Redefining Boundaries and Scope in Financial Services Firms: The Complementarity between Digitalization and Corporate Sustainability Capabilities

Abstract

Digitalization and corporate sustainability (CS) are growing sources of business opportunities and challenges, notably in the financial sector. We analyse the role of the complementarities between digitalization and CS in reshaping financial services firms. We argue that CS contributes to overcome some of the threats associated to digitalization. Thus, the combined effect of both corporate resources is greater than their stand-alone exploitation. We empirically confirm our hypotheses over a panel of 109 multinational banks drawing on stochastic frontier analysis. We found that the complementarities between digitalization and CS are able to transform firms nature, simultaneously narrowing their boundaries and expanding their scope. By the consideration of these contemporary technological and societal realities, our findings yield relevant implications for academics and practitioners in a sustainable digital economy. Additionally, our results suggest that banks can find in the complementarity between digitalization and CS an effective way to confront the new hi-tech entrants.

Digitalization and corporate sustainability (CS) are growing sources of business opportunities and challenges, notably in the financial sector. We analyse the role of the complementarities between digitalization and CS in reshaping financial services firms. We argue that CS contributes to overcome some of the threats associated to digitalization. Thus, the combined effect of both corporate resources is greater than their stand-alone exploitation. We empirically confirm our hypotheses over a panel of 109 multinational banks drawing on stochastic frontier analysis. We found that the complementarities between digitalization and CS are able to transform firms nature, simultaneously narrowing their boundaries and expanding their scope. By the consideration of these contemporary technological and societal realities, our findings yield relevant implications for academics and practitioners in a sustainable digital economy. Additionally, our results suggest that banks can find in the complementarity between digitalization and CS an effective way to confront the new hi-tech entrants.