PTFrom value created to value captured
What happens between what a digital bank offers and what it gets out of it? With 117 customers of Brazilian banks, the research followed that path: the bank creates value, the customer perceives it and the bank captures it. It also tested whether inviting customers to co-create makes a difference. Explained in 12 screens.
Why do you like your bank?
Value is not just price. The dissertation looks at three faces of value and measures each step of the path on all three. Tick the reasons that apply to your bank's app or internet banking:
An illustrative exercise; it measures nothing. The reasons summarize statements from the dissertation's questionnaire (appendices C to F).
The three faces come from the literature review (sections 2.2.1 to 2.2.3): monetary value weighs costs and benefits; intrinsic value is what the person feels; human value is social, about belonging to a group and being well regarded in it.
Four words for one path
The dissertation follows value from creation to capture, through what the customer perceives. Along the way sits the customer's participation: co-creation. Tap each card to see how it was measured.
Here, a digital bank is both the 100% digital bank (fintech) and the traditional bank used through its app or internet banking (section 2.1). Definitions: section 2.9; statements: appendices C to F and Table 14.
525 articles found, 41 read in depth
Before hearing from customers, the author ran two searches in the Web of Science and Scopus databases in 2023. No one had done a systematic review with the same aim before. Choose a search and tap a step:
Bar width proportional to the number of articles. Source: Figures 01 and 03 (PRISMA flowcharts) and sections 2.7.1 to 2.7.4.
117 customers, most with an account at a traditional bank
The questionnaire circulated on WhatsApp in 2024. It included Brazilians with a checking account who use their bank's app or internet banking. Each dot is one person. Choose a breakdown:
A convenience sample, not meant to represent all customers in the country. Before it, a pre-test with 8 people fine-tuned the statements. Source: sections 3.6 and 3.7, Tables 05 to 12.
Of 60 statements, 21 stayed in the measure
The statements came from scales already used in other countries, translated and adapted, rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Statements that did not measure their step well were dropped from the analysis. Follow the steps and tap a block:
Block height proportional to the number of statements. Our counts, from appendices C to F (60), Figure 07 (46) and Table 14 (21). The dissertation says items were dropped for insufficient factor loadings or for not fitting the model (section 4.2). In the final measures, reliability (Cronbach's alpha) ranged from 0.853 to 0.915 (Table 13).
Place your bets before seeing what the data said
The dissertation tested six hypotheses. Here they are as four questions. Choose your answer and the card shows the result.
Creating value pulls perception along, and both reach capture
The strongest link is the first: customers who see the bank create value for them also perceive more value. Creation and perceived value are each linked to capture, with smaller coefficients. The thicker the arrow, the stronger the link. Tap an arrow:
Standardized coefficients (β), estimated in SmartPLS 4 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Thickness proportional to β. They show association at a single point in time, not proof of cause. Source: Table 15.
Inviting customers to co-create did not change the path
The literature bets on co-creation: customers who take part, customize and give their opinion would strengthen each stretch of the path. In the data, this did not show up in any of the three. Move how much the customer feels like a co-creator and compare both sides:
To be significant, p would have to be below 0.05. Source: Table 15 and section 4.4.
Digital banking services are still designed for automated delivery, with little customer involvement in their development. Customers do not see their own participation as something that creates value.
On the left, our illustration of the effect the hypothesis predicted (how much the arrows would thicken is made up). On the right, the arrows with the coefficients from Table 15, the same at any level of co-creation.
The model explains more than half of perceived value and of capture
Together, the pieces of the model account for 59% of the differences in the value customers perceive and 65.9% of the differences in capture. The rest depends on things the model did not measure. Tap a glass:
Full glass = 100% of the differences between customers; colored part = the model's coefficient of determination (R²). Source: section 4.6 and Figure 08.
Caring for what customers perceive links creating and capturing
For the author, success in capturing value depends on how customers perceive what they receive. And co-creation, for now, is a promise the banks have not yet kept.
For bank managers
- Prioritize value creation through innovation, personalization, transaction security and efficiency.
- Tie each innovation to the customer experience, so that perceived value turns into loyalty and return.
For those who design the app
- Rethink engagement practices: clear communication channels and incentives for customers to take part.
- Interactive and collaborative tools can help customers notice their own participation.
For tracking customers
- Keep monitoring what shapes perceived value, because it links creation to results.
- In the final measure, value for money, fair prices, feeling valued and service above expectations stood out (screen 06).
For researchers
- Follow the same customers over time and broaden the sample, including outside Brazil.
- Study co-creation with interviews or experiments and include trust, digital experience and satisfaction.
For the author, digital banks that manage to innovate, strengthen the customer experience and align creation, perception and capture in a continuous cycle will be better positioned in the market.
What this research does not say
- A small convenience sample. 117 people, three in four from the Southeast and almost all with a college degree. The results cannot be generalized to all customers. · according to the author, with data from Tables 06 and 12
- A single moment. The data were collected once and do not show how perception changes over time. · according to the author
- Brazil only. Culture and trust in the financial system may change the result in other countries. · according to the author
- Capture as seen by the customer. Capture was measured with questions to customers (engagement, personalization, learning from the app), not with bank revenues or profits. · our note
- The link, stretch by stretch. Both stretches of the path through perceived value were confirmed, the second only just (p = 0.048). The test of the indirect effect, which would measure the whole path, does not appear in the text. · our note
Credits
SANTOS, Cléber Silva dos. Da criação à captura de valor em bancos digitais: causas, mecanismos e consequências [From value creation to value capture in digital banks: causes, mechanisms and consequences]. Master's dissertation (Business Administration) — Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, 2025. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Fellipe Silva Martins. Co-advisor: Prof. Dr. Gilberto Perez.
Research supported by CAPES (Brazil's federal agency for graduate education). Reviews following the PRISMA protocol; data analyzed with structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM, in SmartPLS 4). According to the author, the text was revised with help from ChatGPT. This version simplifies the work for a general audience; the full reviews and discussion are in the original text.