Blockchain & Fintech: Reimagining Financial Services through Decentralized Technologies
BackTrack Chairs
Leonardo Maria De Rossi
SDA Bocconi School of Management
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Leonardo De Rossi is a Lecturer in the Leadership, Organization and Digital Technologies Knowledge Area at SDA Bocconi School of Management, where he coordinates the blockchain research stream at the Digital Enterprise Value and Organization (DEVO) Lab. He is an expert in blockchain technologies and their applications in business and finance, with deep academic and industry experience. At Università Bocconi, he teaches the master’s courses “Blockchain and Cryptoassets”, and he is the director of executive programs such as “Fintech for Executives”, “Blockchain for Business Programme” and the “Bitcoin and Cryptoassets” (forthcoming).
Rob Gleasure
Copenhagen Business School
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Rob Gleasure is Professor at the Department of Digitalization, Copenhagen Business School. He received his PhD from University College Cork in 2013 and his interests focus on collective intelligence and online emotion. Rob is a Senior Editor for the European Journal of Information Systems, Editorial Board member for the Journal of Information Technology, a former Co-Editor in Chief for the Journal of Decision Systems, a Founding Member of the AIS SIGOPEN, and he has performed a range of different Chair roles for international conferences. Rob’s research has appeared in outlets such as Information Systems Research, the Journal for the Association of Information Systems, the European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, the Journal of Information Technology, the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Sloan Management Review.
Liudmila Zavolokina
University of Lausanne
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Liudmila Zavolokina is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Information Systems and Digital Innovation at HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne, and an Associated Researcher at the Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich. Her research focuses on blockchain ecosystems, digital platforms, and public value creation. She has led and contributed to several funded projects, including “Blockchain Car Dossier” and “Government as a Platform,” exploring the application of blockchain in various sectors. Her work has been published in journals such as MIS Quarterly Executive, Electronic Markets, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. She has served as a co-chair for blockchain-related tracks at conferences like HICSS and as an associate editor for ECIS and ICIS.
This track aims to explore the growing intersection between digital technologies and financial innovation, with a focus on how decentralized architectures are reconfiguring the foundations of financial services. In recent years, Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) such as blockchain have emerged as catalysts of transformation in areas including payments, lending, asset tokenization, regulatory compliance, and identity verification. At the same time, many platforms have enabled new forms of banking which draw on the principles of decentralization, such as peer-to-peer lending, peer-to-peer borrowing, smart derivates, to name a few. These developments have allowed the fintech sector to expand its reach, integrating emerging technologies to deliver more accessible, inclusive, and efficient financial solutions.
The convergence of blockchain and fintech introduces both opportunities and challenges for researchers, practitioners, regulators, and society at large. On one hand, blockchain-powered innovations such as decentralized finance (DeFi), smart contracts, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and decentralized digital identity (DDI) systems promise to improve transparency, reduce costs, and enable peer-to-peer models without intermediaries. On the other hand, they raise critical questions about governance, scalability, regulatory oversight, cybersecurity, and social impact.
Track topics
This track welcomes a wide range of contributions that examine the technological, organizational, economic, and societal implications of blockchain and fintech. We invite submissions that adopt theoretical, empirical, and design science perspectives to address topics such as:
The design and governance of decentralized finance platforms
The interplay between regulation and innovation in digital financial markets- Blockchain-based identity, authentication, and compliance mechanisms
- Tokenization of assets and implications for market infrastructure
- Adoption dynamics of blockchain and fintech solutions in different contexts
- Trust, risk, and value co-creation in peer-to-peer and decentralized systems
- Cross-border payment systems, CBDCs, and the future of monetary policy
- Ethical, environmental, and societal dimensions of blockchain in finance
By connecting the technological innovations enabled by blockchain with the evolving business models and regulatory landscapes of fintech, this track aims to contribute to the broader ECIS 2026 theme of “Re-imagining Digital Technology for Business, Management, and Society.”.
Publishing Opportunities in Leading Journals
- The Journal of Information Technology (JIT)
- The European Journal of International Security (EJIS)
Tentative List of Associate Editors
Nina-Birte Schirrmacher The University of Sydney Business School
Tamara Heidi Roth University of Arkansas
Alexander Rieger University of Arkansas
Johannes Sedlmeir University of Münster
Aakanksha Gaur SDA Bocconi School of Management
Nico Abbatemarco SDA Bocconi School of Management
Lorenzo Diaferia SDA Bocconi School of Management