Descrizione

Banks are the engine of firm growth and the extant literature suggests that the local banking development, in terms of geographical concentration of bank branches and proximity to the customers, matters to corporate financial policies, especially for SMEs. However, globalization and digitalization are driving the change and could threaten the relevance of local bank branches. What the role of human interactions in the bank-firm relationship will be? This book studies two new issues in this field of research and investigates whether the international banking integration and digitalization shape the effect of local banking institutions on firm value creation processes. Results reveal that banking integration and banking digitalization mitigate the role of local banking development, but the bank-entrepreneur personal relationship is still important and fosters the provision of bank credit, which represents the fuel that feeds corporate growth. Firms still need human bankers and close ties with their bank branches and, in the near future, banking institutions should reorganize their business model to make digitalization and personal relationships coexist.