Corporate entrepreneurship has different strategies as referred to by researchers. An entrepreneurial orientation is one of these strategies. In the overall corporate entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurial orientation is referred to as entrepreneurial intensity. Corporate entrepreneurship is a process where organisations think differently to overcome barriers to improve the performance of the organisation. Entrepreneurial orientation is a process of decision making to develop new innovative products, services or processes to intensify the organisation’s performance. The South African banking system is supported with a well-managed regulated framework and is favourable in the global environment. South Africa is the financial gateway to the rest of Africa and the environment is highly competitive. During the last twenty years the banking industry went through exciting changes and turmoil when refering to the financial of 2008 crisis. Retail banks need to think differently and small competitors are more prominent than ever before. The lower end of the market created fierce competition between the retail banks in South Africa. The reason for this study is to focus on entrepreneurial orientations from a customer’s perspective. Customer perspective is critical for the survival of an organisation and banks are no different. Based on the literature, entrepreneurial orientation is the level of intensity of corporate entrepreneurship visible in the organisation. The results obtained in the empirical study enabled recommendations that can provide retail banks with useful information from a customer’s perspective that can assist retail banks in general. Recommendations found in the study include; retail banks need to reinvest in their own systems to mine useful information to assist customers, be more open to autonomy approaches and redesign job descriptions, re-look calculated risk areas that will have no influence on credit processes, regulate innovations better and involve the customer and be more unique to create a better customer experience. / MBA (Master of Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Corporate entrepreneurship has different strategies as referred to by researchers. An entrepreneurial orientation is one of these strategies. In the overall corporate entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurial orientation is referred to as entrepreneurial intensity. Corporate entrepreneurship is a process where organisations think differently to overcome barriers to improve the performance of the organisation. Entrepreneurial orientation is a process of decision making to develop new innovative products, services or processes to intensify the organisation’s performance. The South African banking system is supported with a well-managed regulated framework and is favourable in the global environment. South Africa is the financial gateway to the rest of Africa and the environment is highly competitive. During the last twenty years the banking industry went through exciting changes and turmoil when refering to the financial of 2008 crisis. Retail banks need to think differently and small competitors are more prominent than ever before. The lower end of the market created fierce competition between the retail banks in South Africa. The reason for this study is to focus on entrepreneurial orientations from a customer’s perspective. Customer perspective is critical for the survival of an organisation and banks are no different. Based on the literature, entrepreneurial orientation is the level of intensity of corporate entrepreneurship visible in the organisation. The results obtained in the empirical study enabled recommendations that can provide retail banks with useful information from a customer’s perspective that can assist retail banks in general. Recommendations found in the study include; retail banks need to reinvest in their own systems to mine useful information to assist customers, be more open to autonomy approaches and redesign job descriptions, re-look calculated risk areas that will have no influence on credit processes, regulate innovations better and involve the customer and be more unique to create a better customer experience. / MBA (Master of Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

[pt] Um tema central em pesquisas sobre grupos estratégicos é a existência de uma relação teórica entre o desempenho de uma empresa e sua pertinência aos grupos existentes na indústria. Este trabalho não somente trata da análise mais tradicional, relacionada às diferenças de desempenho entre grupos, mas também busca complementar as evidências empíricas com uma análise das diferenças de desempenho associadas ao posicionamento das empresas dentro dos grupos. Para cumprir esse propósito, foram identificados grupos estratégicos formados entre oitenta bancos atuantes na indústria financeira no Brasil, utilizando como base a tipologia de Miller e Dess (1993). Os bancos foram também classificados de acordo com seu posicionamento competitivo dentro de cada grupo. Os resultados mostram que a tipologia utilizada permitiu a identificação de grupos formados por bancos com estratégias similares. Os resultados também apontam evidências de que grandes bancos de investimento, que utilizam estratégias simultâneas de diferenciação e baixo custo com um escopo estreito de atuação no mercado, alcançaram desempenhos superiores. Entretanto, não foram observadas diferenças significativas de desempenho entre os bancos com posicionamento mais próximo das estratégias que definem seus grupos e aqueles que adotaram um posicionamento mais afastado. / [en] The existence of a theoretical relationship between the performance of a company and its participation in existing groups in the industry is a central theme in researches about strategic groups. This work is not only about the most traditional analysis related to the differences among groups, but it also aims at complementing the empirical evidences through the analysis of the differences in performance associated with the positioning of the companies within these groups. In order to achieve that aim, strategic groups, composed of eighty banks performing in the banking industry in Brazil, were identified according to Miller and Dess` typology (1993). The banks were also classified according to their competitive positioning within each group. Results show that the typology adopted allowed the identification of groups composed of banks with similar strategies. Evidences show that strong investment banks, which use differentiation and low cost strategies simultaneously, reached higher level performances. However, there were no significant performance differences among banks with closer positioning to the strategies defining their groups and those adopting a more distant positioning.

Background - The underrepresentation of women in corporate boardrooms has been a central corporate governance issue for decades; still, improvement is made at a slow pace and varies by industry sector. On average, the Swedish financial industry displays high levels of female board representation compared to other industry sectors; however, there are large differences between the companies. Therefore, investigating whether certain organizational and/or board characteristics have an impact on female board representation in this industry may provide valuable insights as to whether some factors enhance gender diversity on these boards and, consequently, could serve as tools for further growth of female board representation. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to evaluate the development of female board representation in Swedish publicly listed financial firms and to investigate whether certain organizational and/or board characteristics have an impact on female board representation. As such, the study answers call for research regarding women on boards in the finance industry, while also contributing to the limited amount of research examining whether certain organizational factors may act as predictors of female board representation. Method - The study is of quantitative nature with a deductive approach and longitudinal design. Data is collected from annual reports and corporate governance reports of Swedish public financial firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and NGM Equity between 2011 and 2017. The initial sample contains all 60 listed firms, while the final sample consists of 37 firms. The dependent variable is female board representation and the independent variables are firm size, female employment base, board size, outside directors, multiple directorships, older directors, and female chairman. Control variables for market capitalization segments and year-fixed effects are included. Data is analysed using multiple linear regression, which is in line with prior research. Conclusion - The results of the study show that there is a significant negative relationship between female board representation and board size, while there are significant positive relationships between female board representation and the variables outside directors and female employment base. Significant positive relationships are also found between female board representation and effects related to time and market capitalization segment. The results are both in line with and contradictory to prior research, indicating the need for further research to clarify the relationship – if any – between certain factors and female board representation. Moreover, the results provide indications for policymaking, especially concerning the large inequalities found regarding the position as chairman as well as the relationship between the female employment base and female board representation.

Migrant farmworkers' social and economic mobility is frequently constrained through the denial of basic resources, such as access to the formal financial sector. This thesis ethnographically examines banking policies as they apply to low-income, mobile, populations that temporarily reside in Florida. It utilizes participant observation, interviews, and participatory mapping with migrant farmworkers. It also considers how policymakers and service providers in the formal and informal financial sectors rationalize control of resources and the effects on mobile populations. Particular attention is paid to adaptive practices in the alternative financial sector – cash checking services, carrying cash, and remittances. By utilizing the lens of activist anthropology and anthropology of policy and incorporating theoretical frameworks of neoliberalism, debt and credit, bare life, and economic socialization theory the thesis explores how society has been shaped around managing debt and building credit. It examines how structural inequities restrict banking resources from those who lack full personhood or citizenship. This thesis uncovers the paradox that while banking is a vital resource in establishing full participation in United States society, it remains largely inaccessible to migrant workers, particularly the undocumented. The financial sectors’ neoliberal model has effectively barred low-income, mobile populations through the erasure of small deposit accounts and increased scrutiny of customers. Migrant workers face corporeal and economic mobility difficulties, which depreciate their low wages even farther. The United States’ current financial industry violates second generation human rights as codified in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) [particularly article six], and also in Articles 23-29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as the Unbanked and underbanked cannot access their own money. I recommend providing better financial literacy education that considers challenges faced by unbanked and underbanked migrant workers and microfinance opportunities to substitute the lack of small-deposit accounts, particularly individual development accounts.

The Swedish banking industry has long been at the forefront when it comes to digital leadership. Currently, this industry is starting to fall behind other industries, and a closer look at the industry reveals that niche banks are having less trouble with adapting new technologies than bigger banks. There are a lot of studies on specific digitalisation areas within banking but nothing comprehensive about the strategies required for digital transformation within the banking industry. As the research area is new, there is little previous research on digital transformation by today’s standards. Therefore, the centralquestion in this thesis is “What do respondents in the Swedish banking industry think that the most important factors of digitalisation for customer experience are and what the consequences of digitalisation might be?” to find out what affects the digital strategies of a sample of Swedish banks. To answer the research question, semi-structured interviews with relevant profiles in the banking industry dealing with digitalisation and strategy at a management level were conducted. The interviews were conducted with five respondents from four different banks. In combination of this research method, the research strategy Case Study was implemented. The results revealed that digitalisation is in high focus amongst all the responding banks, for various reasons. The reasons can be seen as roughly divided into two categories, internal reasons and external reasons. The internal reasons have to do with streamlining current internal processes and creating more available resources for other projects. The external reasons were all towards improving customer experience. To improve customer experience, personalisation of the digital products and services is a key factor. However, personalisation is not without risk, as it may fail to be personalised enough for the banks’ customers if the personalisation is attempted towards a too wide customer segment. Some of the banks are operating 100% digitally, meaning that they do not have any physical bank offices for customers to visit, and thus all their work then becomes in one way or another digital work. The banking and finance industry is continually changing, and legal factors play a significant role. Not only do these legal factors affect how banks work internally, they also affect the competitiveness of the various actors and with it, how much digitalisation can affect. The thesis concludes that digital transformation is heavily influencing the strategies of banks in the Swedish banking industry through customer needs, competition and legal factors. / Den svenska banksektorn har länge varit i framkant när det kommer till digitala ledarskap. Dock, så har denna sektor för närvarande börjat halka efter andra branscher, och en närmare titt på branschen visar att nischbanker har mindre utmaningar när det kommer till att anpassa efter ny teknologi än större banker. Det finns många studier om särskilda digitaliseringsområden inom banksektorn men inget omfattande om de strategier som krävs för digital transformation inom banksektorn. Eftersom att forskningsområdet är nytt, så finns det mindre tidigare forskning på digital transformation i dagens benämning. Därför är den centrala frågan i denna avhandling “Vad anser respondenter i den svenska banksektorn att deviktigaste faktorerna för digitalisering för kundupplevelse är och vilka konsekvenserna avdigitalisering kan vara?” för att ta reda på vad som påverkar digitala strategier hos ett urval av svenska banker. För att besvara forskningsfrågan, genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med relevanta profiler inom banksektorn som arbetar med digitalisering och strategi på en ledningsnivå. Intervjuerna var utförda med fem respondenter från fyra olika banker. I kombination med denna forskningsmetod, implementerades forskningsstrategin Fallstudie. Resultaten visade att digitalisering är i fokus bland de responderande bankerna, av olika skäl. Skälen kan ses som grovt indelat i två kategorier, interna skäl och externa skäl. De interna skälen har att göra med att effektivisera nuvarande interna processer och skapa mer tillgängliga resurser för andra projekt. De externa skälen var alla mot kunden, för att i ett eller annat sätt förbättra kundupplevelsen. För att förbättra kundupplevelsen så ligger fokus på personalisering av de digitala produkterna och tjänsterna. Dock har personalisering sina risker. Det kan misslyckas om organisationen försöker personalisera mot en större kundgrupp och därmed inte nå upp den nivå av personalisering som krävs av de olika kundsegmenten. Vissa banker bedrivs 100% digitalt, vilket innebär att de inte har några fysiska bankkontor för kunder att besöka, och därmed är deras arbete på ett sätt eller ett annat sätt digitalt arbete. Bank och finansbranschen förändras ständigt, och juridiska faktorer spelar en betydande roll i denna kontinuerliga förändring. Inte nog med att de juridiska faktorerna påverkar hur banker fungerar internt, så påverkar de även konkurrenskraften hos de olika aktörerna och med det, hur mycket digitaliseringen kan påverka. Studiens slutsats är att digital transformation påverkar kraftigt strategierna hos banker i Sverige genom kundbehov, konkurrens och juridiska faktorer.

Machine learning is becoming a part of everyday life and has an indisputable impact across large array of industries. In the financial industry, this impact lies particularly in predictive modelling. The goal of this thesis is to describe the basic principles of artificial intelligence and its subset, machine learning. The most widely used machine learning techniques are outlined both in a theoretical and a practical way. As a result, four models were assembled within the thesis. Results and limitations of each model were discussed and these models were also mutually compared based on their individual per- formance. The evaluation was executed on a real world dataset, provided by Home Credit company. Final performance of machine learning methods, measured by the KS and GINI metrics, was either very comparable or even worse than the performance of a traditional logistic regression. Still, the problem may lie in an insu cient dataset, in the improper data prepara- tion, or in inappropriately used algorithms, not necessarily in the models themselves.

[Introduction] Cooperative banks in France have a major impact on the finance industry and the French economy. The French financial ecosystem differs in comparison with other European countries because of a higher number of cooperative banking groups, which have a dominant market share in the financial industry. With a highly competitive retail banking market frequently described as a commoditized space, customer satisfaction remains the largest competitive advantage for banks. [Research Purpose] Overall, the ambition with this research was to gain a deeper understanding of customer satisfaction in the retail banking market segment. The fundament of this thesis is a theoretical framework that analyzed customer satisfaction for retail clients of cooperative banks. By this, we identified which characteristic of the relationship between customers and their cooperative bank have the highest impact on customer satisfaction. Thus, our research question implied a search to explain an underlying causal relationship between six different variables within Perceived Quality and Perceived Value with customer satisfaction. Perceived Value (PV) included Trust, Employee Competences, and Price Transparency. Perceived Quality (PQ) included Accessibility, Reliability, and Reactivity. [Methodology] By adopting a quantitative approach, we could test, support and rank which variables impact customer satisfaction for cooperative banking clients. The analyzed dataset comprises a total of 21 914 respondents which are customers from 142 cooperative banking branches in France. [Results & Conclusion] From the analysis of the empirical results, we answered our research question by detailing the relationships between perceived quality; perceived value, and customer satisfaction. Finally, our findings indicated that Perceived Quality contributes to customer satisfaction in cooperative banking to a larger extend than Perceived Value. Moreover, the study ranked the importance of each variables impacting customer satisfaction as follow: (1) Accessibility, (2) Employee Competences, (3) Trust, (4) Reliability, (5) Price Transparency, (6) Reactivity.

Engagement in networking is described as a facilitator for an individual's career progression. Research has shown how men tend to benefit from informal networking, and difficulties appearing for women to penetrate these male informal networks. Formal networks have thereby arisen as a countermeasure, and more precisely, women-only-networks, which have been argued to serve as a means for women in their career. However, there is limited knowledge of the experienced role women-only-networks provide for female career progression. Through qualitative research with an inductive approach, top-position women in the financial industry were interviewed. The study’s results show how women-only-networks work as a facilitator for women's career progression, both through soft values such as providing women with a community of relatedness, as well as career enhancing resources such as recruitment possibilities. Further, the results display how women-only-networks serve a collective purpose for women as they facilitate change of existing gender structures in the industry. The overall conclusion is hence that women-only-networks have an equal worth in themselves for female career progression as mens’ informal networks have for male career progression.

Finansbranschen utmärker sig som en bransch med höga krav på tillförlitlighet och trovärdighet. En grundförutsättning för finansföretagens överlevnad är kundens fortsatta förtroende där varumärket har en avgörande roll. När marknaden skiftar kan varumärken indirekt behöva anpassas för att till exempel behålla marknadspositionen eller för att nå ut till en bredare målgrupp. Då kan en rebranding- och repositioningprocess bli aktuell. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilka utmaningar ett företag verksamt inom finansbranschen kan möta vid rebranding och repositioning samt vilka olika typer av strategier och modeller som finns för att bemöta dessa eventuella utmaningar. Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgörs av Miller et al. (2014) modell över corporate rebranding, en modell som presenterar en rebrandingprocess som följer en kronologisk ordning genom olika faser. Insamlingen av empirin skedde genom att studera sekundärdata i form av befintlig teori och litteratur kring områdena branding, positioning, rebranding och repositioning. Primärdata samlades in genom intervjuer med personer anställda på en kommunikationsbyrå och på ett företag som var högaktuella med en rebranding- och repositioningprocess. Urvalet av intervjupersoner till studien utgick från ett tvåstegsurval. I studien framkommer flertalet utmaningar som ett företag kan möta vid en rebranding- och repositioningprocess. För företag verksamma inom finansbranschen finns ytterligare utmaningar som behöver hanteras. Av studiens analys framkommer inga specifika modeller och strategier för finansföretag att nyttja vid en rebranding- och repositioningprocess. Modellerna och strategierna specialanpassas utifrån företagens rådande situation. / The financial industry stands out as an industry with high demands for reliability and credibility. A fundamental requirement for the survival of financial companies is the continued trust of the customers, where the brand plays a crucial role. When the market shifts, brands may indirectly need to be adapted, for example, to maintain market position or reach a broader target audience. In such cases, a rebranding and repositioning process may become relevant. This study aims to examine the challenges that a company operating in the finance industry may face during rebranding and repositioning, as well as the different types of strategies and models available to address these potential challenges. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Miller et al. (2014) model of corporate rebranding, which presents a rebranding process following a chronological order through different phases. The empirical data collection was conducted by studying secondary data in the form of existing theories and literature on the topics of branding, positioning, rebranding, and repositioning. Primary data was gathered through interviews with individuals employed at a communication agency and a company actively engaged in a rebranding and repositioning process. The selection of interviewees for the study was based on a two-stage sampling. The study reveals several challenges that a company may encounter during a rebranding and repositioning process. For companies operating in the finance industry, there are additional challenges that need to be addressed. The analysis of the study does not identify specific models and strategies for financial companies to utilize during a rebranding and repositioning process. The models and strategies are custom-tailored based on the companies' specific circumstances.