Leveraging advanced analytics to enhance client insights in corporate banking

Abstract

This study explores how advanced analytics are leveraged to enhance client insights in South African corporate banking. It examines the contextual factors that influence the adoption and effective use of analytics to improve client experience. Guided by Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT) and Customer Experience Management (CEM), the research integrates theoretical and empirical perspectives to explain how banks sense opportunities, mobilise resources, and transform client engagement through data-driven decision-making. A qualitative, interpretivist methodology was adopted, using in-depth interviews with senior professionals across corporate banking in South Africa. Thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework, was used to identify key themes related to the development, interpretation, and application of analytics in practice. Findings reveal that while analytics are widely recognised as an enabler of client centricity, adoption is constrained by legacy systems, siloed structures, regulatory complexity, and skills deficits. Despite these barriers, corporate banks in South Africa are demonstrating progress towards more elevated client analytics. The research offers both theoretical and practical value. The study contributes by integrating DCT and CEM into a framework for understanding analytics-enabled transformation and by providing rare empirical evidence from an emerging market context. It also highlights how banks can strengthen dynamic capabilities to deliver personalised, data-informed experiences. By framing analytics as a dynamic organisational capability supported by leadership, culture, and infrastructure, South African banks unlock further client value and competitive advantage.