When function meets emotion change can happen: Societal value propositions and disruptive potential in fintechs

Despite significant interest in value propositions as central drivers in digital service innovation, 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 aspects of value propositions so far. This paper thus sets out to gain insights into the interplay and overall role of value propositions as potential antecedents and change catalysts in the formation of the often-promised disruptive potential of FinTechs. In an inductive theory-building approach the authors first examine how societal value propositions transcend individual functional and emotional ones and conclude with a conceptual model of the how the former can build up the disruptive potential of FinTechs.