THE IMPENDING EMERGENCE OF (SOCIAL NETWORK) PAYMENTS : A study of the current situation of the mobile payments industry in Sweden and the challenges within the ecosystem.

Abstract: Abstract Payment industry is witnessing a fast transition from cash dominant era, to card payments and recently mobile payments. Sweden as one of the pioneer countries moving towards cashless society, has experienced quite fast transition thanks to it’s widespread internet access coverage and robust card payment infrastructure. During last few years there has been many mobile payment solutions launched to this market. As a result, some challenges and dynamics have emerged within the Swedish payment ecosystem. Different actors employed different strategies to secure and maintain their position within the ecosystem. This study aims to investigate the current status of power control within the ecosystem by using an extracted part of ARA framework to clarify how different established actors are reacting to this transition. What is more, conducted literature review for this study revealed that, there are few studies for the future of the payment industry and how the ecosystem should be responded to the current trend of moving toward mobile payments. As a result, by use of Configuration value for networks, this study managed to fine a gap which is, absence of a “Value Network” role within the ecosystem. The study suggests that concepts of value chain and value shops are no longer answering the demands of the market and thus, recommend the incumbents of the industry to create and fulfill the Value Network role, so that it could be used as a defense strategy against potential future industry disruption.