Matching financial closeness with social distancing: Networking digital platforms within a corporate governance ecosystem

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Abstract

The Covid-19 – Coronavirus pandemic has rapidly spread around the world, demanding for social distancing measures as a strategy to soften contagion. Whereas social closeness proves dangerous, financial proximity is increasingly needed and can be guaranteed by FinTechs or applications, like digital platforms. Networking platforms may be represented by bridging nodes like Mobile banking (M-banking) hotspots. M-banking and FinTech applications are fully consistent with distancing prescriptions and ease financial inclusion, allowing for 24/7 operativity. This study proposes an innovative interpretation of the networking properties of digital platforms and M-banking that represent a new – virtual – stakeholder, showing how they improve corporate governance interactions. Due to their scalability, platforms foster cooperative value co-creating patterns, with deep albeit still under-investigated governance implications. Network governance is a novel approach to describe the stakeholders’ ecosystem, and its value-adding physical and virtual interactions. The paper shows how to match virtual financial proximity with apparently contradicting social distancing. This study represents an advance in the literature, as it investigates about its smart (digital) extensions that can represent a shield against pandemic adversities, reducing transaction costs, and information asymmetries.

Keywords: Mobile Banking, Network Theory, Digital Platform, FinTech, Smart Corporate Governance, Covid-19, Coronavirus, Financial Inclusion, Bank Desertification

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization - R.M.-V. (Sections 3, 4 and 7), M.C.Q. (Sections 2 and 5), and M.B. (Section 6); Methodology – R.M.-V.(Sections 3, 4 and 7), M.C.Q. (Sections 2 and 5), and M.B. (Section 6); Formal Analysis – R.M.-V.(Sections 3, 4 and 7), M.C.Q. (Sections 2 and 5), and M.B (Section 6); Investigation – R.M.-V. (Sections 3, 4 and 7), M.C.Q. (Sections 2 and 5), and M.B. (Section 6); Writing Original Draft – R.M.-V. (Sections 3, 4 and 7), M.C.Q. (Sections 2 and 5), and M.B. (Section 6); Writing – Review & Editing – R.M.-V. (Sections 3, 4 and 7), M.C.Q. (Sections 2 and 5), and M.B. (Section 6); Supervision – R.M.-V.; Project Administration – M.B.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments: A research grant from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy, has supported the publication fee of this study. The authors wish to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies.

JEL Classification: G20, G32, G34

Received: 11.07.2020
Accepted: 17.09.2020
Published online: 18.09.2020

How to cite this paper: Moro-Visconti, R., Quirici, M. C., & Borroni, M. (2020). Matching financial closeness with social distancing: Networking digital platforms within a corporate governance ecosystem. Corporate Ownership & Control, 18(1), 96-109. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv18i1art8