Flexible strategic framework for managing forces of continuity and change in retail banking business processes in India

Purpose – Retail banking is mass market banking where individual customers use local branches of large commercial banks for services such as savings and checking accounts, mortgages, personal loans, car loans, debit cards, credit cards, insurance and other value added services. The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the retail banking business processes from the perspective of continuity and change and identify the factors that affect these processes and overall performance of the retail banking sector. The aim was to develop a flexible framework for managing forces of continuity and change in retail banking business processes from a strategic perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The data on which this study is based were generated through secondary research using published sources and primary research through focused discussion with industry experts and personal interviews with over 100 experts from leading banks selected using a structured questionnaire. Findings – It was found that most of the public sector banks scored high on the continuity forces and relatively low on the change forces. Most of the private‐sector banks studied scored high on continuity and also high on change forces making them more competitive, except one bank which is low on both the forces because it is a newly established bank. The study suggests that there is a need for public sector banks to focus their strategies on factors affecting change forces for the improvement of their overall performance in the long run. Social implications – The paper brings in the need for social responsibility for private sector banks and a need for a fine balance in forces of continuity and change for a long‐term sustainable business model. Originality/value – This research paper represents one of the few efforts to study the business process management of retail banking in India from a strategic perspective and come out with a flexible strategic framework for managing forces of continuity and change for guiding this sector for its long‐term survival and growth. The flexible framework suggested and the C‐C Matrix can be of interest to researchers and practising managers to validate the applicability for other sectors, such as financial services, insurance, corporate finance, mortgages, risk management and other domains. The framework suggested can be adapted for application in the global context.