Co-creating a digital service for small business owners’ finance management

Abstract

This paper presents a small-scale qualitative study exploring the everyday finance management of small business owners. The study was conducted by carrying out contextual interviews, combining the approach of business and social sciences. Insights from five study cases were utilised in co-creating a novel digital service targeted to facilitate finance management in the areas identified as challenging or lacking suitable services. The benefits and challenges of the co-creation process are also discussed. The findings increase the current understanding and bring practical implications to the understudied area of co-creation of financial services. For example, the needs for integration of services and graphical presentation of financial data are not met with current service offering and should be supported better. Gamification and social aspects, as well as, the need for mobile use, are seen as interesting elements for future research.