Information and Communication Technology Adoption, Institutional Distance, and the Internationalisation of Financial Services Firms from Sub-Saharan Africa

This dissertation investigates the interactive effects of information and communication technology adoption and institutional distance on the internationalisation patterns of financial services firms originating from Sub-Saharan Africa, using Nigerian and Kenyan banking and insurance multinationals as the primary empirical population. The rapid digitisation of financial services has theoretically reduced the importance of institutional proximity as a market selection criterion by lowering information acquisition costs and enabling remote product delivery. However, financial services remain institutionally embedded industries where regulatory approval, consumer trust, and political legitimacy continue to demand substantial local institutional alignment. The study employs a mixed-methods design combining a proprietary dataset of 22 Sub-Saharan African financial services multinationals' international expansion decisions and digital investment records from 2005 to 2023 with a discrete choice econometric model and qualitative interview analysis from 35 senior internationalisation strategy executives. The econometric model applies a bilateral institutional distance measure constructed using World Bank Governance Indicators alongside a firm-level ICT adoption index to estimate the conditional effect of digital capability on the relationship between institutional distance and market entry probability. The theoretical framework integrates the institutional distance framework, the digital internationalisation theory, and the resource-based view of technological capability. The dissertation develops an original ICT-Mediated Institutional Distance framework that specifies the conditions under which digital capability weakens institutional distance barriers and those under which it remains an insufficient substitute for on-the-ground institutional embeddedness. Original contributions include the framework, the Sub-Saharan financial services internationalisation dataset, and the conditional institutional distance estimator. Keywords: ICT adoption, institutional distance, financial services, Sub-Saharan Africa, internationalisation