Outputs (21)

World cities under conditions of digitization and platform capitalism: Updating the advanced producer services complex (2024)
Journal Article
Bassens, D., Hendrikse, R., Lai, K. P., & van Meeteren, M. (2024). World cities under conditions of digitization and platform capitalism: Updating the advanced producer services complex. Geoforum, 152, Article 104021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104021

This themed issue showcases contributions that study how processes of digitization and platformization are reshaping the intermediary role and operations of advanced producer services (APS). It places these alterations against the backdrop of earlier... Read More about World cities under conditions of digitization and platform capitalism: Updating the advanced producer services complex.

Playful finance: Gamification and intermediation in FinTech economies (2023)
Journal Article
Lai, K. P., & Langley, P. (2024). Playful finance: Gamification and intermediation in FinTech economies. Geoforum, 151, Article 103848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103848

This paper examines how digital gamification techniques, which incorporate video gaming elements (rather than full-fledged games) into apps, are reshaping the logics and practices of intermediation that are core to FinTech economies. First, we argue... Read More about Playful finance: Gamification and intermediation in FinTech economies.

State action and inaction in the shaping of value and wealth entanglements: The role of Singapore in the global ‘gold chain’ (2023)
Journal Article
Thomsen, L., Lai, K. P., & Ponte, S. (2023). State action and inaction in the shaping of value and wealth entanglements: The role of Singapore in the global ‘gold chain’. Environment and Planning A, https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x231181128

Value and wealth creation, capture and protection are important features of contemporary global capitalism. However, global value chains and global wealth chains have been studied mostly in isolation from each other. In this article, we address this... Read More about State action and inaction in the shaping of value and wealth entanglements: The role of Singapore in the global ‘gold chain’.

Financial geography I: The state-finance nexus (2023)
Journal Article
Lai, K. P. (2023). Financial geography I: The state-finance nexus. Progress in Human Geography, https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325231170756

In the first of my reports on financial geography, I focus on a growing body of work that engages with the state as a vital and strategic actor in financial markets and in the global economy. After the 2008 global financial crisis, austerity measures... Read More about Financial geography I: The state-finance nexus.

The brokerage role of Hong Kong in global financial networks: the case of mainland Chinese companies’ US Listings (2022)
Journal Article
Fang, C., Pan, F., & Lai, K. P. (2023). The brokerage role of Hong Kong in global financial networks: the case of mainland Chinese companies’ US Listings. Regional Studies, 57(2), 317-329. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2099822

This paper explores the prominent and enduring brokerage role of Hong Kong in facilitating mainland Chinese companies’ US listings. We argue the brokerage role needs to be interpreted in both global and territorial dimensions. Situating Hong Kong in... Read More about The brokerage role of Hong Kong in global financial networks: the case of mainland Chinese companies’ US Listings.

Ecologies of green finance: Green sukuk and development of green Islamic finance in Malaysia (2021)
Journal Article
Liu, F. H., & Lai, K. P. (2021). Ecologies of green finance: Green sukuk and development of green Islamic finance in Malaysia. Environment and Planning A, 53(8), 1896-1914. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x211038349

In this paper, we analyse the recent development of green sukuk (often referred to as an Islamic green bond) since its issuance in Malaysia in 2017, and critically evaluate whether it addresses some of the existing contradictions of green finance. Us... Read More about Ecologies of green finance: Green sukuk and development of green Islamic finance in Malaysia.

Towards an economic geography of FinTech (2020)
Journal Article
Lai, K. P., & Samers, M. (2021). Towards an economic geography of FinTech. Progress in Human Geography, 45(4), 720-739. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520938461

n this paper, we identify the ways in which the existing literature has examined financial technology (FinTech). Using the frame of the ‘FinTech Cube’, we examine how FinTech unfolds through the intersections of key actors, technologies and instituti... Read More about Towards an economic geography of FinTech.

Financing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): research agendas beyond the “debt-trap” discourse (2020)
Journal Article
Lai, K. P., Lin, S., & Sidaway, J. D. (2020). Financing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): research agendas beyond the “debt-trap” discourse. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 61(2), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2020.1726787

By way of introduction to the four papers that follow, we chart some key parameters of debate about finance and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In particular, we argue that the rise of discourses about “predatory lending” and “debt trap” (that fe... Read More about Financing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): research agendas beyond the “debt-trap” discourse.

New Financial Geographies of Asia (2019)
Journal Article
Lai, K. P., Pan, F., Sokol, M., & Wójcik, D. (2020). New Financial Geographies of Asia. Regional Studies, 54(2), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1689549

This special issue examines the recent trends and impacts of financial development in Asia and its implications for regional studies in this rapidly growing region. This editorial introduces the dynamics of the financial landscape in Asia and its gro... Read More about New Financial Geographies of Asia.

How 'global' are investment banks? An analysis of investment banking networks in Asian equity capital markets (2019)
Journal Article
Gemici, K., & Lai, K. P. (2019). How 'global' are investment banks? An analysis of investment banking networks in Asian equity capital markets. Regional Studies, 149-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1584393

This paper examines the distribution of power within financial networks of investment banks in equity capital markets of three key economies in Asia: Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Using social network analysis, it shows that while bulge-bracket ban... Read More about How 'global' are investment banks? An analysis of investment banking networks in Asian equity capital markets.