Strategy, competition and diversification in European and Mexican banking

Abstract

This article identifies whether top managers in banks’ parent companies are highly involved in the design of strategy and examines how management styles influence (or reflect influences) on diversification decisions within bank markets. Alongside this assessment, the research ranks the main concerns to design strategy in banking within an international setting (including the role of information and telecommunication technologies in the design and implementation of banks’ diversification strategies). Results emerging from triangulating responses suggested that, on balance, top managers in bank markets are predisposed to integrate around purely strategic rather than purely financial targets or a combination of strategic and financial performance. Management of diversity does not seem to be time invariant. with results suggesting that information technology management played a secondary role in the design of bank strategy but, at the same time, information technology applications were perceived as an important force to modify competition in bank markets.