Institutional logics as inhibitors or levers? The case of mobile payments in Finland

Purpose: This paper aims to explore what kind of institutional barriers companies must overcome in order to innovate a new mobile payment service. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study of mobile payment development in Finnish financial sector is applied to explore institutional factors affecting innovation in payment services. Findings: Institutional factors (cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulative) affect innovation of mobile payment services in highly institutionalized setting. In addition to defining those barriers, in this study we find that startups can use institutional barriers of traditional incumbents as levers for their own innovations. Research limitations/implications: The study deepens our current understanding of the culturalcognitive, normative and regulative factors affecting of new practices and service innovations in the highly institutionalized setting. Practical implications: Results of this research will help startups to find their levers as well as incumbents to identify the barriers for change. The change also means a transition from goodsoriented business model to serviceand customer-dominant thinking. Originality/value: This research contributes to the discussion about FinTech as a phenomenon and broadens the general understanding of related change processes.