Capacidades gerenciais dinâmicas e ambidestria : o processo de transformação digital de bancos tradicionais brasileiros

Abstract

Digital transformation has profoundly reshaped business models, organizational structures, and competitive dynamics in the banking sector. In highly regulated incumbent organizations, this process entails additional challenges related to institutional complexity, regulatory requirements, and the need to reconcile technological innovation with operational efficiency and organizational stability. In this context, this thesis aims to examine the interactions between dynamic managerial capabilities and organizational ambidexterity in the process of digital transformation in the Brazilian banking sector. To achieve this objective, a qualitative approach was adopted based on the practice narratives method. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 managers from five traditional Brazilian banks, complemented by documentary analysis of institutional materials. Data analysis was carried out through the examination of individual case narratives, followed by a cross-case analysis aimed at identifying patterns, recurrences, and variations in managerial and ambidextrous practices associated with digital transformation. The results indicate that digital transformation does not constitute an exclusively technological process, but rather a continuous and institutionally conditioned organizational phenomenon. Organizational ambidexterity emerges as an intermediary mechanism between managerial action and digital transformation, materializing through hybrid arrangements that reconcile digital innovation, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance. However, such ambidextrous capability does not emerge spontaneously from organizational structures; instead, it is constructed, adjusted, and sustained through the strategic actions of managers. The empirical analysis identifies four interdependent attributes of dynamic managerial capabilities: managerial human capital, managerial social capital, managerial cognition, and managerial political capital. The latter emerges as a particularly relevant attribute in highly regulated environments, manifesting in managers’ ability to navigate hierarchical structures, negotiate strategic priorities, and build organizational legitimacy. The findings contribute to the literature by evidencing the integrated relationship between dynamic managerial capabilities, organizational ambidexterity, and digital transformation, as well as by identifying hybrid ambidexterity arrangements and different stages of digital transformation maturity among the analyzed banks. Additionally, the study extends the dynamic managerial capabilities framework by empirically demonstrating managerial political capital as a complementary attribute to human, social, and cognitive capital.