TITLE:
Future Role of Bank Advisors and Traditional Bank Branches in the Age of Digitalization—An Empirical Investigation
AUTHORS:
Carsten Giebe, Lana Löffler, Michael Menrad
KEYWORDS:
Banking, Cooperative Banks, Digitalization, German Banks, Omni-Channel, Regional Banks, Savings Banks
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.3,
May
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: Due to increasing digitalization, the German banking
sector is undergoing a massive period of change. This
threatening challenge is massively influenced by demographic change,
supervision and regulation, the low-interest phase and technological progress.
In the last twenty years, mergers of regional banks, staff reduction measures
and the closure of their traditional bank branches have been the order of the day. Banks in Germany are therefore forced to deal with the introduction of
omni-channel concepts. The aim of the research is to make a statement on the
extent to which the two distribution channels “bank advisor” and “traditional
bank branch” will still play an active role for regional banks in Germany in
the future. The results of standardized interviews with bank experts (N = 43) in Germany form the core of
this study. This paper summarizes the findings of the quantitative research descriptively. Furthermore, the
article critically examines the academic discussion
on the digital transformation of banks in Germany, especially savings and cooperative banks. This article is
structured as follows: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results
and Discussion, Conclusions, Limits and Directions for further Research. The
results of this article can be useful for researchers and bank
practitioners to identify and utilize the strategic
change potential under omni-channel aspects due to the digital transformation.