Apple's business features (locking-in developers, customers and state into a hybrid business model based on a synergy between hardware, software and data-driven platform components) with emerging practices in the financial industry. Our analogy suggests that the Appleization of finance might radically transform, yet not undercut the oligopolistic position of financial incumbents.

Keywords

FinTechfinancial innovationplatform capitalismentrepreneurial ecosystem
Type
Article
Information
Finance and Society , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , 2018 , pp. 159 - 180
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© 2018 The Author(s)

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