Interviews from commercial banks on bank-fintech collaboration and Alliance Capability building

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During the 2008 global financial crisis, a new wave of potentially disruptive financial technologies (fintechs) was introduced into the banking industry, impacting traditional banks' activities. As a response strategy to these disruption threats, traditional banks began collaborating with fintechs. Due to the turbulent nature of the banking industry, researchers suggest organisations need to upgrade their alliance capability.

However, prior studies on bank-fintech partnerships revealed that while bank-fintech alliances have become the dominant approach of banks responding to disruption, research has predominantly focussed on developed countries and less on developing economies. More importantly, existing bank-fintech collaboration research within the context of alliance capability from a dynamic capability perspective is limited. Consequently, a study from the African perspective is valuable, considering contrastive information about the dynamics of financial innovation compared to developed nations. Hence, this study draws from the dynamic capability lens to conceptualise alliance capability building for the Ghanaian banking context as a disruption response strategy. The conceptualisation outlines the antecedents, microfoundations of processes, and organisational structures that underpin the categories of alliance sensing, seizing, and transforming capacities and the positive outcomes of alliance capability. This conceptualisation helps investigate the preformation and post-formation phases of the life cycle of alliance capability building.

An interpretivist approach, using qualitative case studies, was adopted to answer the research questions. Data was derived from interviews with 20 senior managers from five Ghanaian commercial banks. Data was thematically analysed using a hybrid deductive to inductive reasoning approach.

The findings from this study revealed that antecedents comprised environmental conditions that influenced organisational factors of alliance capability building. Alliance sensing processes include sensing objectives and protocols supported by internal and external sensing structures. Alliance seizing processes consisted of fintech sourcing, due diligence, making a final choice, alliance authorisation, alliance governance type, and writing a contractual agreement. The alliance seizing structures comprised seizing actors such as project teams and sourcing specialists who facilitated the formation of the collaboration. Alliance transforming processes included coordination, communication, bonding, and evaluation. These were supported by alliance-transforming structures such as an alliance department, project team, and head of information technology. The positive outcomes of alliance capability were relational, financial, and non-financial.

This thesis contributes to prior literature by developing a life cycle framework for alliance capability building of banks collaborating with fintech as a disruption response strategy. The findings extend previous knowledge of antecedents, microfoundations, and outcomes of alliance capability. Practical contributions from this thesis can inform bank managers about the processes and organisational structures for alliance capability building in response to disruption.