Mobile Platform for Financial Inclusion: The Case of an Unsuccessful Pilot Project in Brazil

This paper presents an investigation of a pilot project that implemented a mobile payment platform in a poor community in Brazil. This project involved the creation of a network of organizations that includes a local microfinance institution, a large retail bank, a mobile phone operator, an international credit card company, and an acquirer, as well as small local merchants. The paper describes the process in which this platform was created and how it was maintained until it failed, one year after starting. Two conceptual approaches were combined for developing a theoretical understanding of this pilot project first to describe the process of interorganizational network establishment and second to analyze its evolution during its first year of operation. The study points to the critical role played by governance processes, the environmental dynamics and how it can compromise the success of establishment and maintenance of such inter-organizational networks.