PFRANGER Marna, DBA

MBA holder, Marna Pfranger has been working in the Wealth Management industry for 17 years in different roles and countries. In her current position as Executive Director for an intenational financial institution she focusses on business strategy and development in Latin America and Southern Africa.

She will defend her Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) in September 2023 on the topic “Digitalization and Internationalization: A case study of a Swiss wealth management provider in South Africa and Brazil “ under the supervision of Professor Ulrike Mayrhofer, Professor at IAE Nice, University of Côte d’Azur (France).

Pr Marco Heimann

Digitalization and internationalization: a case study of Swiss wealth management provider in South Africa and Brazil

Digitalization has been a leading topic for many years in the banking industry. Not only increased the offering of digital services to clients, but also many systems for their operations have been in a transformation and are disrupting the way that banks have worked.
On HNWI (High Net Worth Individual) – and UHNWI (Ultra High Net Worth Individual) level in wealth management, the digitalization has always been a niche product as the key component of the business has been the relationship between client and advisor.
The existing literature has studied the history of digitalization in banking as well as the impact of fintech’s in the financial sector, the possible impact of digitalization in international business, however, there is a gap of theory about international banking and the impact of digital solutions for clients in the wealth management sector as well as the impact of international growth opportunities through digitalization in emerging markets. Focusing on this disparity, the thesis will focus on understanding the impact of digitalization in international wealth management. As expansion strategies can look very different from bank to bank and market to market, the focus of the study is on digital expansion strategies into emerging markets.
In-depth studies of the phenomena have been executed after studying the existing literature, using grounded theory (Gioia method) to carry out qualitative research, including observation methods, expert interviews, and additional secondary data to compare results to guarantee triangulation and rigor. Data collection method 1 was observation within the firm such as ongoing projects, initiatives, and discussions within the bank about digitalization projects for the international markets in wealth management and examine their relation to the different stages in the customer life cycle and the activities involved regarding internationalization as well as lessons learned in the process. The longitudinal data collected has been analysed, coded & sampled. Data collection method 2 are expert interviews within the company in scope. The selected 17 participants for the interviews are experts in the field with practice knowledge about the topic working within the same company with exposure into one or more stages of the customer lifecycle (digital and / or analogue). The interviews were conducted semi-structured. Data collection method 3 focussed on assuring reliability in the process, internal secondary quantitative data from the intranet, official press releases, presentation, reports, and other sources was used to cross-examine the results gained to compare results.
The results of the empirical research give an understanding of correlation between digitalization and access into international markets for Swiss wealth managers. The goal of the thesis is to present a conceptual framework which helps to understand how digitalization can be a driver in international strategies also based on current opportunities and challenges in the wealth management (WM) industry. The findings in this research prove that digitalization has impact in the internationalization process to emerging markets for wealth management providers. Improving the existing business model with support of digital means to have more human time for the customer while administration is facilitated through digital means is one of the main drivers to invest further in digitalization, even in a very traditional business such as wealth management. Focusing on efficient and customer friendly digital solutions through the customer lifecycle can facilitate the daily business for the bank as well as the customers while improving the positive customer journey if the focus is set to the parts of the journey which generate added value. Proven successful analogue tools should be maintained and digital alternatives should be tested or implemented only if there is value-add for the bank and most important, for the clients.