Essays in financial innovation and sustainability

Abstract

The scope of this dissertation is to observe three of the most prominent trends of this era and to present innovations that could inspire both academics and businesses. There is an urgent need to improve the traditional ways in which the markets operate to achieve financial growth while respecting the environment and the society. The third and fourth manuscript tackle directly the topic of sustainable development through the lenses of SMEs. The first manuscript offers evidence related to the development of FinTech entrepreneurship in a market. Through FinTech and sustainability might appear unrelated at first, their simultaneous development could support achievement of a sustainable economy. FinTech could foster the availability of green finance, which is necessary to the capital-intensive sustainability transformation (Vergara and Agudo, 2021). FinTech supports the sustainable development not only through green finance but also by providing financial resources to underrepresented groups, hence promoting financial inclusion (Arnert et al., 2020). Both FinTech and sustainability are relatively recent trends, hence this dissertation, which focuses on financial innovation and sustainability, oughts to provide evidence for both considering their increasing dependency and relevance.