Cross-Border Entry in European Retail Banking: Interview Evidence and Case Studies

Abstract

There are several conceivable approaches to collecting empirical evidence on the determinants and effects of cross-border entry in financial services in order to test the hypotheses developed in the preceding chapters. For the case of acquisitions, for example, one such approach would be to collect data of a random sample of cross-border transactions and pursue a statistical analysis of characteristics of acquirer and acquired firm over time. Considering the relatively low number of cross-border acquisitions in particular in retail financial services, however, the population size would most likely not be sufficient to draw statistically valid inferences. In addition, a purely statistical approach would miss out on many of the details which can only be insufficiently captured by an exclusively quantitative approach.