Building an International Financial Services Firm: How Successful Firms Design and Execute Cross-Border Strategies in an Uneven World »

Markus Venzin is Associate Professor at the Strategic Management Department of Bocconi University, Senior Lecturer at SDA Bocconi and Full Professor for Strategic Management at Steinbeis University in Berlin. He is studying the internationalization strategies (including cross-border M&A) of firms, the management of their subsidiary network, global knowledge management systems, and the development of formal planning and control processes. His current research interest include topics such as the study of internationalization processes of retail banks, innovation and cross-border commercialization of financial service products and the logic and process of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of banks. Markus Venzin is the Director of the Master of Science Program in International Management and the Bocconi Senior Executive Program for the Financial Services Industry.

A new era of global banking and insurance is emerging, with leading banks eager to serve international markets. This book explores the issues that arise for banks in their strategic choices as they move into these new international markets.

Building an International Financial Services Firm challenges conventional assumptions from the international management literature on topics such as the limits of globalization, the importance of cultural and institutional distance, the nature of economies of scale and scope, the existence of first mover advantages, the logic behind the global value chain configuration, the speed and timing of market entry, as well as organizational architecture. It focuses on fundamental strategic decisions such as when, where, and how to enter foreign markets and how to design the organizational architecture of the multinational financial services firm.

Using simple theoretical frameworks illustrated by case examples, this book provides a thorough guide to the challenges of the international market for financial services firms, both for those working in the financial services industry, and researchers studying the area.

1 The characteristics of financial services 23

2 Profit impact of internationalization 60

3 Who should decide? : developing strategy-making capabilities 73

4 Why go abroad? : the rationale of cross-border moves 98

5 Where to compete? : the logic behind market selection 120

6 When to enter? : the timing and speed of market entry 141

7 How to enter? : the choice of the market entry mode 158

8 How to compete? : the development of business and functional-level strategies 184

9 How to organize? : international organizational architectures 227

10 How to accelerate learning? : facilitating cross-border knowledge transfer 257

11 How to boost innovation across borders? : international corporate entrepreneurship 292

Epilogue Sustainable international development after the subprime crisis 314

Notes 317

Bibliography 329

Index 349