“Big digital bank” vs “local bank”. What can be learnt from the managers’ actions to cope with these ostensible controversial situations?

The Italian banking system has profoundly changed during the last 20 years both due to the privatization of the major State banks and out of the greater use of market financing taken place on the stock exchange. Thanks to the M&A process, nowadays, banks are larger and more complex than in the past but, M&A is a dangerous process if it is not appropriately dealt. The major risks are related to the numerous different items that must be well managed during the transition period such as, e.g., employees and information systems. Concurrently, banks’ managers are being asked to incorporate the new features and changes deriving from the recent years’ digitization. These important changes, unavoidably, lead to the need to close branches reducing the number of employees which has repercussions on the relations that the bank has with the territory and this could compromise the economic local grow. The present work revolves around the idea of understanding which actions the managers could undertake to ensure that the relationship with the territory is not lost while facing exponential growth in size, caused by the M&A process, and the challenges brought about by digitalisation. The methodology used in the present paper is an ethnographic exploratory single case study where the information will be collected using semi-structured interviews. In this first part of a wider project, in addition to a literature review, the process required to elaborate the schemes of the semi-structured interviews is explained. The value of the work is interesting for scholars as well as for practitioners; in fact, from the analysis of the answers provided by managers it will be possible to learn a lesson regarding the actions that were carried out, but also about the activities that have not led to the desired results and therefore should be avoided. At the same time, this study could contribute to the academic debate as it allows us to add literature on management while selecting which prior author’s position to endorse, regarding the influence of managers’ behaviours on obtaining profitability in banking institutions.