Financial services in supply chains : success factors and future opportunities for traditional financial institutions

Abstract

This thesis examines how the traditional banking institutions can add value in supply networks of products and services. The approach is based on a critical examination of the current range of services offered by traditional banks and similar financial institutions to supply chains and their component firms. Our primary hypothesis that we construct from such an analysis is that banking institutions have a vast field of opportunity to undertake more value-added roles in the operational aspects of supply chains; currently, the purview of many traditional banks is limited to the strategic aspects of supply chains, such as mergers and acquisitions, capital investments, and a largely passive or reactive monitoring of financial performance of supply chains. In order to underscore the significance of the research question, we first review the strategic drivers and the success factors for most banking institutions as they seek to enlarge their role in the functioning of large markets; these strategic drivers could explain the positioning of the current range of services offered by banks to supply chains and broader markets. Next, working from the other end, we review briefly the strategic, tactical and operational issues and priorities facing supply chain managers of today, with a view to understanding the potential roles that financial institutions can play in order to engage supply chain managers for greater mutual benefit. However, the research questions of this thesis are also motivated by the set of competitive challenges facing traditional financial institutions in their current sphere of influence and their current market domains.

(cont.) For example, on the one hand traditional banks are being driven to become more efficient in their offerings to their customers, given the greater transparency and range of offerings available to their end-customers as a result of information technology, the Internet phenomena, and as a result of reduced cost of entry for many players. On the other hand, many supply chain innovators have also encroached upon the space of traditional banks, acting in effect as dis-intermediaries between banks and the end-customers of the supply chains. A good example of this is the profitable consumer credit lending business ventures of the automotive firms such as GM and Ford. Using the insights provided by the above critical analyses, we then propose that several specific opportunities exist for traditional banks to play a greater role in the tactical and operational aspects of supply networks for products and services, and provide examples of how banks can undertake more value added and proactive roles in these supply chains.