How Sustainable Are Corporate Growth Strategies of Development Banks in Developing Countries? Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

Minimal research effort has been expended to the extent to which adopted growth strategies stimulate corporate sustainability of development banks in developing economies such as Nigeria. Hence, the study examined how industry specific growth strategies have predicted the corporate sustainability of these banks. Corporate growth strategy variable was proxied by market expansion, market strategy and human resource strategy as extracted from the Ansoff Matrix and Resource Based Theory, while sustainability was modelled by market share, customer experience and organizational evolution. Descriptive research design was employed in studying primary data obtained through a Likert Scaled structured questionnaire. Holistically, a sample frame of 477 executives from 6 development banks in Nigeria, including the African Development Bank was examined. Upon analysis with Linear Regression, it was found that a significant relationship existed between market expansion and market share; marketing strategy and customer experience; and human resource strategy and organizational evolution of development banks in Nigeria. For Nigeria, the results indicate significant evidence of linkages between corporate growth strategies of development banks and sustainability; thus, confirming the hypotheses of the Ansoff Matrix, the SMCR Model and Resource Based Theory