The Impact of Digital Transformation on Sourcing Strategies in the Financial Services Sector: Revolution or Evolution?

Digital Transformation (DT) is a popular buzzword which is currently being discussed intensively in the financial sector. DT is associated with innovative digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud technologies or blockchain. In order to remain competitive banks are trying to adapt their strategies in accordance with the digital change. Of course this intention entails some changes which mainly affect outsourcing and thus the sourcing strategy. This paper scrutinizes the impact of DT on sourcing strategies in the financial sector. Therefore a sourcing strategy framework is developed and interviews are applied. The results show that DT impacts the sourcing strategy of banks e.g. the strategic intention to outsource shifts from cost reduction to innovation while offshoring activities becomes less necessary. Nevertheless at the end we can conclude that DT has an evolutionary effect rather than a revolutionary one.