The Microfoundations of FinTech Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

: Financial Innovation, Stakeholder Dynamics and Ecosystem Evolution

Abstract

This thesis investigates the microfoundations of FinTech entrepreneurial ecosystems (FEEs) through a transdisciplinary mixed methods approach, integrating insights from strategic management, entrepreneurship and innovation, economic and financial geography and regulatory governance. It addresses the central question: who and what matters in FEEs, why, and with what consequences for ecosystem evolution?

The qualitative component reconceptualises stakeholder salience from a firm-specific to a systemic, ecosystem-level construct. Building on Mitchell et al. (1997), it extends the salience framework by adding proximity and introduces an empirically motivated attribute, embeddedness, to explain how influence is accrued and institutionalised over time. Using a case study of Kenya’s FEE, based on 29 semi-structured interviews and rapid ethnography, the study identifies four high-salience stakeholder groups (regulators and government, telecommunication companies, incumbent financial institutions, and FinTech firms), whose influence is co-produced through market, regulatory and knowledge interactions. The findings show that trajectories are shaped not only by firm-level strategies or technological capabilities but also by infrastructural constraints, institutional voids, legitimacy dynamics and developmental mandates such as financial inclusion. Stakeholders engage in coopetitive market-making, adaptive regulation and knowledge exchange, highlighting the evolving configurations of salience and the political economy of financial innovation.

The quantitative component complements this analysis by examining how regulatory sandboxes affect traditional financial access. Using an unbalanced panel of 116 countries across advanced economies and emerging markets and developing economies between 2011 and 2021 and a system GMM estimator, results indicate that sandbox adoption is associated with a significant decline in traditional financial infrastructure, particularly in advanced economies, with a more muted effect in emerging markets and developing economies. Event study robustness checks corroborate these results.

Together, the qualitative and quantitative methods offer a multi-level perspective on FinTech ecosystem evolution. The thesis makes five contributions: (1) re-theorising stakeholder salience as a dynamic, ecosystem-level construct shaped by interactions; (2) advancing the microfoundations of entrepreneurial ecosystem literature by showing how influence and governance emerge from relational practices; (3) extending disruptive innovation theory through a cyclical, context-sensitive model of innovation; (4) providing novel econometric evidence on the systemic effects of regulatory sandboxes, offering practical insights for balancing innovation and financial inclusion in diverse contexts; and (5) contributing to strategic management, entrepreneurship, economic and financial geography and regulatory governance literatures by centring an empirically rich African case, addressing the underrepresentation of Global South perspectives and demonstrating their value in generating theory that travels beyond the region.

Date of Award	20 Jan 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Jonathan V Beaverstock (Supervisor) & Richard D F Harris (Supervisor)