

































 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
DOI: 10.13135/2704-9906/6720 Published by University of Turin http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ejsice/index 
EJSICE content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   

11 

Shadow Bank Systems in European Affairs: 
Measuring Capability of Fraud Risk in Special 
Reports 

Stefano de Nichilo1* 

 

1 Department Business and Economics, University of Cagliari  
Via Università 40, 09124 Cagliari, Italy - stefanodenichilo1985@gmail.com 
 
 
Received: 27/04/2022 
Accepted for publication: 28/09/2022 
Published: 29/12/2022 
 

Abstract 

In the last twenty years, the European Court of Auditors has placed increasing importance on producing “special reports” 
examining the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of EU spending, particularly concerning the Shadow Bank System. This 
institutional focus on performance audit, alongside traditional financial and compliance audit, has occurred when the European 
Union is increasingly evaluating its policies and programmes under political pressure to demonstrate their added value with 
Shadow Bank Systems. The rapid growth of the market-based financial system since the mid-1990s changed the nature of 
financial intermediation in the European States. “European Shadow Banks Systems” are essential institutions within the market-
based financial system. European Shadow Banks Systems are financial intermediaries that conduct maturity, credit, and 
liquidity transformation without access to central bank liquidity or public sector credit guarantees. Examples of the European 
Shadow Banks System include finance companies, asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits, limited-purpose finance 
companies, structured investment vehicles, credit hedge funds, money market mutual funds, securities lenders, and government-
sponsored enterprises. This intermediation chain binds European Shadow Banks Systems into a network. The European Shadow 
Banking System rivals the traditional banking system in the intermediation of credit to households and businesses.  This study 
contributes theoretically to research and empirically to the management practice of agile marketing concepts in digital 
transformation and international business contexts to develop practical competencies of speed, flexibility, and customer 
responsiveness in marketing strategies and operations. 

Keywords: Accountability Methodology, Agile Marketing Capabilities, Performance Audit, Shadow Bank System, Special 
Reports and Up Grade Procedure Services 

 

 

1. Introduction 

This article examined the Court’s role in the institutional “chain of accountability” (DeNichilo, 2021b), addressing the 
ongoing shift from compliance audit (regularity, legality) towards performance audit and European Shadow Bank Systems 
(Homer & Stephenson, 2012). Audit by the Court ranges from checking individual transactions carried out and the operations 
of the EU institutions to checking the effectiveness of policy initiatives to gauge how policy has fared (Caiden, 1992). 



 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
DOI: 10.13135/2704-9906/6720 Published by University of Turin http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ejsice/index 
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12 

The article analyses the political interests at stake in debates on accountability and the practical challenges inherent in the 
performance of performance audits (Mendez, Bactler 2011) with the European Shadow Bank System. 

To what extent are special reports increasingly resembling evaluations of European Shadow Bank Systems studies? How 
does performance audit contribute to the accountability of European Shadow Bank Systems? 

The article draws on primary documents related to the Court’s ongoing internal reform process, including international peer 
review special reports to perform the European Shadow Bank System, hearings of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control 
Committee, and Court documents (Knill, Balint & Bauer 2008).  

This study seeks to identify the key theoretical dimension of the Agile Marketing Capability in the European Shadow Bank 
system and provide practical guidelines to facilitate its implementation. Our finding is current theoretical and empirical research 
on agility concepts in the context of digital transformation and international marketing management. 
 
 
2. Literature review 
 

The Court stresses the role of the Parliament to actively engage in the accountability process by examining the Court’s 
reports, rather than accountability being derived through transparency, given the public availability of all its reports for the 
assessment of the European Shadow Bank System (Power, 2015). The auditor checks that funds are expended for stipulated 
purposes, that programmes are carried out as intended, and that funds are not spent on unauthorised activities (Van Wolleghem, 
2020).  

As such, the Court considers that it “accounts” for the performance of the EU budget via-à-vis the Parliament’s Budgetary 
Control Committee. So, the Court distinguished clearly (DeNichilo, 2020a) between public audit as the “financial and 
performance audits of policies and related public funds and their link to the accountability process” and accountability as 
referring “mainly to democratic oversight of policies and activities of public bodies” (Harber, Marx and De Jager 2020). 

A first international peer review (2008) criticised the range, level, and usefulness of reporting. It advocated the Court focus 
on “areas of greater relevance, significance on risk”. In its special report for 2008-2012, the Court frequently focused on EU 
programmes (Ellinas & Suleiman 2008), mainly examining compliance, to some extent effectiveness, but less regularly, 
economy and efficiency of the European Shadow Bank System. However, it rarely audited the management of EU institutions 
in procurement, organisation structures, facility management and human resources management (Cortese, Del Carlo 2008). 

A second peer review (2014) advised the need for what INTROSAI defines as a “problem-oriented performance audit” 
(DeNichilo, 2013) and to study more closely the causes of problems and their consequences as a basis for recommendations 
(Rolle 2010). Auditors of the four vertical chambers, acting under the oversight of their director, compiled an initial portfolio 
of potential audit tasks (Sposato 2010) to assess European Shadow Bank System.  

Proposals were evaluated using the four criteria: risk, materiality, relevance, and coverage. They were subsequently 
prioritised using three levels of assessment: low, medium, and high. Nevertheless, while the chambers were aware of audit 
requests and issues of significant interest, especially for the Parliament, and included them in their work plans, they were 
“neither collected in a structured way nor treated preferentially” (Van der Meer & Edelebos, 2006). 

Special reports on European Shadow Bank System are now framed according to five umbrella themes: “smart and inclusive 
growth”, “sustainable growth-natural resources”, “security and citizenship”, “administration”, as well as “other” (DeNichilo, 
2020c). 

The Court has acknowledged the difficulty in determining which of its work is taken up by the media. Auditors may enthuse 
about a report on a seemingly salient topic, such as EU financing of climate change prevention mechanisms. However, there is 
no guarantee that politicians and/or the press will seize upon it. A special European Shadow Bank System report that received 
good media coverage in recent years had a precise human dimension, examining the effectiveness of free school milk and fruit 
schemes (Colella, Griffin, Gaparaju S. 2000). 

With its interest at heart, the Court produced a special report of the European Shadow Bank System on the “single audit”, 
identifying the weakness of multi-level cooperation (March & Olsen 1995) in audit with the Commission’s reliance on national 
audit authorities in different policy areas. 

The agility of special reports on the European Shadow Bank System is a strategy that addresses the challenges posed by 
digital transformation. It facilitates easy adaptation to the current complex business environments characterised by escalating 
competition, diverse customer requirements and expectations and rapid technological change. 

Dynamic capabilities are hallmarks of the agility of the Shadow Bank System, defined as a paying agency’s dynamic 
capability to redeploy resources for creating value and managing turbulent environments efficiently. Given the pivotal role of 
marketing in developing a paying agency’s dynamic capabilities and the need to build efficient marketing capabilities to 
compete in international markets successfully, marketing researchers are now focusing on dynamic marketing capabilities 
(Bock, Opsahl, George & Gann 2012). 



 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
DOI: 10.13135/2704-9906/6720 Published by University of Turin http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ejsice/index 
EJSICE content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   

13 

Marketing and strategy research broadly recognised the positive linkage between the agility of the Shadow Bank System 
and marketing performance (Chen, Wang, Nervo, Benitez-Amado & Kou 2015). Agility is crucial for creating customer value 
and added competitive advantage and providing firms with the ability to face market changes. In a paying agency, the marketing 
function mainly concerns demand creation, and agile competencies facilitate coping with the demand and quickly adapt tactics 
and operations in response to environmental changes. Therefore, agile capabilities in the marketing area refer to dynamic 
marketing capabilities. 

Earlier studies on agility describe agile paying agencies, especially in supply chain and IT, in disruptive business contexts 
they are known to continuously monitor and detect environmental changes, opportunities, and threats, thus responding swiftly 
to market changes with timely decision-making and innovation. Firms can quickly exploit existing or acquired resources to 
respond to changing market needs. 

Customer responsiveness entails using IT to improve the adequacy, accuracy, accessibility, and timeliness of the 
information and facilitate access to relevant customer data (Chaffey 2010). Customer responsiveness requires timely 
identification and proactive or reactive response to changes. Agile paying agencies may better predict market demand, enhance 
customisation, or use IT to meet customer expectations. 

Agile paying agencies are also characterised by decision-makers who resolutely deal with changes, opportunities, and 
threats in the business environment. People in an agile organisation are more productive, efficient, and effective in achieving 
organisational objectives. They benefit from close relationships and collaboration, decentralised decision-making, and IT 
expertise to address dynamic environments. Moreover, marketers use technology integration to align with businesses to 
facilitate adequate information flow across the supply chain (Eckstein, Goellner, Blome & Henke 2015).   

3. Methodology 

We identify the three distinct subgroups of the European Shadow Banking System. These are: (A) the government-
sponsored shadow banking sub-system; (B) the “internal” shadow banking sub-system; and (C) the “external” shadow banking 
sub-system (Table 1). 

A) The Government-Sponsored Shadow Banking Sub-System (Lending to Nonbanking Financial Institutions) 
The seeds of the European Shadow Banking System were sown nearly 30 years ago, with the creation the government-

sponsored enterprises (GSE). The GSEs have dramatically changed the way banks fund themselves and conduct lending (AGEA 
PwC Audit Reports 2011-2013). The funding “utility” functions performed by the GSEs for banks and the way they funded 
themselves were the models for what we refer today to as the wholesale funding market (AGEA PwC Special Report 2014). 

B) The “Internal” Shadow Banking Sub-System (Interbank Payment) 
The principal drivers of the growth of the European Shadow Banking System have been the transformation of the largest 

banks since the early-1990s from low return on equity (RoE) utilities that originate loans and hold and fund them until maturity 
with deposits to high RoE entities that originate loans to warehouse and later securitise and distribute them, or retain securitised 
loans through off-financial statement asset management vehicles (Manes Rossi, Brusca and Condor 2020). The transformation 
of banks occurred within the legal framework of financial holding companies, which through the acquisition of broker-dealers 
and asset managers, allowed large banks to transform their traditional process of hold-to-maturity, spread-banking to a more 
profitable process of originate-to-distribute, fee-banking (DeNichilo 2011).  

Portfolio management started to decide which assets were retained and sold and charged originators (internal and external) 
the replacement cost of financial statements for warehoused assets. Modern banks “rent” their financial statements and set their 
“rents” based on the replacement cost of their financial statements (AGEA E&Y Up Grade Procedure Services 2014).  

C) The “External” Shadow Banking Sub-System (Off-Balance Sheet) 
Some European banks also practised the mixture of bank and markets-based credit intermediation process that emerged was 

later adopted by diversified broker-dealers and also turned a range of independent, specialist non-banks into an interconnected 
network of financial entities that operated entirely external for banks and the official safety net extended to banks, hence the 
term “external” shadow banking sub-system (AGEA E&Y Financial Letters 2019). 

The constant flux in the current business environment has led marketers to focus on applying the agile method, 
experimentation for shortening cycle time, increasing flexibility, sharper competitiveness, and swift adaptation to market 
globalisation (Asseraf, Lages & Shoham 2018). Businesses must continuously rethink their business model, offering, and 
processes to stay in tune with the digital transformation characterised by technological progress, digital communication, and 
shifting customer demand. They must also integrate technology with marketing communication strategies to satisfy customer 
needs. 

Literature on marketing and strategy has focused on the agility of special reports on the European Shadow Bank System to 
address the challenges posed by digital transformation, such as “embrace change”, and predict market needs and innovative, 
especially in highly competitive and international marketing management scenario, and cater to the needs of international 



 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
DOI: 10.13135/2704-9906/6720 Published by University of Turin http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ejsice/index 
EJSICE content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   

14 

customers. From this perspective, agility is a firm’s ability to stay up-to-date with market dynamics and accordingly adapt 
strategies, tactics and operations to rapidly respond to market changes in new business opportunities.  

In the digital and international context, literature on the agility of special reports on the European Shadow Bank System in 
marketing is scarce (Barkema, Baum & Mannix 2002). However, agility in management and marketing literature has recently 
gained academic attention, where scholars have recognised the role of marketing in shaping agility as a critical driver of 
international performance. Extant literature explores the drivers and outcomes of international marketing agility or that of 
inherently global firms. In contrast, a few other studies examine the relationship between agility and entrepreneurial orientation 
or consider customer agility. However, extant knowledge still needs to understand how specifically agile capabilities in 
marketing might take place when considering international context and what key aspects may contribute to developing a proper 
Agile Marketing Capability (Barrales-Molina, Martinez-Lopez & Gazquez-Abad 2014) 
 

Range of Performance Materiality 
1- 10% of 
PM 1- 30% of PM 

Over 60% of 
PM 

Level Hard Medium Soft 
Usefulness Audit Advisory Reporting 
Significance of Risk:       
Risk Materiality High Medium Low 
Relevance Big Medium Small 
Coverage Over In line Under 
General Controls: Umbrella Themes       
Smart and Inclusive Growth Innovative Inclusive Growth 
Sustainable Growth-Natural 
Resources Agricultural Commerce Industrial 
Security and Citizenship Participation Collaboration Only Vote 
Administration Labour Finance Service 
Other Exclusive Customization Unique 
Multilevel Cooperation:       
Media Pressure Legal Structural Weak 
Application Controls: CAVR       
Completeness Not All All Overall 
Accuracy Adequacy Precision Accurate 
Validity Flexibility Competitiveness Adaptation 
Restricted Access Accessibility Timeliness Cycle Time 
Shadow Bank System:       
A) The Government-Sponsored  Utility Functions 
B) The “Internal”  ROE (Return On Equity) 
C) The “External” Ritual or Abuse of Right 

 
Table 1. Checklist of Internal Controls for Special Reports on European Shadow Bank System. 

(Objective: 30% – 60% of PM; Estimated Error > 5% of Payments; Projected Error < 10% of the Reported Expenditure) 
Source: Our Elaboration of AGEA E&Y Up Grade Procedure Services 2014 

 

4. Results 

To take up the theme of the essay by Professor Ernesto Longobardi and Professor Antonio Pedone, "Public debt in the euro 
area after the crisis: restructuring hypotheses, insolvency proceedings, (weak) prospects for fiscal union", in A. Di Maio and 
U. Marani (edited by), Economic policies and international crisis. For a broader examination of the same theme, see 
Longobardi-Pedone and DeNichilo (2009). 

Among the leading causes of the accumulation of private debt were: the intensity and persistence of severe macroeconomic 
imbalances within countries and between significant economies; the expansive stance of monetary policies, also justified by a 
low inflation context, which produced an abundant supply of liquidity and credit; the uncontrolled acceleration of financial 



 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
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15 

innovation in forms that made distribution and distribution opaque the extent of the risks, to which the transition of banks from 
the "originate and hold" model to the "originate to distribute" model contributed; under these circumstances, the surge in the 
default rate on worst-quality mortgages in the United States was the spark which lit a colossal fire, extending to the credit 
system (with the failure of many banks, until the liquidation of Lehman Brothers in September 2008) and then to the financial 
system as a whole international and the global economy. 

Faced with the explosion and spread of the crisis, many governments intervened massively to rescue financial institutions, 
causing a sharp and rapid surge in the deficit and public debt with European Shadow Bank Systems. So, the automatic effects 
of the crisis on tax revenues and some expenses contributed to the worsening of public accounts. 

This study contributes theoretically to the literature on agile and dynamic marketing capabilities of special reports on the 
European Shadow Bank System.  

First, this work advances the field of dynamic marketing capabilities by defining a new capability: the Agile Marketing 
Capability of the European Shadow Bank System (Tables 2 and 3).  

 
 
Application Controls General controls 
Prevent, Detect, and correct transaction errors and fraud 
in application programs. They are concerned with the 
accuracy, completeness, validity and authorization of data 
captured, stored, transmitted to the other system, and 
reported.  

Make sure an organization’s control environment is stable 
and well-managed. Examples include security; IT 
infrastructure; and software acquisition, development, and 
maintenance controls. 

 
Table 2. Dynamic Marketing Capabilities of Internal Control 

Source: Author’s elaboration 
 

 
Internal Control Assertions Evidence of controls Test Types of Internal 

controls 
Completeness Controls to ensure financial 

transactions and data are 
completed. 

Control totals and 
sequencing. 

Manual 
Semi-Manual  
Automated 

Accuracy Controls to ensure financial 
transactions and data are 
accurate. 

Logic tests and 
checksums. 

Manual 
Semi-Manual  
Automated 

Validity Controls to ensure financial 
transactions and data are 
valid. 

Maintained record trail 
and electronic signature. 

Manual 
Semi-Manual  
Automated 

Restricted Access Controls to ensure restricted 
access to data and financial 
transactions. 

Passwords, asset tags, 
locks and approval forms. 

Manual 
Semi-Manual  
Automated 

 
Table 3. Internal Control Assertions: CAVR 

Source: Author’s elaboration 
 

Second, this study extends the existing theories on the agility to the marketing domain, providing a theoretical framework 
to study the critical dimensions of the Agile Marketing Capability of the European Shadow Bank System (Table 4).  

 
Controls of Agile Marketing Capabilities Gather Evidence of Controls 
Continual improvement pace. Earlier studies claim supply chain, and IT agility 

continuously detect environmental changes and swiftly 
respond with innovative solutions, such as redeploying 
resources and quickly performing tasks. This study 
finding shows that, when referring to international and 
digital marketing, ongoing efforts in adopting cutting-



 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
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16 

edge technology that analyzes market trends, customer 
behavior, and competition are crucial to providing 
optimized services and innovative responses to 
international customer needs. 

Customer-oriented responsiveness. Most studies on agility focus on swift responsiveness, that 
is, to identify and respond to changes in the supply chain, 
technology, competition, and demand reactively or 
proactively and recover from them. It facilitates gathering 
customer information. Agility implies more excellent 
market prediction and customization. The case study 
confirms the marketing function. The firm can be more 
responsive to customer demand at a global level by using 
metrics for measuring customer satisfaction levels, 
analyzing sentiments across media channels and 
countries, and generally tracking information and, in turn, 
offering more customized products. 

High flexibility. Prior studies on agility highlight the relevance of an 
adaptive approach to competing with speed strategies, 
redeploying resources flexibly, and managing new or 
diversified products and objectives with the existing 
facilities and supply chain. The study results extend the 
current literature by showing that such flexibility is 
achieved with flexible planning that places individuals at 
the center and easily adapts to changing customer 
requirements. Interestingly, the concept of flexibility 
attempts to pursue simplicity by explicitly providing an 
easy home searching tool, which makes rental simple, 
accessible, and adaptable to the different requirements 
expressed by customers across countries (Grewal & 
Tansuhaj 2001). 

People collaboration. According to the literature, agility suggests collaboration 
is crucial for achieving a firm’s objectives effectively and 
efficiently. This is further enhanced by IT integration and 
alignment throughout the supply chain, facilitating 
information flows. The empirical evidence presented in 
this study confirms this argument. It demonstrates that 
collaboration among departments and being open to 
feedback and advice from others are some of the essential 
features for global marketing teams that strongly need to 
foster close and trust-based relationships. In addition, 
particularly for digital, international business, 
communication tools throughout the organization are 
critical to facilitate up-to-date information on 
achievements and targets and weekly goals across teams 
and departments for business alignment (Hagen, Zucchela 
& Ghauri 2018). 

 
Table 4. Agile Marketing Capabilities Assertions of European Shadow Bank System 

Source: Author’s elaboration 
 



 
 

European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy - ISSN: 2704-9906  
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17 

In sum (Table 4), the study findings support a framework that identifies the critical dimension of Agile Marketing 
Capability; continual improvement pace, customer-oriented responsiveness, high flexibility, and people collaboration (Teece, 
Peteraf, & Leih 2016). 

 
 

Item Weighted 
Average 

First 
Quartile Median Third 

Quartile 

Std. 
Dev./ 
Max 

Min Max 

1 2.33 0.77 2.01 2.31 0.22 0.22 3.33 
2 1.33 0.54 1.05 1.34 0.33 0.12 4.35 

Significance of Risk: Materiality 
3 3.33 1.22 3.34 4.23 0.45 0.15 5.55 
4 4.33 1.55 3.77 4.31 0.55 0.11 7.33 
5 5.70 2.55 4.77 6.21 0.66 0.05 5.34 

General Controls: Umbrella Themes 
6 5.33 2.77 3.33 6.33 0.33 0.23 7.22 
7 7.29 3.77 4.24 7.22 0.77 0.55 14.51 
8 8.29 4.88 5.77 8.22 0.66 0.77 12.44 
9 9.10 5.99 6.22 10.02 0.99 1.01 17.9 
10 5.22 2.22 3.44 5.21 0.32 0.51 7.22 

Multilevel Cooperation: Media Pressure 
11 7.23 3.79 4.77 8.22 0.67 1.66 12.11 

Application Controls: CAVR 
12 6.23 1.88 4.56 6.24 0.22 1.77 8.29 
13 7.33 3.99 4.55 8.33 0.55 1.88 9.99 
14 5.55 1.75 2.77 5.25 0.33 0.55 8.88 
15 6.99 3.77 4.88 6.88 0.67 1.57 7.59 

 
Table 5. Critical Dimension of the Agile Marketing Capability. Number of Observations: 100% of AGEA Debt Register 

Practices year 2014 (Number of Observation 4.887 Practices) 
Source: Our Elaboration of AGEA E&Y Up Grade Procedure Services 2014. 

 

4. Conclusion 

The need for an orderly reduction of excessive private and public debt with European Shadow Bank Systems was anticipated 
by Spaventa (2008); on the problems encountered and on the few steps forward made in this area (DeNichilo 2020b). 

Under the traditional originate-and-hold model, the lending bank retains the credits in its assets and hedges the risk with 
capital. With the originate-to-distribute model, on the other hand, credit risk is transferred using the most varied and ever-
changing techniques of securitization and the creation of “derivative” credits (Köhler, Ratzinger-Sakel and Theis 2020). 

However, public debt problems are extraordinary; they are different from the rest of the world's shadow bank systems 
(Buchak,  Matvos,  Piskorski and Seru 2018). The split between responsibility for money and exchange, assigned to the centre, 
and that of fiscal and debt policies, which remain on the periphery, deprives sovereign states of an essential piece of their 
sovereignty, a lender of last resort that provides markets with an implicit debt guarantee. 
 

Overall Error % Performance Materiality Tolerance Effective Error 
Adjusted 

Error Opinion 
Projected Error (Call) 30% - 60% Medium Risk  <10% 1.33% 7.55% Accepted 
Estimated Error (Put) 30% - 60% Medium Risk  >5% 6.77% 4.5% Rejected 

 



 
 

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Overall Consistency Test % Performance Materiality Tolerance Effective Error 
Adjusted 

Error Opinion 
Rho di Sperman 30% - 60% Medium Risk 5.23% 4.25% 5.25% Accepted 
Tau di Kendal 30% - 60% Medium Risk 4.33% 5.25% 5.66% Rejected 

 

Internal Consistency Test % Performance Materiality Tolerance Effective Error 
Adjusted 

Error Opinion 
Likert's Interquartile Gap 
Test 30% - 60% Medium Risk <2 1.77 1.66 Accepted 

 
Table 6. Capability Overall Conclusion of Policy Investigations Template 

Source: Our Elaboration of AGEA E&Y Up Grade Procedure Services 2014 
 

Although the present study provides an initial theoretical and empirical understanding of the Agile Marketing Capability of 
Shadow Bank System, it gives managerial insights on developing an Agile Marketing Capability, particularly in digital and 
international contexts (DeNichilo 2021a). These insights would help managers and practitioners employ agile features in their 
marketing strategies and operations (Lee, Sambamurthy, Lim & Wei 2015). 

The study findings provide interesting guidelines for managers and practitioners in implementing agility in the marketing 
field (Ravichardran 2018). The definition of the critical factors of Agile Marketing Capability advances the knowledge of 
practitioners and international markers on how to implement agile marketing and improve their ability to leverage digital 
technologies to satisfy their customers in dynamic and global business contexts. 

Although the study findings provide an excellent theoretical and empirical understanding of the Agile Marketing Capability 
of the European Shadow Bank System, this research has some limitations that may be addressed in further research (Lu & 
Ramamurthy 2011). 

Concerning the methodological perspective, the qualitative data analysis involved only one firm because of the nature of 
the research. Although the study findings may be generalized to a certain degree, exploring this topic in multiple research 
contexts would be necessary. Future research may use this study as a pilot case and increase the viability of the results in order 
organizational settings. 

Future studies could also develop scales for measuring the Agile Marketing Capability of the European Shadow Bank 
System and use survey instruments to validate our findings (Rixen 2013). It would  be interesting to understand the relationship 
between the identified dimension and their underlying nature, as well as develop a proper procedure 

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