Traditionally, finance has been the highest spender across all sectors. For example, data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis measure computer (OCAM) expenditure in financial services between 32.5%-38.7%, from 1979 to 1992 (cf. Brynjolfsson and Yang, 1996; Griliches, 1995). Recent aggregate figures on technology investment worldwide place the banking and securities sector at the top of ICT spenders’ list with a total expenditure of $486.28billion– approximately 18% of the total technology investment or24.8% if we include the insurance industry. Consequently, the implications of ICT adoption and use for the global financial system have been fundamental. ICT did not only transform transaction processes but is also associated with shifting organizational boundaries(Scott and Walsham, 1998), facilitating the creation of new financial products, changing the nature of work (Barrett and Walsham1999), globalizing financial markets (Sassen,2002; Weber,1994) and restructuring the character of financial intermediation (BIS,2002).Some qualitative case studies have been used to study the effects of ICT on financial performance (e.g. Scott and Barrett, 2005;Clemons and Weber, 1990). For example, Autor et al. (2002) examine the introduction of automatic image processing on one of the top 20 US banks, arguing that the introduction of complementary organizational changes were crucial in understanding the impact on performance. In Weill and Olson (1989), the authors use six case studies to investigate the impact that the level of ICT investment has on firm performance. Their results, from a series of interviews with banking professionals, demonstrate the organizational complexities involved in defining ICT and difficulties encountered when searching for an appropriate measure to estimate the impact of technology. Such findings are particularly useful in order to understand the richness of processes and technology strategies in specific contexts but are hard to generalize due to their specific nature. 

 

In terms of econometric studies on ICT in financial services, Casolaro and Gobbi (2007) estimate profit and cost functions fora panel of 600 Italian banks 1989–2000 and find that ICT capital intensive techniques significantly increase total factor productivity (TFP). Jun (2008) examines findings from several studies showing a positive relationship between ICT and banking performance, and also presents results indicating that ICT investments are associated with higher returns on assets in a sample of 22 South Korean securities firms. Similarly, Anderson et al. (2006) investigates the value implications of ICT investments on a panel of 62 Fortune 100 banks and find that firm value increased on average with Y2 K spending on technology. Also, Parsons et al. (1993) estimate a cost function using data from a single large Canadian bank between 1974 and1987 finding a weak but significant correlation between productivity growth and the use of computers. Finally, Alpar and Kim (1990) explore the impact of ICT on the production of bank services finding that technology is cost saving, labour saving and capital using. Although these studies are useful in order to understand the general effect of ICT, treating technology as a single aggregated category makes it hard to disentangle which aspects of ICT led to performance increases and identify the dynamic effects of technology adoption. As a result, many authors have pointed out the scarcity of longitudinal studies examining particular ICT innovations in financial services. In a survey, Frame and White (2004) could only identify eight studies of which six use the same data on ATM diffusion (Hannan and McDowell, 1984, 1987; Sinhaand Chandrashekaran, 1992; Saloner and Shepherd, 1995; etc.). Although they represent an important body of research, these studies focus more on the diffusion of specific innovations and less on their impact upon business performance. Thus, Frame and White (2004) conclude that we have a lot of “talk” about financial innovation but “little action”. In other words, given the size and importance of the financial sector, the number of relevant studies is surprisingly limited and further scholarly efforts are needed. 

 

Sumber: 

Scott, S. V., Van Reenen, J., & Zachariadis, M. (2017). The long-term effect of digital innovation on bank performance: An empirical study of SWIFT adoption in financial services. Research Policy, 46(5), 984-1004. 

 Fuentelsaz, Lucio, Gómez, Jaime, Palomas, Sergio, 2009. The effects of new technologies on productivity: an intrafirm diffusion-based assessment. Res.Policy 38 (7), 1172–1180