Synergiepotenziale bei Fusionen regionaler Genossenschaftsbanken. Qualitative Untersuchung am Beispiel des österreichischen Volksbankensektors

In recent years, the rules on banks have become increasingly stringent, especially smaller cooperative banks are faced with higher costs and therefore consider changes in their business strategy. One strategic option is the merger of two or more smaller regional banks to gain synergies from accomplishing administrative tasks together. The existing research on this topic shows that mergers in the majority of cases do not bring the expected additional benefits. This phenomenon is not limited to banking, but occurs in almost all industries. At this point there is a research gap about the reasons for this lack of success. In exploring this unsatisfactory success of mergers in general and in banking, this thesis focuses on the positive and negative impacts of a merger on the various stakeholders of a bank and whether their reactions can influence the occurrence of synergy effects in the different parts of the value chain. The research takes the form of a case study examining the Austrian Volksbanks, a banking sector consisting of several small independent cooperative banks that decided to merge into larger units to overcome financial problems. The study utilizes a qualitative methodology, including document analysis as well as interviews and observational research. This paper outlines how stakeholders may be affected by a bank merger and what impact this may have on the potential for synergies to occur, it also displays the affected parts of the company’s value chain. In the case of the Austrian Volksbanks, from a stakeholder perspective there is a high potential for economic success of the mergers through synergies, since the requirements of the most important stakeholders seem to be taken into account in the strategy. The findings can be used by other smaller banks in various sectors and countries to prepare for an intended merger. However, the different economic and political contexts in different countries have to be considered