Management of core capabilities in Mexican and European banks

This research considers the way banks have altered their strategies as regulatory change (i.e. deregulation) and information technology (IT) innovations created more opportunities for service delivery and extended the range of potential competitors and forms of competition. These external changes provided new diversification and growth opportunities but also modified prior expectations about the way managers defined and controlled their bank’s core capabilities in pursuing current and potential business. The main research instrument used was a one hour, semi‐structured interview; and in total 55 managers of commercial banks, investment banks, management consulting firms and regulators from Mexico, Spain and the UK participated. Qualitative and quantitative analysis established that the great majority of banks responded to changes in growth opportunities through diversification moves but with no clear link to core capabilities. IT management played a secondary role in the design of bank strategy but at the same time, IT applications were perceived as an important force to modify competition in bank markets by supporting radical re‐engineering of service delivery in ways that undermined previous advantages of scale and scope.