When Function Meets Emotion, Change Can Happen: Societal Value Propositions and Disruptive Potential in FinTechs

Despite significant interest in value proposi-tions as central drivers in digital service innova-tion, the literature so far provides limited insights from a societal perspective to better understand the formation of a disruptive potential based on proposed values. Accordingly, research on FinTechs as exemplary providers of digital service innovations has mainly addressed functional as-pects of value propositions so far. This paper thus sets out to gain insights into the interplay and overall role of value propositions as potential ante-cedents and change catalysts in the formation of the often-promised disruptive potential of FinTechs. In an inductive theory-building ap-proach the authors first examine how societal val-ue propositions transcend individual functional and emotional ones and conclude with a concep-tual model of the how the former can build up the disruptive potential of FinTechs.