Fintech and financial markets: new research directions

This Special Issue brings together papers that offer a diverse view of fintech’s evolving role in financial markets, institutions, and the real economy. Collectively, the studies show that fintech innovations generate significant benefits while also introducing new sources of risk, including volatility spillovers and systemic interconnectedness. Several contributions emphasise the importance of behavioural factors, financial literacy, routines, and organizational culture in shaping fintech adoption, investor behaviour, and banks’ responses to competition. Other papers highlight the real economic impact of fintech, including its predictive power for equity returns, its role in reducing the cost of capital, facilitating M&A activity and its stabilising effects during crises. The SI also advances our understanding of fintech entrepreneurship, documenting how human capital, founder characteristics, and business models influence innovation and firm performance. We conclude by offering possible future research directions.