Financial Innovation in Switzerland: Innovation Strategies in Ticino's Banks

The present study aims at verifying if banks are in fact as innovative as statistics based on CIS (Community Innovation Survey) in several European countries suggest. Furthermore, the innovative performance of Ticino's banks (Switzerland) is analyzed, with a specific focus on their strategies as far as the introduction of new products, processes and organizational forms is concerned. The analyzed sample resulted highly innovative as expected. Furthermore, we could identify three groups of banks according to their innovation strategies: active banks (first movers), passive banks (second movers) and non-innovators. Moreover, strategic cooperation with universities was found as not relevant to develop financial innovation. Finally, banks in Ticino resulted as poorly involved in financing innovative projects.