The role of banks in the sustainable development of territory: an ecosystems view

In the last years, several issues, ranging from globalization to sustainable development, have increased the level of complexity in managing social and economic dynamics by underlying the need for a systems approach (Espejo 1994; Barile 2009; Golinelli 2010; Espejo & Reyes 2011; Olsson & Bosch 2014; Saviano & Caputo, 2012). The progressive widening of the interconnectedness between phenomena makes apparent the complex nature of socio-economic by highlighting their multi-dimensional dynamics (Akaka et al. 2012; Barile et al. 2015, 2016; Caputo 2016). In this context, the traditional view of territory as an objective area in which actors live has been surpassed by recognizing its irreducible systemic functioning (Barile et al. 2013b). This perspective has been progressively developed by researchers from different disciplinary domains leading to recognize the need for an ecosystems view in the study of social and economic dynamics (Akaka et al. 2013; Vargo et al. 2015). A new vision of territory development in which actors are engaged in collaborative relationship to foster a sustainable development of territories is emerging (Cooke & Lazzeretti 2008). By embracing the ecosystems view, it becomes apparent that the territory development is an emerging outcome that requires the engagement of all the interested actors in a shared value co-creation logic (Barile & Saviano 2013 2014; Barile et al. 2013a; Lusch et al. 2016). Economic, social and environmental dynamics are intertwined in a complex adaptive systems functioning (Holland 1992). Therefore, each actor need to harmonize his/her behavior with social, economic, and environmental dynamics to contribute to trigger virtuous circles of development (Akaka & Vargo 2015; Di Nauta et al. 2015; Saviano 2016). Among the key actors for territory development, banks are expected to play a relevant role (Formisano et al. 2016). Along the time, banks have progressively developed competitive logics based on a view of belonging to an autonomous economic sector in which to develop and maintain a competitive advantage (Hempel & Simonson 1999; Di Fatta et al. 2016). Although the banks’ willingness to pursue their survival is legitimate and correct, in many cases, the ways in which they have pursued this aim has weakened their traditional mission of serving and sustaining the development of territory (Rich 2013) by contributing to trigger a vicious circle of stagnation (Palley 2012). Conversely, as the ecosystems view highlights, banks are one of the numerous actors (from policy makers to the citizens themselves) that must be engaged to share the mission of territory development. Development must be economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable (Girard & Nijkamp 2009; Denicoali et al. 2010; Hu & Scholtens 2014; Ioppolo et al. 2016). These requirements are strongly interrelated and imply all the territorial actors be involved to ensure the sustainable development of territory (Kloot & Martin 2000; Barile et al. 2014; Saviano et al. 2016). By analyzing banks’ communication strategies, it is possible to note that they ever more explicitly express their attention to the issues of territory highlighting their role in promoting its sustainable development (Scholtens 2009; Sansone & Formisano 2016; Caputo et al 2016; Evangelista et al. 2016). However, this approach appears generally inspired more by the banks’ willingness to build profitable relationships with the market in the light of the dominant competition logic than by a true co-creation view (Bouma et al. 2001). In other words, this orientation does not seem to substantially change the view of their role in territory development. With the aim of reinterpreting the traditional banks’ ‘service’ mission of sustaining the economic development of territories, in the light of a new ecosystems view, this work proposes an exploratory study directed to investigate the role of banks in promoting the sustainable development of territory also from a social and an environmental perspective (Hu & Scholtens 2014). More specifically, the paper analyses the relevance of social development and environmental protection for a sample of Italian banks and its impact on territory development. Moreover, the paper investigates the propensity of banks to adopt a collaborative approach in favoring the emergence of a shared ecosystems view of territory development (Válek & Jašíková 2013).