Post-Pandemic Firm Performance: Narrowing Pathways to Success? Configurational Evidence from the Swiss Private Banking Industry

How can companies stay ahead of their competitors in turbulent market environments? Using fuzzy-set QCA, we seek answers to this question by comparing performance antecedents in the Swiss private banking industry in 2019 and 2020. We adapt the novel neo-configurational theorizing approach (Fiss, 2007, 2011), to identify a unique combination of theoretical explanations. Our results highlight that factors of corporate demographics (e.g., large firm size) and strategic actions (e.g., cost cutting) which are traditionally associated with high performance are not sufficient to produce high performance in 2020 without strategic focus on digital capabilities (e.g., in-house IT department). Our study contributes to research on non-linear theorizing in general and competitive dynamics in particular.