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Streszczenie: Przedmiotem badań w niniejszym artykule jest zjawisko FinTech, któremu poświęcają coraz więcej uwagi zarówno naukowcy, jak i praktycy. Pomimo tego oraz rosnącej skali rozwoju FinTech, pojęcie to nie zostało jeszcze sprecyzowane. Celem artykułu jest zdefiniowanie pojęcia FinTech oraz identyfikacja determinant jego rozwoju na podstawie krytycznej analizy istniejących materiałów źródłowych. Obejmują one głównie relatywnie nieliczne jeszcze artykuły naukowe oraz opracowania wybranych instytucji finansowych, takich jak Międzynarodowy Fundusz Walutowy czy Bank Rozrachunków Międzynarodowych w Bazylei, jak również specjalistyczne źródła internetowe. Wynikiem tej analizy jest zaproponowanie dwóch definicji FinTech, reprezentujących szerokie i wąskie rozumienie tego pojęcia. Wykorzystanie wąskiego ujęcia FinTech pozwala zidentyfikować zarówno sektor, jak i należące do niego podmioty, a co za tym idzie umożliwia gromadzenie danych na jego temat oraz prowadzenie badań naukowych.

New and innovative methods for electronic funds transfer are emerging globally. These new payment tools include extensions of the established payment systems as well as new payment methods that are substantially different from traditional transactions. They have made the retail payments faster, cheaper, easier and more convenient for customers. Simultaneously, these payment innovations influence retail payment market around the world. During the last few decades it has changed remarkably and has become a very competitive one. Financial institutions are increasingly in competition with technology companies and other organizations to be the preferred providers of consumer payment services. There are huge differences between retail payment markets in developing countries and those in the mature markets. Payment habits are mostly influenced by local cultural drivers, so global trends are few and far between. Nevertheless, as consumer expectations and habits are becoming more homogenized and financial institutions start to be interested in new markets, the opportunities to learn from the experiences of other economies appear. The paper discusses theoretical and empirical foundation of retail payment innovations diffusion, presents the retail payment taxonomy and the results of a survey held in Poland in 2013. It is concluded that Polish experience can be assessed as a benchmark for searching determinants of retail payment markets development. However, copying success factors for sustainable market development is rather impossible with regard to payment culture, experiences and habits.

While there is a fast-growing number of studies on FinTech, the relationships between technology companies and banks have received only limited attention in the research literature. Most of the studies on FinTech-bank interactions conducted so far address the questions: why banks collaborate with FinTechs (reasons) and how they do it (forms of cooperation), whereas this paper aims at clarifying when the most likely form of their interaction is cooperation and when competition. To cover this cognitive gap, the conceptual framework to help explain which factors affect the type of interactions between technology companies and banks is presented in this paper. Based on extensive literature review and using the market-based approach, the external factors of the market position of banks and technology companies were examined. It was found that this position and therefore the basic type of interaction depends on the adoption level of FinTechs and BigTechs in individual countries/regions. The adoption of FinTechs and BigTechs turned out to be higher in EMDEs and lower in AEs, which makes it more likely that in the first group of countries tech companies would tend to serve as banks’ competitors, whereas in the second group they would rather collaborate with banks or choose the coopetition strategy. When analyzing internal factors, the resource-based approach and a slightly modified IO theory were applied. In this part, the strategic tool which enables the assessment of the extent to which assets, skills, and features of FinTechs, BigTechs and banks are complementary (which gives the rationale for cooperation) or substitutable (which gives the rationale for competition) was proposed. This study is a critical analysis based on desk research, that contributes to the existing literature by (1) providing a narrow definition of FinTech representing the subjective/institutional approach, (2) considering separately FinTechs and BigTechs, and (3) proposing the strategic tool which helps to assess comparative advantages of banks, FinTechs and BigTechs, and thus makes it easier to choose the most appropriate type of their interaction.

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