Fortune Favors the Scrappy: Enacting Serendipitous Innovations for Inclusion

This study explores how fintech platforms navigate uncertain environments to achieve digital financial inclusion (DFI). While fintech innovations promote inclusive economic systems by leveraging digital technologies for unbanked populations, their impact is often constrained by regulatory ambiguities, scalability issues, and thin margins. Using a case study of MoMo, Vietnam's leading digital payment platform, we apply the lens of organizational serendipity to explain how the firm innovates. We identify two key mechanisms—enabling potentiality and enabling materialization—that drive serendipitous innovations through digital technologies like big data analytics and rapid prototyping. Our findings provide theoretical insights and practical guidance for fintech firms aiming to foster DFI, with future research focusing on expanding this model to explore the interplay between these mechanisms.