REIMAGINING FINANCE: THE EVOLUTION OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH IN A DYNAMIC GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

1. Introduction Finance, traditionally rooted in models of efficiency and rationality, is now at the epicentre of massive global change. The emergence of new technologies, climate change concerns, evolving investor behaviour, and geopolitical volatility are reshaping the contours of financial markets and research. Financial research is not just reacting to these changes it is helping to define and direct them. Today, the financial research is undergoing a profound transformation driven by technological innovation, global economic shifts, sustainability goals, and changing investor behaviour. Crises like the 2008 financial meltdown and COVID-19 has further exposed these gaps, highlighting the need for models that integrate behavioural, technological, and geopolitical factors (Lo & Zhang, 2011). At present, Digital finance and big data analytics have become key catalysts, with innovations like blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), algorithmic trading, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) reshaping services and regulation (Arner, Barberis & Buckley, 2016; Gomber et al., 2018). Simultaneously, the global rise of ESG investing has redefined financial performance by embedding non-financial metrics into investment and risk models (Friede, Busch & Bassen, 2015; Eccles & Klimenko, 2019). Behavioural finance further contributes by explaining irrational investor choices, emotional biases, and psychological drivers of markets (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Thaler, 2016). In this context, the understanding of contemporary developments in financial research has become very much essential for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers and alike. This paper tries to examines how fintech, ESG, and behavioural insights are collectively reshaping contemporary financial research and practice.