【Speaker】Felix Tan, UNSW Business School

【Topic】Digital Driven Financial Inclusion: An Emancipatory Perspective

【Time】Thursday, September 27, 15:30-17:00

【Venue】Room 513, Weilun Building, Tsinghua SEM

【Language】English

【Organizer】Department of Management Science and Engineering

【Abstract】Digital technology possesses an immense emancipatory potential beyond its commercial implications. Yet, our knowledge of the social implications of the phenomenon remains limited because few studies have gone beyond the conventional emphasis on profits and wealth creation. Drawing on the emancipatory perspective that views digital transformation as a change creation process, this paper examines how emancipation can occur through the concerted actions of digital technologies, platform businesses and entrepreneurs. Through an in-depth case study of Financial Technology (Fintech) enabled inclusive development in Indonesia, three types of restraining structures in the form of entrepreneurial constraints are identified. These constraints include the societal norms, business practices and industry rules that have been institutionalized over time. The emancipatory endeavours that remove or ameliorate those constraints are also conceptualized in this paper, toward the actualization of what we term emancipatory digital entrepreneurship.