THE DIGITAL TRANSORMATION IN THE BANKING SECTOR. A FOCUS ON ITALIAN RETAIL BANKS

Retail banks are going through a period of profound change dictated by technological evolution and changes on the demand side. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the current scenario, identifying the strategies retail banks are pursuing with the aim of creating experiential opportunities with an increasing use of digital solutions. To this end, the investments recently made by Italian retail banks in digitalisation have been considerated and classified in order to get a schematic picture of them useful to identify the strategic directions taken by them to achieve important results in terms of competitive advantage and customer value. The analysis of the factors behind the change made it possible, at a later stage, to understand the choice of the strategic guidelines outlined above, also highlighting differences between small and large banks. The paper concludes with some managerial implication, a description of the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.