The impact of Information Technology (IT) investments on banking industry performance and evaluation: evidences from a cross-country analysis for Brazil, United States, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile

摘要

More and more industrial and services organizations have invested time, money and their own future in Information Technology (IT). Banks, in particular, have spent billions of dollars in information technology, having their products and services basically supported by it. Identifying the IT investments and its impact in the banking industry is a very important point for the banks. This study evaluates the strategic impact of IT in Brazilian, American, Argentinean, Uruguayan and Chilean banks as perceived by their executives. In order to externally validate the questionnaire, results were analyzed considering, as isolated samples, (a) Brazil, (b) the United States, (c) Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, and, then, (d) as one group merging all data. The results indicate that (1) Competition, Products and Services, and Borrowers (customers) are the main strategic variables affected by IT; (2) there are no differences between executives of IT and other functional executives regarding their perception of the impacts of IT in strategic variables; and (3) the impact of IT in Competitiveness is significantly related with the impact of IT in Borrowers, Government and Country Requirements, Products and Services, and Cost Structure and Capacity. This study supports banking executives to plan IT strategies, their implementation and to evaluate their use.