An exploration of the value creation process in bank-corporate communications

Purpose – Banks and corporate customers have realized that bank-corporate relationship is important but little is known about why and how banks establish and exploit relationships. No comprehensive theory has explained relationship banking and in order to get a better understanding the purpose of this paper is to investigate why and how banks and companies communicate in order to create value. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a qualitative methodology and a grounded theory approach was adopted. In total, 34 in-depth interviews were conducted with banks and 15 with corporate managers. Grounded theory models are developed based on interview data. Findings – It was found that the nature of bank-corporate relationship is long term. The relationship is based on trust-based personal communications between banks and corporate customers. Macro conditions including the advances in technology, financial regulation and business globalization were considered when the case banks adopted relationship banking. Some intervening conditions including customer information and knowledge, customer needs and customer confidence also influence the development of relationship banking. The interviewees perceived that the case banks gained benefits including better customer retention economy, risk management efficiency and greater effectiveness in maintaining sustainable profitability. The corporate customers gained benefits including fund availability, product availability, service quality, help in-time and business platform. Originality/value – This study derives concepts and categories from primary data and identifies relationships among these theoretical elements. This investigation provides a comprehensive picture of relationship banking and supplies some theoretical and practical implications. Moreover, a value creation and allocation theory of the bank is developed.