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The long-term effect of digital innovation on bank performance: an empirical study of SWIFT adoption in financial services

Susan Scott, John Van Reenen and Markos Zachariadis


We examine the impact on bank performance of the adoption of SWIFT, a network-based technological infrastructure and set of standards for worldwide interbank telecommunication. We construct a new longitudinal dataset of 6848 banks in 29 countries in Europe and the Americas with the full history of adoption since SWIFT's initial operations in 1977. Our results suggest that the adoption of SWIFT (i) has large effects on profitability in the long-term; (ii) these profitability effects are greater for small than for large banks; and (iii) exhibits significant network effects on performance. We use an in-depth field study to better understand the mechanisms underlying the effects on profitability. ? 2017 Elsevier B.V.


1 June 2017


Research Policy 46(5) , pp.984-1004, 2017


DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.010

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-longterm-effect-of-digital-innovation-on-bank-performance-an-empirical-study-of-swift-adoption-in-financial-services(d3c4df71-97d2-4e1e-8729-c259041cdc80).html

This Journal article is published under the centre's Growth programme.