Government-Led digital transformation in FinTech ecosystems: Digital Transformation in Fintech systems

In this paper, we report on a qualitative exploratory case study of a national-level government-led
digital transformation. We depart from most studies on government digital transformation that
largely focus on improving existing services, bureaucratic processes, or adopting emerging digital
technologies. Instead, we analyze the process of a government-led digital transformation aimed at
addressing significant institutional voids within a resource-constrained context. Drawing from 60
interviews with stakeholders in the Ghanaian FinTech ecosystem, we theorize the concept of
digital branching strategy as an alternative lens to envisage government-led digital transformation that considers the resource-constrained context and characteristics of governments.
Our findings show that governments, especially those in resource-constrained contexts pursue
digital transformation through exploring frugal innovations and leveraging established resources,
structures, and relationships within an ecosystem. We subsequently develop a process model to
explain the mechanisms of a national-level government-led digital transformation. Based on the
findings and the model, our study offers critical insights to re-imagine government-led digital
transformation in resource-constrained contexts by demonstrating how pursuing a digital
branching strategy leads to planned and emergent outcomes because of the generative nature of
the transformation.