چکیده:
هدف: یکی از معضلات بزرگ اقتصاد کشورهای منبعمحوری مانند ایران، میزان چشمگیر شکست استارتاپهای فناوریمحور، در سالهای اولیه فعالیت آنها، بهویژه در بازارهای رقابتی حوزههای نوظهور، مانند حیطه خدمات مالی مبتنی بر فناوریهای نوین است. از آنجا که هنوز تجارب مدون کافی برای بقا در حوزه خدمات مالی دیجیتال وجود ندارد، تازهواردان و صاحبان استارتاپهای ارائهدهنده پلتفرمهای مالی و رسانهای مبتنی بر فناوری (فینتکها)، به شناختن گامهای فرایندی نیاز دارند که از شکست استارتاپ آنها جلوگیری کند. هدف این مطالعه، طراحی یک مدل فرایندی است که مسیر بقای پلتفرمهای فینتک را برای ارائه خدمات مالی و ایفای نقش رسانهای خود نشان دهد.روش: این پژوهش بهروش کیفی و رویکرد مطالعه موردی چندگانه اجرا شده است. از طریق مصاحبه عمیق با ۱۸ تن از مدیران فینتکهای موفق، برای گامهای این مدل فرایندی توصیهها و تجویزهایی بهدست آمد که مسیر دستیابی به بقا را برای فینتکها مشخص میسازد. همچنین برای اعتبارسنجی مدل، از چهار معیار قابلیت اعتبار، قابلیت اطمینان، قابلیت تأیید و قابلیت انتقال استفاده شد تا صحت علمی آن تأیید شود.یافتهها: برای روشن ساختن فرایندی که فینتکها، بهعنوان یک رسانه مالی، میبایست برای بقای خود طی کنند، این مقاله با استفاده از تجارب فینتکهای موفقی که بیش از ۴۲ ماه از عمر فعالیت آنها گذشته، یک مدل فرایندی طراحی کرده است. مراحل این مدل، در پنج فاز کلی پیشنیاز، جنینی، پرورش، راهاندازی و رشد قرار گرفته است. هر فاز، سازهها و مراحل جزئیتری دارد و در ضمیمه مدل، برای هر مرحله توصیههای لازم درج شده است.نتیجهگیری: یافتههای این پژوهش نشان میدهد که فینتکها، باید برای حفظ بقای خود، فرایندی را بهصورت هدفمند، تکرارپذیر و رفتوبرگشتی طی کنند تا در مواجهه با رقبا، رگولاتورهای بخشی، تأمینکنندگان و مشتریان، بهطور مستمر بتوانند خود را با شرایط جدید و استفاده از فرصتها تطابق دهند. برای این منظور، نقش رسانهای فینتکها، اهرم قدرت آنها در جریانسازی برای ارائه خدمات نوین مبتنی بر فناوری خواهد بود.
In the past decade, with the emergence of financial technology startups known as
"FinTech", economic models and traditional market activity in the field of financial
services underwent a complete transformation, and traditional approaches gave way
to new ideas of providing financial services using various technologies. Nowadays,
despite the influential role of fintechs in the digital economy of every country and the
necessity of their survival for the economic stability and media transparency of
countries, research conducted in the existing literature is not rich enough. They rarely
model the process that fintechs should be in order to survive and most of the studies
related to this field have dealt with other issues such as factors affecting survival.
This is in a situation where due to the emerging nature of fintech ecosystem services
and their flexible and evolving nature, and also the complexity and multidimensionality
of their field of activity with the momentary changes of customers'
tastes and needs, entrepreneurs are confronting many challenges in order to master
all matters. On the other hand, the emerging fintech ecosystem has also created many
gaps in regulatory activities, and the country's legislative system has not yet found a
mature approach to this ecosystem and has become an obstacle to the survival,
Media Management Review, 2023, Vol. 2, No.1
growth and development of startups by imposing cumbersome laws. In this situation,
the survival of fintech startups is exposed to a high risk, since due to the high number
of financial transactions in fintechs, in case of ignorance of the ways to maintain
survival, the damages caused by their failure will bring on serious damage to the
economic body of the country. As there is still lack of sufficient documented
experience for survival in the field of digital financial services, newcomers and
owners of fintech startups providing financial platforms need to know the process
preventing their startup from failing. Therefore, the issue of this research is the lack
of transparency of the fintech platforms’ success path in order to provide financial
services and play the media role, and also not knowing the steps of the process that
must be taken for survival. Considering the high rate of exit and unsustainability of
businesses in Iran, it is necessary to look for a model to reduce the failure rate of
active startups in the country. This is why the present article intends to design a
model using the experience of successful fintechs that have survived in the early
years of their activity to introduce the process that leads to survival with a
prescriptive approach. The purpose of choosing this topic is to identify the
mechanism of implementation of solutions to increase the survival chance of fintech
platforms and to obtain a process model to provide recommendations and solutions
to reduce the probability of startups’ failure in order to create knowledge about the
survival process of startups and also to present the steps that should be taken to
maintain survival.
Research Methodology
The method of this research is qualitative and of the multiple case study type by indepth
interview used to collect data from 18 senior managers of successful fintechs.
By coding the data in the first cycle and the second cycle, the main structures of this
process model were designed and for each stage, recommendations and prescriptions
were obtained which defines the path to achieve fintechs’ survival. To validate the
model, four criteria were used to confirm its scientific accuracy: 1) credibility 2)
reliability 3) verifiability and 4) transferability.
1) To validate the model using reliability, after the initial design of the process
model, it was again controlled and reviewed by all participants, and the
research model was modified based on the feedback. In addition, in order to
ensure the accuracy of the research, the entire process of doing the work was
reviewed by colleagues and the final result was modified based on the
feedback. Also, to increase credibility, the participants in the research sample
were selected with the maximum variety of experience.
Designing a Process Model of Fintech Platforms’ Survival / Hejazi et al.
2) To validate the model using reliability, in this research, the researcher used
the first and second cycle coding, and the reliability of the research has been
increased with the direct quotes of the interviewees and their exact words. In
addition, one of the ways to increase reliability is to control the mental biases
of the researcher during data collection, in this research, during the
interviews, an external observer was used to carefully check the data in order
to reduce biases and increase the stability of the research.
3) To validate the model using verifiability, in this research, in order to track the
progress of the research and provide the possibility of auditing the research
by the audience and readers, all the stages of research and data collection
have been fully described so that the progress process from beginning to end
be fully traceable.
4) To validate the model using transferability, increasing the transferability
criterion and generalizing the research results in other fintechs, interviews
were conducted from the maximum diversity of the studied companies by
choosing from different types of fintech.
In this research, this model has been tried to be a process that can be used for
newcomers of fintech so that they can take the necessary steps to increase the
survival of fintech by sharing the experience of successful entrepreneurs and
transferring the concepts of the model to the activity platform of newcomers and
those who intend to launch their own platform. Also, one of the ways to increase the
transferability is to increase the suitability of the data with the environment of study,
which can be investigated by providing more details regarding the participants and
the characteristics of the environment. In this research, the information related to the
statistical population of the research and the research sample is stated in general, and
in the section of presenting the research results, the proposal for the design and
development of this model in fields other than fintech is also presented.
Findings
To clarify the process in which fintechs, as a financial medium, must go through to
guaranty their survival, this article has designed a process model using the
experience of successful fintechs that have been active for more than 42 months. The
stages of this model have five phases: prerequisite, embryonic, breeding, launching
and growth, and each phase has more detailed structures and stages that are included
in the appendix of the model with necessary recommendations for each stage. In the
theoretical contribution of this research, an attempt has been made to change the way
entrepreneurs look at the concept of survival by relying on the experience of experts
Media Management Review, 2023, Vol. 2, No.1
and the designed model, and the most important theoretical contribution of this
research is to change the way of looking at failure and survival. Failure means
gaining experience and it is a stage of success that should lead to accurate learning
and not repeating mistakes. Fast decision-making is the key to survival in the
dynamic and turbulent environment of the fintech ecosystem. Based on the designed
model, the entrepreneur must first be alert to the changes in his environment by
continuously monitoring the environment in order to catch opportunities and follow
up the design and development of the product and business at the same time because
in fintech, the product and the business are interdependent and not separate from
each other. The type of entrepreneur's viewpoint on moderation in the amount of
innovation, the type of communication with big and long-standing competitors, as
well as the way of interacting with regulators and supervisory bodies are among the
other findings of this research in the analysis of the collected data.
Discussion & Conclusion
According to the survival model of fintech platforms, in the process of identifying
opportunities for fintech startups, the entrepreneur should monitor the environment
by relying on his previous experience and skills to identify, evaluate, screen and
select suitable opportunities for exploitation. For the conceptual design of the
product, based on the needs of customers and existing priorities, ideation, design and
development of the initial concept and its evaluation should be done in order to
choose the best possible product concept. The product development process is a
cycle of producing, measuring and learning, during which the prototype produced is
tested for a small group of customers and the necessary modifications are made
based on the feedback to be ready to be presented in the market. With the formation
of founders’ team, the business concept should be designed based on the vision and
mission of the company. To achieve this purpose, it is necessary to identify the target
customers and their needs by studying the market and its segmentation, and by
analyzing the competition situation in the market, design a business model. In case
the business model would not meet the needs of the market and offer products, then
it is necessary to study the market again and go through this process. In order to
expand the business, company strategies should be developed, financial model
should be defined, services should be priced, suppliers and possible risks, geographic
location, company size and marketing methods should be determined based on the
designed business concept in order to have a business plan. If this business plan is
not suitable for business development and is not scalable and repeatable, you should
revise the strategies and go through this process again. Another special feature of this
Designing a Process Model of Fintech Platforms’ Survival / Hejazi et al.
model is the synchronization of product design and development and business design
and development. In fintech platforms, business is not a separate concept from the
product, and these two stages must go in accordance with each other and at the same
time. To set up the company, it is necessary to develop customers and form
functional departments and try to attract capital, develop infrastructure, and solve
legal issues by using professional consultants after providing the basic physical
facilities and recruiting the necessary forces. For the commercialization and growth
of the company, it is necessary to implement marketing plans on a larger scale, grow
by networking and interacting with regulators, increase the size of its market share,
and by continuously monitoring the changes in the national and international
environment, be ready to review and rotate the previous steps related to the product
and business to make appropriate reactions. Therefore, the findings of this research
show that in order to maintain the survival of their platforms, fintechs must go
through a process in a targeted, scalable, repeatable and iterative way in order to face
competitors, sector regulators, suppliers and customers, constantly able to adapt to
new conditions and use the opportunities. For this purpose, the media role of fintechs
will be the lever of their power in streamlining to provide new technology-based
services
خلاصه ماشینی:
92995 مقدمه با وجود نقش تأثيرگذاري که امروزه فين تک ها در اقتصاد ديجيتال هر کشور ايفا مي کنند و اهميت و ضرورتي کـه بقـاي آن ها براي ثبات اقتصادي و شفافيت رسانه اي کشورها دارد، پژوهش هاي انجام شده در ادبيات موجود، بـه انـدازة کفايـت غني نيستند و به مدل سازي فرايندي که فين تک ها بايست براي بقاي خود طي کنند، چندان پرداخته نشده است و اغلـب مطالعات مربوط به اين حوزه ، به مسائل ديگري نظير عوامل مؤثر بر بقا پرداخته اند.
اين در شـرايطي اسـت کـه بـه دليـل نوظهور بودن خدمات اکوسيستم فين تک ها و ماهيت منعطـف و تحـول گـراي آن هـا و همچنـين ، بـه دليـل پيچيـدگي و چندبعدي بودن حيطه فعاليت آن ها با تغييرات لحظه اي سليقه و نيازهاي مشتريان ، کارآفرينان براي اشراف کامل به همـة امور با چالش هاي زيادي مواجهند و به تجميعي از تجارب مختلف افرادي نياز دارند که سال ها در اين حـوزه بـا آزمـون و خطا، بهترين راه کارهاي افزايش احتمال بقا را تجربه کرده اند و استارتاپ آن ها از تلاطم طوفان ها جان سالم بـه در بـرده است .
هدف از انتخاب اين موضوع ، شناسايي سازوکار اجراي راه کارهاي افزايش بقاي پلتفرم هاي فين تـک و دسـتيابي بـه مدلي فرايندي به منظور ارائة توصيه ها و راه کارهايي براي کاهش احتمال شکست استارتاپ ها است تا ضمن ايجاد شناخت از فرايند بقاي استارتاپ ها، گام هايي را تجويز کند که مي بايست براي حفظ بقا برداشته شود.
Public research and the innovation performance of new technology based firms.