The impact of digital transformation on performance from a retail banking perspective at a leading South African bank

Abstract

The development of innovative and prevailing digital technologies, digital platforms and digital infrastructures has transformed all organisations and in particular the banking sector in significant ways. Digital technologies have disrupted all sectors and will continue to do so with more companies embracing digital transformation (DT) and its strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst of DT in that organisations had to change their business models to remain relevant. Beyond simply producing new opportunities for financial institutions, digital technologies have much wider implications for value creation as well as value capture. Research aimed at understanding the digital transformation of these financial institutions needs to combine multiple and cross-levels of investigation, embrace concepts and ideas from numerous fields/disciplines, and clearly acknowledge the role of digital technologies. To help realise this research agenda, an investigation was done to explore key constructs related to digital transformation, to understand the internal and external factors of digital transformation, how leaders at a retail bank define digital transformation and the success of DT. Furthermore, a qualitative research approach was followed to understand the impact of digital transformation on performance within a retail bank in the context of South Africa.