IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-024-03184-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysing the impact of digital technology diffusion on the efficiency and convergence process of the commercial banking industry of Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Ting Li Liu

    (Beijing University of Technology)

  • Muhammad Mateen Naveed

    (Beijing University of Technology)

  • Sohaib Mustafa

    (Beijing University of Technology)

  • Muhammad Tahir Naveed

    (University of the Punjab, F7H8+HFV)

Abstract

In a dynamic financial ecosystem, digitalisation is supporting banks in revamping their business processes to be more efficient, reducing costs, coping with customers’ evolving demands, and keeping them abreast of market competition. This two-stage research aims to investigate three issues in Pakistan’s banking industry from 2006 to 2020: (i) banking efficiency; (ii) the impact of digitalisation on banking efficiency; and (iii) banking efficiency’s absolute and conditional convergence. In our first-stage analysis, bootstrap data envelopment analysis has been applied, which exhibits bias-corrected overall, pure, and scale efficiencies of 74, 77, and 96%, respectively. In the second-stage analysis, we executed Tobit and two-step dynamic panel data system generalised method of moments (DPDSYS-GMM) models, and the results uncover that digitalisation has a positive influence on banking efficiency. Findings confirm that return on assets, bank size, interest rate, and gross domestic product growth rate have a positive association with banking efficiency. Our research reveals that state-controlled banks outperform their private sector and special-purpose counterparts. Our DPDSYS-GMM findings validate β and σ-convergence, implying that initially, low-efficient banks caught up (converged) to the more efficient opponents, reducing cross-sectional efficiency dispersion and attaining common equilibrium. The findings of banking efficiency conditional β-convergence assert that the adoption of digital technology has played a critical role in the convergence process and that digitalisation has acted as a catalyst for less efficient banks to catch up significantly faster to their more efficient rivals. This study displays digitalisation’s disruptive influence on the overall transformation of Pakistan’s banking system in the modern era, resulting in significant efficiency gains.

Suggested Citation

  • Ting Li Liu & Muhammad Mateen Naveed & Sohaib Mustafa & Muhammad Tahir Naveed, 2024. "Analysing the impact of digital technology diffusion on the efficiency and convergence process of the commercial banking industry of Pakistan," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03184-1
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03184-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03184-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-024-03184-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "A general methodology for bootstrapping in non-parametric frontier models," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 779-802.
    2. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler & Jonathan Temple, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Papers 2001-W21, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    3. Ben-David, Dan & Loewy, Michael B, 1998. "Free Trade, Growth, and Convergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 143-170, June.
    4. Weill, Laurent, 2009. "Convergence in banking efficiency across European countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 818-833, December.
    5. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X, 1996. "The Classical Approach to Convergence Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1019-1036, July.
    6. Berger, Allen N. & Humphrey, David B., 1991. "The dominance of inefficiencies over scale and product mix economies in banking," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 117-148, August.
    7. Shrimal Perera & Michael Skully & J. Wickramanayake, 2007. "Cost Efficiency in South Asian Banking: The Impact of Bank Size, State Ownership and Stock Exchange Listings," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 7(1‐2), pages 35-60, March.
    8. Siriopoulos, Costas & Tziogkidis, Panagiotis, 2010. "How do Greek banking institutions react after significant events?--A DEA approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 294-308, October.
    9. Adnan Kasman & Saadet Kasman & Duygu Ayhan & Erdost Torun, 2013. "Total factor productivity and convergence: evidence from old and new EU member countries' banking sectors," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(sup1), pages 13-35, June.
    10. Tu D. Q. Le & Thanh Ngo & Tin H. Ho & Dat T. Nguyen, 2022. "ICT as a Key Determinant of Efficiency: A Bootstrap-Censored Quantile Regression (BCQR) Analysis for Vietnamese Banks," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, June.
    11. Fiordelisi, Franco & Marques-Ibanez, David & Molyneux, Phil, 2011. "Efficiency and risk in European banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 1315-1326, May.
    12. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Huang, Tai-Hsin, 2016. "Productivity changes in pre-crisis Western European banks: Does scale effect really matter?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 29-48.
    14. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    15. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2009. "Economic transition and growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 1153-1185.
    16. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    17. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    18. Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia, 2010. "Integration and efficiency convergence in EU banking markets," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 260-267, October.
    19. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Series Working Papers 2001-W21, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    20. Matthews, Kent & Xiao, Zhiguo, 2020. "Rational cost inefficiency and convergence in Chinese banks," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 696-704.
    21. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2002. "15 Years of New Growth Economics : What Have we Learnt?," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 5(2), pages 5-15, August.
    22. Alper, Deger & Anbar, Adem, 2011. "Bank Specific and Macroeconomic Determinants of Commercial Bank Profitability: Empirical Evidence from Turkey," Business and Economics Research Journal, Uludag University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 2(2), pages 139-139, April.
    23. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    24. Olson, Dennis & Zoubi, Taisier, 2017. "Convergence in bank performance for commercial and Islamic banks during and after the Global Financial Crisis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 71-87.
    25. Matousek, Roman & Rughoo, Aarti & Sarantis, Nicholas & George Assaf, A., 2015. "Bank performance and convergence during the financial crisis: Evidence from the ‘old’ European Union and Eurozone," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 208-216.
    26. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    27. Degl'Innocenti, Marta & Kourtzidis, Stavros A. & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank productivity growth and convergence in the European Union during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 184-199.
    28. Izzeldin, Marwan & Johnes, Jill & Ongena, Steven & Pappas, Vasileios & Tsionas, Mike, 2021. "Efficiency convergence in Islamic and conventional banks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    29. Williams, Jonathan, 2012. "Efficiency and market power in Latin American banking," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 263-276.
    30. Fung, Michael K., 2006. "Scale economies, X-efficiency, and convergence of productivity among bank holding companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2857-2874, October.
    31. Casu, Barbara & Ferrari, Alessandra & Girardone, Claudia & Wilson, John O.S., 2016. "Integration, productivity and technological spillovers: Evidence for eurozone banking industries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 255(3), pages 971-983.
    32. Banker, Rajiv & Natarajan, Ram & Zhang, Daqun, 2019. "Two-stage estimation of the impact of contextual variables in stochastic frontier production function models using Data Envelopment Analysis: Second stage OLS versus bootstrap approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(2), pages 368-384.
    33. Alexei Karas & Koen Schoors & Laurent Weill, 2010. "Are private banks more efficient than public banks?," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 18(1), pages 209-244, January.
    34. Daniel J. Henderson & R. Robert Russell, 2005. "Human Capital And Convergence: A Production-Frontier Approach ," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1167-1205, November.
    35. Chiu, Yung-Ho & Chen, Yu-Chuan, 2009. "The analysis of Taiwanese bank efficiency: Incorporating both external environment risk and internal risk," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 456-463, March.
    36. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    37. Mohamed Mehdi Jelassi & Ezzeddine Delhoumi, 2021. "What explains the technical efficiency of banks in Tunisia? Evidence from a two-stage data envelopment analysis," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-26, December.
    38. Lihua Zuo & Jack Strauss & Lijuan Zuo, 2021. "The Digitalization Transformation of Commercial Banks and Its Impact on Sustainable Efficiency Improvements through Investment in Science and Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, October.
    39. Rui Wang & Jiangtao Liu & Hang(Robin) Luo, 2021. "Fintech development and bank risk taking in China," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4-5), pages 397-418, March.
    40. Quah, Danny T., 1996. "Empirics for economic growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1353-1375, June.
    41. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    42. Fadzlan Sufian & Muzafar Shah Habibullah, 2009. "Determinants of bank profitability in a developing economy: Empirical evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 207-217, April.
    43. Sealey, Calvin W, Jr & Lindley, James T, 1977. "Inputs, Outputs, and a Theory of Production and Cost at Depository Financial Institutions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1251-1266, September.
    44. Tariq Abbasi & Hans Weigand, 2017. "The Impact of Digital Financial Services on Firm's Performance: a Literature Review," Papers 1705.10294, arXiv.org.
    45. Mansour, Rana & El Moussawi, Chawki, 2020. "Efficiency, technical progress and productivity of Arab banks: A non-parametric approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 191-208.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammad Shahid Zaman & Anup Kumar Bhandari, 2020. "Financial deregulation, competition and cost efficiency of Indian commercial banks: is there any convergence?," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 283-312, December.
    2. Wild, Joerg, 2016. "Efficiency and risk convergence of Eurozone financial markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 196-211.
    3. Izzeldin, Marwan & Johnes, Jill & Ongena, Steven & Pappas, Vasileios & Tsionas, Mike, 2021. "Efficiency convergence in Islamic and conventional banks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    4. Maghyereh, Aktham I. & Awartani, Basel, 2012. "Financial integration of GCC banking markets: A non-parametric bootstrap DEA estimation approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 181-195.
    5. Gulati, Rachita, 2022. "Bank ownership and governance quality in India: Evolution and detection of convergence clubs," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    6. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Luisa Monaco, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of the Bologna Process on the efficiency convergence of Italian universities: a non-parametric frontier approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 275-298, June.
    7. Hidemichi Fujii & Shunsuke Managi & Roman Matousek & Aarti Rughoo, 2018. "Bank efficiency, productivity, and convergence in EU countries: a weighted Russell directional distance model," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 135-156, January.
    8. Tiantian Zhang & Zhenrong Liu, 2024. "Navigating Integration Through Rising Complexity: Convergence Dynamics in the ASEAN Banking Markets," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 801-826, September.
    9. Mansour, Rana & El Moussawi, Chawki, 2020. "Efficiency, technical progress and productivity of Arab banks: A non-parametric approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 191-208.
    10. Jenifer Daley & Kent Matthews & Tiantian Zhang, 2013. "Post-crisis cost efficiency of Jamaican banks," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(20), pages 1599-1607, October.
    11. Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia, 2010. "Integration and efficiency convergence in EU banking markets," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 260-267, October.
    12. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    13. Tziogkidis, Panagiotis & Philippas, Dionisis & Tsionas, Mike G., 2020. "Multidirectional conditional convergence in European banking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 88-106.
    14. Kofi Adjei-Frimpong & Christopher Gan & Baiding Hu, 2014. "Cost Efficiency of Ghana's Banking Industry: A Panel Data Analysis," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 8(2), pages 69-86.
    15. Ivan Gržeta & Saša Žiković & Ivana Tomas Žiković, 2023. "Size matters: analyzing bank profitability and efficiency under the Basel III framework," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-28, December.
    16. Issa, Samah & Girardone, Claudia & Snaith, Stuart, 2022. "Banking competition, convergence and growth across macro-regions of MENA," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 534-549.
    17. Dimitar Eftimoski, 2020. "Some new insights on economic convergence and growth in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 863-884, November.
    18. Zaman, Mohammad Shahid & Valiyattoor, Vipin & Bhandari, Anup Kumar, 2022. "Dynamics of total factor productivity growth: An empirical analysis of Indian commercial banks," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    19. Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2017. "UNESCO sites and performance trend of Italian regional tourism destinations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 316-342, March.
    20. Alexakis, Christos & Kenourgios, Dimitris & Pappas, Vasileios & Petropoulou, Athina, 2021. "From dotcom to Covid-19: A convergence analysis of Islamic investments," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03184-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.