Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Digitalization: FinTech, Ethics & Governance

INSTRUCTORS

AIM

This course provides conceptual and applied knowledge to develop a critical understanding of innovation in the context of entrepreneurial finance and the digital transformation of financial systems. It examines the limits of traditional banking and the drivers of financial exclusion, while exploring complementary and alternative mechanisms that foster access to finance, such as public development banking, microcredit and microfinance, crowdfunding, fintech solutions, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Modern financial systems are increasingly technology-intensive. Digital infrastructures, platforms, data analytics, and artificial intelligence play a central role in how financial services are designed, delivered, and governed. These technologies enable a wide range of financial innovations, including microcredit and microfinance, crowdfunding and collaborative finance models, fintech applications in entrepreneurial finance, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

The course approaches finance, technology, and sustainability as analytically distinct yet deeply interconnected dimensions of contemporary economic systems. While financial technologies support diverse financial objectives, they also raise important sustainability-related challenges, such as environmental impacts, data governance, privacy, accountability, and long-term system resilience. Consequently, all technologies used in modern finance, but also elsewhere, must be critically assessed from a sustainability perspective.

By integrating economic, technological, and normative approaches, the course provides a structured framework for understanding and evaluating digital financial innovation. Starting from sustainable finance, the course progresses to the interdependence of finance, technology, and sustainability, and then broadens its focus to examine digital technologies themselves from a sustainability standpoint.

MAIN TOPICS

• Module 1 — Financial Inclusion and Innovative Finance

  • Market failures and the limits of traditional banking
  • Public development banks, microcredit and microfinance
  • Crowdfunding and collaborative finance models
  • FinTech innovation in entrepreneurial finance
  • Decentralized finance (DeFi)

  Module 2 — Digitalization, Ethics and Sustainability

  • Digitalization and sustainability: the material footprint of the digital world
  • Artificial intelligence and environmental impact
  • Foundations of information ethics and responsibility
  • The infosphere as an ecosystem: governance and accountability
  • Global frameworks and policy perspectives for digital governance
  • Data justice and social sustainability in data-driven systems
  • Green IT and sustainable computing

TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Teaching will be conducted through lecturer-led sessions, combining structured presentations with guided discussions based on real-world cases and published academic evidence. The instructors will present key concepts, frameworks and empirical findings, and then use case studies and examples from financial markets, fintech ecosystems and policy contexts to explore different perspectives.

Throughout the course, the discussion of evidence from the scientific literature will support the analysis of opportunities, limitations and trade-offs of financial innovation and digital transformation, including ethical and sustainability implications. Students will be encouraged to engage actively in class through questions and debate, fostering critical thinking and the ability to evaluate digital financial innovations in a rigorous and reflective manner.

DAY-BY-DAY PROGRAM

SUGGESTED REFERENCES

Armendariz, B., & Labie, M. (Eds.). (2011). The handbook of microfinance. World scientific.

Armendáriz, B., & Morduch, J. (2010). The Economics of Microfinance. MIT Press.

Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T., & Schwienbacher, A. (2014). “Crowdfunding: Tapping the Right Crowd.” Journal of Business Venturing, 29(5), 585–609.

Bollaert, H., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., & Schwienbacher, A. (2021). Fintech and access to finance. Journal of corporate finance, 68, 101941.

Bongini, P. A., Mattassoglio, F., Pedrazzoli, A., & Vismara, S. (2025). Crypto ecosystem: navigating the past, present, and future of decentralized finance. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 1-22.

Bruton, G., Khavul, S., Siegel, D., & Wright, M. (2015). New financial alternatives in seeding entrepreneurship: Microfinance, crowdfunding, and peer–to–peer innovations. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 39(1), 9-26.

Hartarska, V., & Cull, R. J. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of microfinance, financial inclusion and development. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ledgerwood, J., Earne, J., & Nelson, C. (Eds.). (2013). The new microfinance handbook: A financial market system perspective. World Bank Publications.

Liaw, K. T. (2023). The Routledge Handbook of FinTech. Routledge.

Morduch, J., & Armendariz, B. (2005). The economics of microfinance. mit Press.

Naifar, N., & Elsayed, A. (2023). Green Finance Instruments, FinTech, and Investment Strategies. Springer.

Rodrigues, A. A. (n.d.). Manual de Inovação Financeira: Uma Introdução ao Universo das Criptomoedas e da Blockchain. AAFDL. (optional supplementary reading)

Schueffel, P. (2021). Defi: Decentralized finance-an introduction and overview. Journal of Innovation Management, 9(3), I-XI.

Stefanelli, V., Ferilli, G. B., & Boscia, V. (2022). Exploring the lending business crowdfunding to support SMEs' financing decisions. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(4), 100278

Luciano Floridi, The Ethics of Information, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 9780199641321

Pasquale, Frank L. The black box society : the secret algorithms that control money and information. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0-674-36827-9. 

Charfeddine, L., & Umlai, M. (2023). ICT sector, digitization and environmental sustainability: A systematic review of the literature from 2000 to 2022. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 184, 113482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2023.113482

Cox, A. (2022). The Ethics of AI for Information Professionals: Eight Scenarios. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 71(3), 201–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2022.2084885

Currier, K. (2026). Ethics, Information, and Technology. Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited.

Floridi, L. (2023). The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Principles, Challenges, and Opportunities. Oxford University Press.

Hameed, Z., Naeem, R. M., Misra, P., Chotia, V., & Malibari, A. (2023). Ethical leadership and environmental performance: The role of green IT capital, green technology innovation, and technological orientation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 194, 122739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122739

Han, J. (2022). An Information Ethics Framework Based on ICT Platforms. Information, 13(9), 440. https://doi.org/10.3390/info13090440

Nissenbaum, H. (2020). Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford Law Books.

Reynolds, G. (2019). Ethics in Information Technology. Cengage Learning.

Spiekermann, S. (2023). Value-Based Engineering: A Guide to Building Ethical Technology for Humanity. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110793383

Van Der Schyff, K., Foster, G., Renaud, K., & Flowerday, S. (2023). Online Privacy Fatigue: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda. Future Internet, 15(5), 164. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15050164