A Three-Market Comparative Study on Determinants of Firm Performance: The Commercial Banking Industry

Past research on bank performance has mostly examined determinants of bank profitability in either domestic (such as the U.S. or U.K.) or single-region (such as Europe or Latin America) markets. A key point of departure for the current study is the explanation of performance differences among commercial banks from multiple regions (North America, Asia, and Europe). With data covering over twenty years from more than two hundred commercial banks in three large industrialized countries (U.S., Japan, and Italy), we seek to identify key firm, industry, and country drivers for bank performance as commercial banks compete on global versus domestic markets. We further use both profitability and growth performance measures to seek to uncover unique determinants of each type of measure in a global banking environment.