The adoption of waves of digital technology as antecedents of digital transformation by financial services institutions

Abstract

As academia and practitioners achieve a better understanding of the digital transformation phenomenon, companies across industries gain digital maturity and exploit digital transformation tenets in conjunction with digital technologies to build competitive advantage. While industry experts made some attempts to build uniform models, patterns and practices around digital transformation, scholastic literature paid scant attention toward unraveling digital transformation in financial services sector, particularly, how the overarching digital technology ecosystem acts as enabler, allowing incumbent financial institutions to innovate, industrialise and accomplish digital transformation. In order to surmount this dereliction of our responsibilities, we study macro-level digital technology trends, namely Big Data, hybrid cloud and automation, among others that acted as primary levers in the previous phase of modernisation endeavour undertaken by major financial organisations, notably in the western hemisphere. Additionally, drawing on the extant academic literature and technobusiness journals, this paper investigates how emerging technologies, specifically, AI, API, metaverse and Web 3.0 underpinned by Blockchain technology will enable go-to-market strategy in future and impact value proposition of the incumbents, eventually changing the banking game. Therefore, this study will help practitioners grasp the evolution of digital technology ecosystem within financial sector, and steer them through disruptive market forces.